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ITIL v3 Foundation Certification

ITIL v3

What is ITIL and what are its origins?

It is hard to believe that the IT Infrastructure Library or ITIL® is 20 years old. On its third version now, ITIL is the most widely adopted framework for IT Service Management in the world. It is a practical, no-nonsense approach to the identification, planning, delivery and support of IT services to the business.

In the early 80’s, the evolution of computing technology moved from mainframe-centric infrastructure and centralized IT organizations to distributed computing and geographically dispersed resources. While the ability to distribute technology afforded organizations more flexibility, the side effect was inconsistent application of processes for technology delivery and support. The UKs Office of Government Commerce recognized that utilizing consistent practices for all aspects of a service lifecycle could assist in driving organizational effectiveness and efficiency as well as predictable service levels and thus, ITIL was born. ITIL guidance has since been a successful mechanism to drive consistency, efficiency and excellence into the business of managing IT services.

Since ITIL is an approach to IT “service” management”, the concept of a service must be discussed. A service is something that provides value to customers. Services that customers can directly utilize or consume are known as “business” services.

ITIL is typically used in conjunction with one or more other good practices to manage information technology such as:

• COBIT (a framework for IT Governance and Controls)
• Six Sigma ( a quality methodology)
• TOGAF (a framework for IT architecture)
• ISO 27000 (a standard for IT security)

The Service Lifecycle

ITIL is organized around a Service Lifecycle: which includes:

• Service Strategy,
• Service Design,
• Service Transition,
• Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement.

The lifecycle starts with Service Strategy – understanding who the IT customers are, the service offerings that are required to meet the customers’ needs, the IT capabilities and resource that are required to develop these offerings and the requirements for executing successfully. Driven through strategy and throughout the course of delivery and support of the service, IT must always try to assure that cost of delivery is consistent with the value delivered to the customer.

Service Design assures that new and changes services are designed effectively to meet customer expectations. The technology and architecture required to meet customer needs cost effectively is an integral part of Service Design. Additionally, processes required to manage services are also part of the design phase. Service management systems and tools that are necessary to adequately monitor and support new or modified services must be considered as well as mechanisms for measuring service levels, technology and process efficiency and effectiveness.

Through the Service Transition phase of the lifecycle the design is built, tested and moved into production to assure that the business customer can achieve the desired value. This phase addresses managing changes, controlling the assets and configuration items (underlying components – hardware, software, etc) associated with new and changed systems, service validation and testing and transition planning to assure that users, support personnel and the production environment has been prepared for the release to production.

Once transitioned, Service Operation then delivers the service on an ongoing basis, overseeing the daily overall health of the service. This includes managing disruptions to service through rapid restoration of incidents, determining the root cause of problems and detecting trends associated with recurring issues, handling daily routine end user requests and managing service access.

Enveloping the Service Lifecycle is Continual Service Improvement (CSI). CSI offers a mechanism for IT to measure and improve the service levels, the technology and the efficiency and effectiveness or processes used in the overall management of services.

Why would an organization be interested in ITIL?

Although today’s technologies allow us to be able to provide robust capabilities and afford significant flexibility, they are very complex. The global reach available to companies via the internet provides tremendous business opportunity while presenting additional challenges regarding the confidentiality, integrity and availability or our services and our data. Additionally, IT organizations need to continue to be able to meet or exceed service expectations while working as efficiently as possible. Consistent repeatable processes are the key to efficiency, effectiveness and the ability to improve services. These consistent, repeatable processes are outlined in the ITIL framework.

What are the benefits of ITIL?

The main benefits of ITIL include:

• IT Alignment with the business
• Explores Service Models and Business Catalysts
• Defines Service Management Value Propositions
• Defines Service Management Strategies
• More of a focus on Service Process Design, Introduction and Operation
• Return on Investment Measurement

Alignment with business needs. ITIL becomes an asset to the business when IT can proactively recommend solutions as a response to one or more business needs. The IT Strategy Group recommended in Service Strategy and the implementation of Service Portfolio Management gives IT the opportunity to understand the business’ current and future needs and develop service offerings that can address them.

Negotiated achievable service levels. Business and IT become true partners when they can agree upon realistic service levels that deliver the necessary value at an acceptable cost. Predictable, consistent processes. Customer expectations can beset and are easier to meet with through the use of predictable processes that are consistently used. As well, good practice processes are foundational and can assist in laying the groundwork to meet regulatory compliance requirements.

Efficiency in service delivery. Well-defined processes with clearly documented accountability for each activity as recommended through the use of a RACI matrix can significantly increase the efficiency of processes. In conjunction with the evaluation of efficiency metrics that indicate the time required to perform each activity, service delivery tasks can be optimized.

Measurable, improvable services and processes. The adage that you can’t manage what you cannot measure rings true here. Consistent, repeatable processes can be measured and therefore can be better tuned for accurate delivery and overall effectiveness. For example, presume that a critical success factor for incident management is to reduce the time to restore service. When predictable, consistent processes are used key performance indicators such as Mean Time To Restore Service can be captured to determine whether this KPI is trending in a positive or negative direction so that the appropriate adjustments can be made. Additionally, under ITIL guidelines, services are designed to be measurable. With the proper metrics and monitoring in place, IT organizations can monitor SLAs and make improvements as necessary.

Which companies use ITIL? (few examples)

Literally thousands of company’s world-wide and of all industries and sizes have adopted ITIL. These include:

• Large technology companies such as Microsoft, HP, Fujitsu, IBM;
Retailers such as Target, Walmart and Staples
• Financial services organizations such as Citi, Bank of America, Barclay’s Bank;
• Entertainment entities such as Sony, Disney
• Manufacturers such as Boeing, Toyota, Bombardier
• Life Sciences companies such as Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

THE ITIL FOUNDATION CERTIFICATE IN IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT

The purpose of the ITIL Foundation certificate in IT Service Management is to certify that the candidate has gained knowledge of the ITIL terminology, structure and basic concepts and has comprehended the core principles of ITIL practices for Service Management.

Target Group

The target group of the ITIL Foundation certificate in IT Service Management is drawn from:

This may include but is not limited to, IT professionals, business managers and business process owners.

Training cum Learning Objectives

Candidates can expect to gain knowledge and understanding in the following upon successful Completion of the education and examination components related to this certification.

1. Service Management as a practice
2. Service Lifecycle
3. Key Principles and Models
4. Generic Concepts
5. Selected Processes
6. Selected Roles
7. Selected Functions
8. Technology and Architecture
9. ITIL Qualification scheme

Foundation Syllabus

The syllabus will guide the design, development and use of training materials as well as training aimed at raising individual’s understanding of, and competence in, IT Service Management as described in the ITIL Service Strategy, ITIL Service Design, ITIL Service Transition, ITIL Service Operation, ITIL Continual Service Improvement, ITIL Introduction and ITIL Glossary publications

The syllabus has been designed with ease of reference, extensibility and ease of maintenance in mind.

1. Service Management as a practice

The purpose of this unit is to help the candidate to define Service and to comprehend and explain the concept of Service Management as a practice.

Specifically, candidates must be able to:

2. The Service Lifecycle

The purpose of this unit is to help the candidate to understand the value of the Service Lifecycle, how the processes integrate with each other, throughout the Lifecycle and explain the objectives and business value for each phase in the Lifecycle.

Specifically, candidates must be able to:

• Describe the structure, scope, components and interfaces of the Service Lifecycle
• Account for the main goals and objectives of Service Strategy
• Account for the main goals and objectives of Service Design
• Briefly explain what value Service Design provides to the business
• Account for the main goals and objectives of Service Transition
• Briefly explain what value Service Transition provides to the business
• Account for the main goals and objectives of Service Operations
• Briefly explain what value Service Operation provides to the business
• Account for the main goals and objectives of Continual Service Improvement

3. Generic concepts and definitions

The purpose of this unit is to help the candidate to define some of the key terminology and explain the key concepts of Service Management.

Specifically, candidates must be able to define and explain the following key concepts:

• Utility and Warranty
• Resources, Capabilities and Assets
• Service Portfolio
• Service Catalogue (Business Service Catalogue and Technical Service Catalogue)
• The role of IT Governance across the Service Lifecycle
• Business Case
• Risk
• Service Provider
• Supplier
• Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Operational Level Agreement (OLA)
• Contract
• Service Design Package
• Availability
• Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS)
• Configuration Item (CI)
• Configuration Management System
• Definitive Media Library (DML)
• Service Change
• Change types (Normal, Standard and Emergency)
• Release Unit
• Concept of Seven R’s of Change Management ; no requirement to learn list
• Event
• Alert
• Incident
• Impact, Urgency and Priority
• Service Request
• Problem
• Workaround
• Known Error
• Known Error Data Base (KEDB)
• The role of communication in Service Operation
• Service Assets
• Release policy

4. Key Principles and Models

The purpose of this unit is to help the candidate to comprehend and account for the key principles and models of Service Management and to balance some of the opposing forces within Service Management.

Specifically, candidates must be able to:

Service Strategy

• Describe basics of Value Creation through Services

Service Design

• Understand the importance of People, Processes, Products and Partners for Service Management
• Understand the five major aspects of Service Design
• Service Portfolio Design
• Identification of Business Requirements, definition of Service
• Requirements and design of Services
• Technology and architectural design
• Process design
• Measurement design

Continual Service Improvement

• Explain the Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA) Model to control and manage quality
Explain the Continual Service Improvement Model
• Understand the role of measurement for Continual Service Improvement and explain the following key elements:
• The role of KPIs in the Improvement Process
• Baselines
• Types of metrics (technology metrics, process metrics, service metrics)

5. Processes

5.1 Service Strategy

State the objectives and basic concepts for:

Demand Management

The following list must be covered:

• Challenges in managing demand for Services
• Activity-based Demand Management (Patterns of business activity (PBAs)
• Business activity patterns and user profiles

Financial Management

• Business case

5.2 Service Design

Explain the high level objectives, basic concepts, process activities and relationships for:

Service Level Management (SLM)

The following list must be covered:

• Service-based SLA
• Multi-level SLAs
• Service level requirements (SLRs)
• SLAM chart
• Service review
• Service improvement plan (SIP)

State the objectives and basic concepts for:

Service Catalogue Management

Availability Management

• Service availability
• Component availability
• Reliability
• Maintainability
• Serviceability

Information Security Management (ISM)

• Security framework
• Information security policy
• Information security management system (ISMS)

Supplier Management

• Supplier Contract Database (SCD)

Capacity Management

• Capacity plan
• Business capacity management
• Service capacity management
• Component capacity management

IT Service Continuity Management

• Business Continuity Plans
• Business Continuity Management
• Business Impact Analysis
• Risk Analysis

5.3 Service Transition

Explain the high level objectives, basic concepts, process activities and relationships for:

Change Management

• Types of change request
• Change process models and workflows
• Standard change
• Remediation Planning
• Change Advisory Board / Emergency Change Advisory Board

Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM)

• The Configuration Model
• Configuration items
• Configuration Management System (CMS)
• Definitive Media Library
• Configuration baseline

State the objectives and basic concepts for:

Release and Deployment Management

Knowledge Management

• DIKW & SKMS

5.4 Service Operation

Explain the high level objectives, basic concepts, process activities and relationships for:

• Incident Management
• Problem Management

State the objectives and basic concepts for:

• Event Management
• Request Fulfillments
• Access Management

5.5 Continual Service Improvement

• Explain the Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA) Model to control and manage quality
• Explain the Continual Service Improvement Model
• Understand the role of measurement for Continual Service Improvement and explain the following key elements:
• The role of KPIs in the Improvement Process
• Baselines
• Types of metrics (technology metrics, process metrics, service metrics)

6.Functions

The purpose of this unit is to help the candidate to explain the role, objectives and organizational structures of the Service Desk function, and to state the role, objectives and overlap of three other functions.

Specifically, candidates must be able to:

Explain the role, objectives and organizational structures for

The Service Desk function

State the role, objectives and organizational overlap of:

• The Technical Management function
• The Application Management function
• The IT Operations Management function (IT Operations Control and Facilities Management)

7.Roles

The purpose of this unit is to help the candidate to account for and to be aware of the responsibilities of some of the key roles in Service Management.

Specifically, candidates must be able to:

Account for the role and the responsibilities of the

• Process owner
Service owner

Recognize the RACI model and explain its role in determining organizational structure

8.Technology and Architecture

The purpose of this unit is to help the candidate to Understand how Service Automation assists with integrating Service Management processes

9.ITIL Qualification scheme

The purpose of this unit is to help the candidate to

Explain the ITIL Qualification scheme, distinguish between the purposes of the two intermediate streams, mention the included certificates, ITIL Expert and ITIL Master, and understand the different options for further training.

10.Mock exam

The purpose of this unit is to help the candidate to pass the ITIL Foundation exam.

Specifically, candidates must:

Sit minimum one ITIL Foundation mock exam. Format of the Examination

This syllabus has an accompanying examination at which the candidate must achieve a pass score to gain the ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management.

Type: Multiple choice, 40 questions. The questions are selected from the full ITIL Foundation in IT Service Management examination question bank.

Duration: Maximum 60 minutes.

Pass Score: 65% (26 out of 40).