6 part series
A five-part, vendor-number-labeled field guide to IBM Bob for Maximo shops: what Bob is, how its models and security work, how to govern and price it, how it meets Maximo through MCP and skills, and how to pilot it without trusting a single marketing figure.
IBM Bob started as an internal pilot and is now a SaaS and self-hosted agentic platform. Here is the dated timeline, the V2 three-tier design, the clients, the Agent/Plan/Ask modes, and the extension points a Maximo team will actually touch.
SaaS Bob auto-routes models and you cannot pin one. Self-hosted Bob runs a single core model on OpenShift. Here is what IBM states about data handling, indemnity, regions, the PromptArmor incident, sizing, and GA limits, with every unverified claim flagged.
What IBM Bob's group policies, Bobalytics, CADF activity log, SIEM feed, SSO, plans, and Bobcoins actually enforce, where each control stops, and how to wire them into a Maximo change advisory board so AI-authored changes stay auditable.
What IBM Bob can actually do against Maximo today: the MAS 9.2 native MCP server, IBM's two Maximo Bob skills, MAF Local Dev Mode, a community evaluation, a task-fit table, and where TMG's Max_Interfaces, Max_mcp, and Max_autoscripts fit.
How to pilot IBM Bob on a Maximo estate without trusting a vendor number: IBM-reported customer metrics versus independent views, the competitive field, eight points of guidance, a pilot metric design (defect escapes, review hours, Bobcoins per task), and the open questions as a checklist.
