itSMF Bulletin itSMF Bulletin December 2018 | Page 4

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Technology trends can present great opportunities for career moves and capability development, or alternatively emerge as direct threats to job security, job satisfaction or that planned promotion in the next few years. Misconceptions about what a term means, what is actually on offer and how to make use of the latest silver bullet has led to many a case of IT:business team friction and not surprisingly, the reaction of technology stalwarts can become one of “I’m not wasting my time on it, we don’t need it and I’ll wait for the noise to die down”.

Is Service Management

the new black or

the old grey?

by Susan Sly

We’re an industry that loves a clever catchphrase (cloud, big data, agile and of course, digital transformation) and the sales parts of our organisations can be particularly enamoured with them. I spend a reasonable amount of time with service delivery teams in IT departments and companies and their responses to the latest, or emerging, “next big things” are wide and varied.

The disappointing thing about the hype and disengagement is that the gap gradually widens between "legacy" technologies, the skills used to manage them and the new platforms and services that are emerging in response to new demands. Reliability, affordability and predictability were once the cornerstones of a strong IT team. If these attributes define the value proposition now though, they are more likely to be considered to be mundane or obsolete. Unfair? Disrespectful? Superficial? I don’t think so.