6 Awesome Resources for ITSM Professionals

Whether you’re a battle-worn ITSM professional or brand new to the game, here are a few resources that may come in handy!

1. Amazon.com

A wise man once said: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go”. Okay, so that was Dr Seuss, but the point stands. The best way to gain knowledge is to develop an appetite for reading. Luckily, the good people at Amazon have made it pretty simple to get your hands on good quality reading material.

Here are some ITSM-related titles available on Amazon to get you started:

	The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr and George Spafford
	Basic Service Management by Rob England
	ITSM: QuickStart Guide - The Simplified Beginner's Guide to IT Service Management by ClydeBank Technology
	A Seat at the Table: IT Leadership in the Age of Agility by Mark Schwartz
	Measuring ITSM by Randy A. Steinberg
	Making Work Visible by Dominica Degrandis

2. Your local itSMF chapter

Established in 1991, itSMF is an international forum for IT Service Management best practices. Membership comes at an annual fee, but you get a whole lot of resources in exchange for your coin.

itSMF members have access to a network of industry experts, workshops, masterclasses, regional meet-ups, Special Interest Groups (SIGs), seminars, and an Annual Conference. This will depend on your region - have a look to see if there is an itSMF chapter in your country here. If not, you can join itSMF International.

3. ITSM.tools

This ITSM-focused website offers a wealth of content, ranging from ITSM tool reviews, blogs, and industry news, to ITSM tips and best practices.

Principal and Content Director Stephen Mann has rounded up an all-star team of industry heavy-weights to contribute to the site, including Stuart Rance, Sophie Danby, Ivor Macfarlane and Vawns Murphy.

You can sign up for their newsletter to get awesome ITSM-related content straight to your inbox or follow ITSM.tools on Twitter for updates.

4. Conferences and seminars

Attending industry events and conferences is one of the best ways to keep your finger on the pulse of the latest developments in the ITSM field. There are a great many first-class ITSM conferences held around the globe each year, with most offering excellent educational tracks and keynotes on industry hot topics.

If you are not sure what events are happening in your area, have a look at Alemba’s top picks for ITSM conferences in 2018. Don’t worry if you have missed any of these, they are all yearly events.

Got your conference ticket booked? Now check out our tips on how to make the best of your ITSM conference experience.

5. The “The Phoenix Project” simulation game

You’ve read the book, now immerse yourself in the Business Simulation.

Dutch company GamingWorks offers a simulation game based on The Phoenix Project, which is listed above in our ITSM book picks from Amazon.com.

This is a full day workshop for 10-12 participants in which your team acts in different roles within The Phoenix Project’s Parts Unlimited organization. Your challenge is to use DevOps principles and apply them to situations within the simulation to ensure that “The Phoenix Project” is finished on time.

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about anything that sounds like D&D for IT professionals!

You can find out more about the “The Phoenix Project” simulation game here.

6. And finally, this brilliant subreddit

Strictly speaking, this isn’t really an ITSM ‘resource’, but we all need a bit of comedic relief from the pressures of keeping the IT department from imploding, right?

The TalesFromTechSupport subreddit features daring tales from Tech Support, including gems like ‘My computer is possessed!’ and ‘The tale of the mysterious nightly phantom phone calls’.

Go check it out. Just remember to follow the most important rule when posting here: Don’t be a jerk. Just don’t.

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