Introduction
IT service management is an increasingly important area of study for all IT professionals. IT managers are realizing that, whatever the technology in use, the requirements to manage that technology efficiently and effectively and to deliver services that are aligned to the business requirement have never been more important.
The internationally recognized ITIL framework is the best-known approach to IT service management; in the first three months of 2011, 54,500 people took the ITIL foundation exam worldwide, with no sign of demand reducing. For most IT staff members, the certification is now regarded as an essential addition to their resumes, with many job ads specifying the foundation qualification as a mandatory requirement. The popularity of ITIL has spread around the world, with an enthusiastic take-up in India, the Middle East, and China in particular.
For those IT staff members who are funding their own training, the costs and time required to attend a classroom course has been unattainable. Distance learning does not suit everyone. For those who do attend classes, it is a common comment that there is too much material to cover in the time allowed. By providing the ITIL course in a book format, these difficulties have been overcome; the book is an economical alternative to a course and can be studied at the student’s own pace. The many practice questions help reinforce understanding. It can be used by itself or as an addition to attending a course.
ITIL Foundation Exam Study Guide provides foundation-level training for IT staff and customers of IT to gain an understanding of the ITIL terminology. Readers will gain knowledge of the ITIL service lifecycles and the ITIL processes, roles, and functions. They will also gain an understanding of how the service lifecycle provides effective and efficient IT services that are aligned to, and underpin, business processes. The book covers the full syllabus, preparing students to take the foundation exam at a convenient local test center.
There are no prerequisites, although it is expected that readers will have worked in an IT department or are studying IT at university level.
The book covers each area of the ITIL syllabus, examining each of the five areas of the service lifecycle, explaining concepts, highlighting terms that need to be understood for the exam, and providing real-life examples. These five stages include the following:
Introduction to IT Service Management and Service Strategy The design, development, and implementation of service management as a strategic asset to align with business processes
Service Design The design and development of service and service management processes
Service Transition The building, testing, authorizing, documenting, and implementation of new and changed services into operation
Service Operation The day-to-day support and management of live services
Continual Service Improvement Creating and maintaining value for customers through monitoring and improving services, processes, and technology throughout the lifecycle
How to Contact the Authors
The authors are experienced trainers and consultants and use practical examples and explanations to help the students grasp each content. We provide support to all our students; emails seeking further explanation or clarification will be answered within 24 hours in most cases. You can contact us at [email protected].
ITIL Foundation Exam Objectives
The following tables map each of your study requirements to the chapters of this book. We organized the contents of each chapter to be read in an order that will make your study easy.
Unit 1: Service Management as a Practice
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 1-1. Describe the concept of best practices in the public domain |
1 |
| 1-2. Describe and explain why ITIL is successful |
1 |
| 1-3. Define and explain the concept of a service |
1 |
| 1-4. Define and explain the concept of internal and external customers |
1 |
| 1-5. Define and explain the concept of internal and external services |
1 |
| 1-6. Define and explain the concept of service management |
1 |
| 1-7. Define and explain the concept of IT service management |
1 |
| 1-8. Define and explain the concept of stakeholders in service management |
1 |
| 1-9. Define processes and functions |
1 |
| 1-10. Explain the process model and the characteristics of processes |
1 |
Unit 2: The ITIL Service Lifecycle
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 2-2. Describe the structure of the ITIL service lifecycle |
1 |
| 2-3. Account for the purpose, objectives and scope of service strategy |
2 |
| 2-4. Briefly explain what value service strategy provides to the business |
2 |
| 2-5. Account for the purpose, objectives and scope of service design |
4 |
| 2-6. Briefly explain what value service design provides to the business |
4 |
| 2-7. Account for the purpose, objectives and scope of service transition |
8 |
| 2-8. Briefly explain what value service transition provides to the business |
8 |
| 2-9. Account for the purpose, objectives and scope of service operation |
10 |
| 2-10. Briefly explain what value service operation provides to the business |
10 |
| 2-11. Account for the main purpose, objectives and scope of continual service improvement |
13 |
| 2-12. Briefly explain what value continual service improvement provides to the business |
13 |
Unit 3: Generic Concepts and Definitions
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 3-1. Utility and warranty |
2 |
| 3-2. Assets, resources and capabilities |
2 |
| 3-3. Service portfolio |
3 |
| 3-4. Service catalogue (both two-view and three-view types) |
6 |
| 3-5. Governance |
2 |
| 3-6. Business case |
3 |
| 3-7. Risk management |
2 |
| 3-8. Service provider |
1 |
| 3-10. Supplier |
1 |
| 3-11. Service level agreement (SLA) |
5 |
| 3-12. Operational level agreement (OLA) |
5 |
| 3-13. Underpinning contract |
5 |
| 3-14. Service design package |
4 |
| 3-15. Availability |
6 |
| 3-16. Service knowledge management system (SKMS) |
9 |
| 3-17. Configuration item (CI) |
9 |
| 3-18. Configuration management system |
9 |
| 3-19. Definitive media library (DML) |
9 |
| 3-20. Change |
8 |
| 3-21. Change types (standard, emergency and normal) |
8 |
| 3-24. Event |
12 |
| 3-25. Alert |
12 |
| 3-26. Incident |
11 |
| 3-27. Impact, urgency and priority |
11 |
| 3-28. Service request |
12 |
| 3-29. Problem |
11 |
| 3-30. Workaround |
11 |
| 3-31. Known error |
11 |
| 3-32. Known error database (KEDB) |
11 |
| 3-33. The role of communication in service operation |
10 |
| 3-35. Release policy |
9 |
| 3-36. Types of services |
1 |
| 3-37. Change proposals |
8 |
| 3-38. CSI register |
13 |
| 3-39. Outcomes |
1 |
| 3-40. Patterns of business activity |
2 |
| 3-41. Customers and users |
1 |
| 3-42. The Deming Cycle (plan, do, check, act) |
13 |
Unit 4: Key Principles and Models
Service Strategy
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 4-2. Describe value creation through services |
2 |
Service Design
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 4-3. Understand the importance of people, processes, products and partners for service management |
4 |
| 4-4. Understand the five major aspects of service design |
4 |
| • Service solutions for new or changed services |
4 |
| • Management information systems and tools |
4 |
| • Technology architectures and management architectures |
4 |
| • The processes required |
4 |
| • Measurement methods and metrics |
4 |
Continual Service Improvement
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 4-9. Explain the continual service improvement approach |
13 |
| 4-10. Understand the role of measurement for continual service improvement and explain the following key elements: |
13 |
| • Relationship between critical success factors (CSF) and key performance indicators (KPI) |
13 |
| • Baselines |
13 |
| • Types of metrics (technology metrics, process metrics, service metrics) |
13 |
Unit 5: Processes
Service Strategy
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 5-2. State the purpose, objectives and scope for: |
|
| 5-21. Service portfolio management |
3 |
| • The service portfolio |
3 |
| 5-22. Financial management for IT services |
3 |
| • Business case |
3 |
| 5-23. Business relationship management |
3 |
Service Design
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 5-3. Explain the purpose, objectives, scope, basic concepts, process activities and interfaces for: |
|
| 5-31. Service level management (SLM) |
5 |
| The following list must be covered: |
|
| • Service-based SLA |
5 |
| • Multi-level SLAs |
5 |
| • Service level requirements (SLRs) |
5 |
| • SLA monitoring (SLAM) chart |
5 |
| • Service review |
5 |
| • Service improvement plan (SIP) |
5 |
| • The relationship between SLM and BRM |
5 |
| 5-4. State the purpose, objectives and scope for: |
|
| 5-41. Service catalog management |
6 |
| 5-42. Availability management |
6 |
| • Service availability |
6 |
| • Component availability |
6 |
| • Reliability |
6 |
| • Maintainability |
6 |
| • Serviceability |
6 |
| • Vital business functions (VBF) |
6 |
| 5-43. Information security management (ISM) |
6 |
| • Information security policy |
6 |
| 5-44. Supplier management |
6 |
| • Supplier categories |
6 |
| 5-45. Capacity management |
6 |
| • Capacity plan |
6 |
| • Business capacity management |
6 |
| • Service capacity management |
6 |
| • Component capacity management |
6 |
| 5-46. IT service continuity management |
6 |
| • Purpose of business impact analysis (BIA) |
6 |
| • Risk assessment |
6 |
| 5-47. Design coordination |
6 |
Service Transition
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 5-5. Explain the purpose, objectives, scope, basic concepts, process activities and interfaces for: |
|
| 5-51. Change management |
8 |
| • Types of change request |
8 |
| • Change models |
8 |
| • Remediation planning |
8 |
| • Change advisory board / emergency change advisory board |
8 |
| • Lifecycle of a normal change |
8 |
| 5-6. State the purpose, objectives and scope for: |
|
| 5-61. Release and deployment management |
9 |
| • Four phases of release and deployment |
9 |
| 5-62. Knowledge management |
9 |
| • Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to-Wisdom |
9 |
| 5-63. Service asset and configuration management |
9 |
| 5-64. Transition planning and support |
9 |
Service Operation
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 5-7. Explain the purpose, objectives, scope, basic concepts, process activities and interfaces for: |
|
| 5-71. Incident management |
11 |
| 5-72. Problem management |
11 |
| 5-8. State the purpose, objectives and scope for: |
|
| 5-81. Event management |
12 |
| 5-82. Request fulfillment |
12 |
| 5-83. Access management |
12 |
Continual Service Improvement
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 5-9. State the purpose, objectives and scope for: |
|
| 5-91. The seven-step improvement process |
13 |
Unit 6: Functions
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 6-1. Explain the role, objectives and organizational structures for |
|
| • The service desk function |
10 |
| 6-2. State the role and objectives of: |
|
| • The technical management function |
10 |
| • The application management function |
10 |
| • The IT operations management function |
10 |
Unit 7: Roles
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 7-1. Account for the role and the responsibilities of the |
|
| • Process owner |
7 |
| • Process manager |
7 |
| • Process practitioner |
7 |
| • Service owner |
7 |
| 7-2. Recognize the responsible, accountable, consulted, informed (RACI) responsibility model and explain its role in determining organizational structure |
7 |
Unit 8: Technology and Architecture
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 8-2. Understand how service automation assists with expediting service management processes |
1 |
Unit 9: Competence and Training
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 9-1. Competence and skills for service management |
7 |
| 9-2. Competence and skills framework |
7 |
| 9-3. Training |
7 |
Unit 10: Mock Exam
| TOPIC |
CHAPTER |
| 10-1. Sit a minimum of one ITIL Foundation mock exam |
Appendix B |
Exam units are subject to change at any time without prior notice and at ITIL’s sole discretion. Please visit ITIL’s website (
www.itil-officialsite.com) for the most current listing of units.
