Congratulations

I've worked with some great people over the years. Too many to mention.

But today I'm going to single out one individual.

Scott Standen, come on down!

Scott ran the programme office for the European Central Bank's ITIL project.

I have many things to thank Scott for.

He introduced me to the best curry house in Frankfurt.

He...well, OK, that is pretty much it.

No seriously, he also came up with the best ever ITIL white paper/conference session that has never actually been delivered.

It was Scott who came up with the concept of "Walking backwards to ITIL" If you want a great practical session book him to deliver it.

It was Scott who realised that for an ITIL project to be successful you have to understand the desired end state and then work backwards to understand what you have to do to achieve it.

It was Scott who dissected the requirements of ISO 20000 to develop a meaningful project plan.

It was Scott who came up with what I think is one of the greatest ever ITSM ideas.

Here it is: Set a criteria for a service to enter the service catalogue.

Simples? Yes. Powerful? Yes.

Do not put anything into your service catalogue until you are are certain you can manage it and can deliver the specified service.

Let us call it "Scott's Law"

And congratulations Scott on passing your Service Manager's exam.