Course Overview
ITIL is a set of best practices guidance that has become a worldwide-adopted framework for Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) by over 37,000 public- & private- sector organizations worldwide.  Since its launch in the late 1980s, ITIL has been evolving from an operationally-focused framework under versions 1 and 2 to encompassing on the full Service Lifecycle Management beginning with ITIL Version 3.
ITIL V3 was updated in 2011, and this course includes those updates.

In addition to the existing benefits of aligning IT goals and objectives with the business, improving quality and reducing cost of ownership; ITSM and ITIL now emphasize the following areas:

• Transforming IT Service Management onto a strategic business asset
• Defining and managing the complete lifecycle of IT Service Management
• Providing world-class and proven guidance on the development of Service Strategy, the development of Service Design, the Transition of Services from current to desired state, the Implementation, Operation and the Continuous improvement of the those Services.

This exam-preparatory course provides comprehensive coverage of foundation concepts of ITIL.  Through lectures and practice exam questions, participants explore the best practices in IT Service Management based on the most current 2011 edition of the ITIL framework.

Duration
This course is offered both as a 3 day or a 3.5 day class.

• The 3-day class features an accelerated “boot-camp” style pace which presents the material effectively and efficiently, but with less exercises, extended discussions, labs, or in-class study-time; it is almost exclusively lecture and PowerPoint presented by our engaging and dynamic instructors. Students will spend three full workdays in class.  The official ITIL Foundation Exam is proctored at the end of the third day.  Students are expected to dedicate 30-60 minutes each night to studying on their own.
• The 3.5-day option has more room in the schedule to include exercises, longer discussions around client-specific challenges and implementation tips, relevant tangents, and exam preparation.  All teaching is done on the first three days of class, giving students an important night for the material to “sink in” as they study.  The final half-day of class is dedicated to a full content review, taking and grading a practice exam, and finally the proctoring of the official ITIL Foundation Exam itself.  Students are dismissed by lunchtime.

Students seeking a more interactive class or a more reasonably-paced (less stressful) course, should choose the 3.5 day course.

Whichever class duration is chosen, students will be more successful if they are free from operational distractions during class time, and if they can dedicate 30-60 minutes of study time outside of class each night.

The ITIL Foundation Exam

• The official ITIL Foundation Certification Exam will be proctored on the last day of class by an accredited examination supervisor. The exam is a closed-book, paper-based, 40 questions multiple-choice exam. Candidates have 60 minutes to complete the exam.  Candidates need a minimum of 26 correct answers out of 40 to pass.
• The minimum number of students per session is 6 where the maximum is 25.

Target Audience
IT professionals interested in understanding the content and concepts of the new ITIL, as well as understand the differences with previous ITIL versions.

• Executives and key stakeholders
• IT Managers, IT staff
• Application, project, and business managers directly involved in IT
• Process Owners and Managers
• Senior technical and operational staff
• IT professionals and Consultants
• IT customers
• Any member of IT organizations seeking process and service improvements

Prerequisites

• General IT knowledge and experience in an IT organization
• Preferably ITIL awareness
• Students will complete at a minimum 21 hours of class time, with 30 minutes of personal study time outside of class.

Program Contents

• Overview of the drivers for ITIL
• Key differences between earlier version of ITIL and current version of ITIL – What are the major changes?
  New concepts, definitions and terminology
  Key processes and functions

Introduction to Service Management

• The evolution of Service management
• Definition of Service and Service Management
• Service Management as best practice
• The importance of adopting a service and continual improvement culture and approach
• Interface to other framework and standards (i.e. ISO/IEC 20000)

The Service Lifecycle

• The purpose, objectives and scope of the five ITIL service lifecycle stages
• Objectives and business value
• The main components (the new books) within the 5 stages in the lifecycle:
  Service Strategy
  Service Design
  Service Transition
  Service Operation
  Continual Service Improvement

Generic concepts and definitions
The course will clarify and explain some of the key terminology and key concepts of service management. Specifically, the following key concepts:

• Utility and warranty
• Assets, resources and capabilities
• Service portfolio
• Service catalogue (both two-view and three-view types)
• Governance
• Business case
• Risk management
• Service provider
• Supplier
• Service level agreement (SLA)
• Operational level agreement (OLA)
• Underpinning contract (UC)
• Service design package
• Availability
• Service knowledge management system (SKMS)
• Configuration item (CI) and Configuration management system
• Definitive media library (DML)
• Change and Change types (standard, emergency and normal); Change proposals
• Event
• Alert
• Incident
• Impact, urgency and priority
• Service request
• Problem
• Workaround
• Known error and Known error database (KEDB)
• The role of communication in service operation
• Release policy
• Types of services
• CSI register
• Outcomes
• Patterns of business activity
• Customers and users
• The Deming Cycle (plan, do, check, act)

Key principles and models

• Service strategy
  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 solutions for new or changed services
  Management information systems and tools
  Technology architectures and management architecture
  The processes required
  Measurement methods and metrics

Phases and Processes

• Service Strategy
  Purpose, objectives, scope, basic concepts, process activities and interfaces for:
  Service portfolio management
  The service portfolio
  Financial management for IT services
  Business case
  Business relationship management
• Service Design
  Purpose, objectives, scope, basic concepts, process activities and interfaces for:
  Service level management (SLM)
  Service-based SLAs
  Customer-based SLAs
  Multi-level SLAs
  Service level requirements (SLRs)
  SLA monitoring (SLAM) chart
  Service review
  Service improvement plan (SIP)
  The relationship between SLM and BRM
  Service catalogue management
  Availability management
  Service availability
  Component availability
  Reliability
  Maintainability
  Serviceability
  Vital business functions (VBF)
  Information security management
  Information security policy
  Supplier management
  The Supplier and Contracts Management Information System
  Capacity management
  Capacity plan
  Business capacity management
  Service capacity management
  Component capacity management
  IT service continuity management
  Business impact analysis (BIA)
  Risk assessment
  Design coordination

• Service Transition
  Purpose, objectives, scope, basic concepts, process activities and interfaces for:
  Service asset and configuration management
  Change management
  Types of change requests
  Change models
  Remediation planning
  Change advisory board / emergency change advisory board
  Lifecycle of a normal change
  Release and deployment management
  Four phases of release and deployment
  Knowledge management
  Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to-Wisdom (DIKW) & SKMS
  Transition planning and support
• Service Operation
          Purpose, objectives, scope, basic concepts, process activities and interfaces for:
  Incident management
  Problem management
  Event management
  Request fulfillment
  Access management
• Continual Service Improvement
          Continual service improvement approach
  The Deming Cycle
  The Seven-Step Improvement Process
  Understand the role of measurement for continual service improvement and explain the                     following key elements:
  Relationship between critical success factors (CSF) and key performance indicators (KPI)
  Baselines
  Types of metrics (technology metrics, process metrics, service metrics)

Functions

• The service desk function
• The technical management function
• The application management function with application development
• The IT operations management function

Roles

• Process owner
• Process manager
• Process practitioner
• Service owner
• RACI Model

Technology and architecture

• Service automation assists and integrating service management processes

Program Material (handout)
This training program includes the following as reference documentation:

• Program slide presentation with extensive notes under each slide; over 400 pages of material for use in class and as an after-class reference
• Exam study guide
• ITIL acronyms and glossary
• Two full 40-question sample exams with answer keys and rationales

Simulation and practical application
We provide the students with real life experiences; for the purpose of discussion and to show the value of using best practice, we can use the client organization as “case study” example (when a private course is delivered).

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Foundation Program Certification – Updated