ITIL V3: A must for people who work in IT

This weekend I did the training and exam for ITIL V3 Foundation. Exam is not even close to PMP both in terms of complexity and seriousness. So let's forget the certification part of it. 

I was very much impressed by the content,  best practices and their recommendations for IT services delivery. I came from a background of application development and maintenance and not even production support for those applications. The framework gave me the total perspective of  IT services landscape  and made me realize how smaller a portion that I am representing as a part of the whole IT services life cycle. 

• I got a better grip of the multi-year, multi-million dollar IT services contracts that our top companies are signing with customers. I was amazed when I saw an anonymous,  normal IT services contract (SLA) that usually runs for 6000 pages.  The trainer told me the biggest contract that he worked on ran into 66000 pages. So far, I have seen and designed only application service contracts either for development or maintenance  which run into few pages and the biggest must be 100 pages.
• I was critical of our big IT companies who execute these end-to-end service projects for their lack of innovation in comparison to US technology giants. But in the training I understood even organizing and managing such  projects is not a peanut and requires a lot of imagination and innovation.  Under the pressure of stringent SLA elements and penalty components, they need to ensure the availability of IT services for all the geographical locations and divisions on a 24X7 basis
• I understood the importance of Service Desk, previously I was thinking them as some form of call centers. Service Desks are the interface between the customer and IT service provider. People working in service desks are not mere call takers, they play a crucial role in enhancing the customer satisfaction levels. Service desk teams are the role model for all other teams when it comes to optimal resource utilization. They are the best resource utilization planners.
• I was able to understand the complete life cycle of the service, starting from strategizing for the offerings to seeing that our offerings are put into operation.
• It was amusing to note that every new project that you get is because of some request for change by some one in some organization. All our software projects are a small part of the change management process of some organization

So my recommendations for the IT people

• When you complete 5 years of experience, go for the ITIL V3 foundation course. Try to locate where you are serving in the long service value chain. Compare your company processes and ITIL best practices for your area. If possible, try to optimize it.
•  In one year time, try to do the right ITIL intermediates- either from the life cycle stream or capabilities stream. Try to complete 4 or 5 intermediates in 5 years time. (1 per year)
• When you become 10 years experienced, you must be ready for Service Delivery Manager position, then you should be able to manage your service lines across the life cycle. When you complete that exam, you become an expert.

Personally I believe with PMP + ITIL (as applicable to you and your company) + 6 Sigma black belt, You are an invaluable asset to your organization and your market value enhances by leaps and bounds. Good Luck.