"The Question" and Goals and Objectives

Here's The Question from from Neil Gunther, on 'ITILOPIA' that started this thread:

"If ITIL is the equivalent of CMIP (a heavyweight IT Performance data protocol), then what is the equivalent of SNMP (a lightweight protocol)?"

Most of the world gets along "Just Fine" in providing/running their IT environments/operations without ITIL.
Why would they want to spend $10,000-$20,000 per fully trained individual for something that may or may not be worth it? That will take 1-5 years to implement and cost $100,000's in product licences, consultant fees and setup costs?

And something that will have a serious downside - the unpleastantness of 'formalism'.
Something that will give "I.T." the ability to push-back on management, and take away one of their favourite whipping-boys...

And it fails the What's In It for Me test of management self-interest.
What manager, opposed to owner, is going to sacrifice a whole bunch of money and resources on something where the payoff is unknown and the consequences unpleasant (giving to I.T. the power of saying "NO" and making it stick)?

I assert that no politically savvy manager will back that horse... It can only be "A Career Limiting Move", not beneficial to them.

If that sounds cynical, is it really?
What do you want out of a manager?
Bright, aware and capable...
The sort of person who knows what's bad for them, the company, the customers/users and the employees - most likely this is the order they care about things...
Why would you not expect managers to look after their own interests first and foremost??
You'd have to be crazy, "brave" or idealistic to put yourself last... And it's unlikely that's a person you want as a manager.

So The Question stands:
What's a Politically acceptable system for managing I.T. Services/Operations that serves the personal interests I.T. manager and the business managers/owners?

Goals and Objectives

• Describe the problem.
  
• Outline the parameters of a solution.
  
• Propose some elements of a solution.
  
• Ideas for how to arrive at a published Standard.