Program Overview

ITIL® is a set of best practices guidance that has become a worldwide-adopted framework for Information Technology Services Management (ITSM) by many Public & Private Organizations.  Since early 1990, ITIL® has been evolving from focusing on Functions and Processes under versions 1 and 2 to focusing on the Full Service Lifecycle Management under current version.

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

• Assist in transforming IT Service Management onto a strategic business asset
• Assist in defining and managing the complete lifecycle of IT Service Management Process
• Provide guidance on the development of Services Strategy, the development of Service Design, the Transition of Services from current to desired state, the Implementation and the Continuous improvement of the those Services

Through lectures and practice exam questions participants explore the concepts of good practice in IT Service Management based on the ITIL® Edition 2011Framework.

The ITIL® Intermediate Qualification: Operations Support Analysis Certificate is a free-standing qualification, but is also part of the ITIL® Intermediate Lifecycle stream, and one of the modules that leads to the ITIL® Expert in IT Service Management. The purpose of this training module and the associated exam and certificate is, respectively, to impart, test, and validate the knowledge on industry practices in service management as documented in the ITIL® publication.

Note:
The success in achieving this certification is highly dependent upon participants’ effort in doing their homework, and self-study before and during the program.

Duration
This program is offered over a 5-day period where it combines theoretical and hands-on knowledge transfer, including individual and group practical exercises.  The Minimum number of students per session is 6 where the maximum is 18.

• This five (5) days classroom training course with examination held on the afternoon of the 5th day is accredited by LCS examinations institute.
• The course includes approximately 30 hours of student-instructor interaction, a sample and a formal examination.
• The format of the examination consists of a closed book paper of 8 multiple choice complex questions, to be answered within 90 minutes. (Candidates sitting the examination in English and who do not have English as their first language will be allowed additional 30 minutes to allow use of a dictionary). The pass mark will be 70% or more – 28 or more correct answers.

Audience
The main target group for this ITIL® Intermediate Qualification Certificate includes, but is not restricted to:

• IT professionals
• Business managers
• Business process owners
• Individuals who require a deep understanding of the ITIL® Certificate in the Operational Support and Analysis processes and how it may be used to enhance the quality of IT service support within an organization
• IT professionals who are working within an organization which has adopted and adapted ITIL® and who need to be informed about, and thereafter contribute to, an ongoing service improvement program
• Operational staff involved in event management process, incident management process, request fulfillment process, problem management process, access management process, service desk, technical management, IT operations management and application management, and who wish to enhance their role-based capabilities
• Individuals who have attained the ITIL® Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management and wish to advance to higher level ITIL® certifications
• Individuals seeking the ITIL® Expert Certificate in IT Service Management for which this qualification can be one of the prerequisite modules
• Individuals seeking progress toward the ITIL® Master Certificate in IT Service Management for which the ITIL Expert is a prerequisite.

Prerequisites
Candidates wishing to be trained and examined for this qualification must already hold the ITIL® Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management (the V3 Foundation or V2 Foundation plus Bridge Certificate) which shall be presented as documentary evidence to gain admission.

• At least 30 contact hours (hours of instruction, excluding breaks, and not including summary review time) with an Accredited Training Organization (ATO) or an accredited e-learning solution) for this syllabus, as part of a formal, approved training course/scheme
• 2 to 4 years’ professional experience working in IT service management is highly desirable
• Hold the ITIL® Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management (or other appropriate earlier ITIL and bridge qualifications)
• It is also recommended that candidates should complete at a minimum of 12 hours of personal study by reviewing the syllabus and the pertinent areas within the ITIL® core guidance in preparation for the examination, specifically Chapter 2: Service management as a practice.

Additionally it is recommended that candidates:

• Can demonstrate familiarity with IT terminology and understand Operational Support and Analysis within the context of their own business environment.
• Have experience of working in a service management capacity within a service provider environment, with responsibility for at least one of the following management disciplines:
  Event management process
  Incident management process
  Request fulfillment process
  Problem management process
  Access management process
  Service desk
  Technical management
  IT operations management
  Application management.

Before attending training for the certification it is also strongly recommended that candidates read the ITIL® Service Lifecycle core publications and, in particular, the ITIL® Service Transition and Service Operation publication.

Content and Objectives
Through a series of lectures designed at achieving a clear understanding of the ITIL® Best Practice lifecycle approach and through various exercises, assignments and discussions, participants can expect to gain the competence in the following areas upon successful completion of the education and examination components related to this certification:

• The value to the business of OSA activities
• How OSA activities support the service lifecycle
• Optimizing service operation performance
• How the processes in OSA interact with other service lifecycle processes
• How to use the OSA processes, activities and functions to achieve operational excellence
• How to measure OSA
• The importance of IT security and its contributions to OSA
• Understanding the technology and implementation considerations surrounding OSA
• The challenges, critical success factors (CSFs) and risks associated with OSA
• Specific emphasis on the service operation lifecycle processes and roles included in:
  Event management, which defines any detectable or discernible occurrence that has significance for the management of the IT infrastructure or the delivery of an IT service
  Incident management, which has the capability to bring services back to normal operations as soon as possible and according to agreed service levels
  Request fulfillment, which fulfills a request providing quick and effective access to standard services which business staff can use to improve their productivity or the quality of business services and products
  Problem management, which prevents problems and resulting incidents from happening, eliminating recurring incidents and minimizing the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented
  Access management, which grants authorized users the right to use a service while preventing access to non-authorized users.
• Operational activities of processes covered in other lifecycle stages such as:
  Change management
  Service asset and configuration management
  Release and deployment management
  Capacity management
  Availability management
  Knowledge management
  Financial management for IT services
  IT service continuity management.
• Organizing for service operation which describes roles and functions to be performed within the service operation and support such as service desk, technical management, IT operations management and application management.

The program will cover the following modules:

The candidates will be able to understand, describe, identify, demonstrate, apply, distinguish, produce, decide or analyze:

Introduction
The value to the business of OSA activities

• The context of OSA activities within the service lifecycle
• How OSA activities support the service lifecycle
• Optimizing service operation performance

Event management

• The purpose and objectives of the event management process
• The scope of the event management process
• The value to business and to the service lifecycle
• The policies, principles and basic concepts of event management
• Designing for event management
• Use of event rule sets and correlation engines
• The process activities, methods and techniques that enable this process and how it relates to the service lifecycle
• The triggers, inputs and outputs, and interfaces
• Information management within the event management process
• How critical success factors and key performance indicators can be used to check effectiveness and efficiency of the event management process
• The challenges and risks associated with the event management process

Incident Management

• The purpose and objectives of the incident management process
• The scope of the incident management process
• The value to business and to the service lifecycle
• The policies, principles and basic concepts of incident management
• The process activities, methods and techniques and how they relate to the service lifecycle
• The triggers, inputs and outputs and interfaces
• Information management within the incident management process
• How critical success factors and key performance indicators can be used to check the effectiveness and efficiency of the incident management process
• The challenges and risks associated with the incident management process

Request Fulfillment

• The purpose and objectives of the request fulfillment process
• The scope of the request fulfillment process
• The value to business and to the service lifecycle
• The policies and principles of request fulfillment and the request model concept
• The process activities, methods and techniques and how they relate to the service lifecycle
• The triggers, inputs and outputs and interfaces
• Information management within the request fulfillment process
• How critical success factors and key performance indicators can be used to check effectiveness and efficiency of the request fulfillment process
• The challenges and risks associated with the request fulfillment process

Problem Management

• The purpose and objectives of the problem management process
• The scope of the problem management process
• The value to business and service lifecycle
• The policies, principles and basic concepts of problem management and the problem model concept
• Problem Analysis techniques and error detection in development environments.
• The process activities, methods and techniques and how they relate to the service lifecycle
• The triggers, inputs and outputs, and interfaces
• Information management within the problem management process
• How critical success factors and key performance indicators can be used to check effectiveness and efficiency of the problem management process
• The challenges and risks associated with the problem management process

Access management

• The purpose and objectives of the access management process
• The scope of the access management process
• The value to business and service lifecycle
• The policies, principles and basic concepts of access management
• The process activities, methods and techniques and how they relate to the service lifecycle
• The triggers, inputs and outputs, and interfaces
• Information management within the access management process
• How critical success factors and key performance indicators can be used to check effectiveness and efficiency of the access management process
• The challenges and risks associated with the access management process

The service Desk

• The service desk role
• The service desk objectives
• Different service desk organizational structures
• Different service desk staffing options
• Measuring service desk performance
• Issues and safeguards to consider when outsourcing the service desk

Common OSA functions and roles

• The roles within each function
• The roles within each OSA process
• The objectives of each function
• The activities of each function

Technology and Implementation considerations

• The generic requirements for technology to support process capability
• The evaluation criteria for technology and tools for process implementation
• Project, risk and staffing practices for process implementation
• The challenges, risks and CSFs related to implementing practices and processes
• How to plan and implement service management technologies

Summary, Exam Preparation and Directed Studies
This module summarizes the material covered in the previous modules and prepares candidates for the examination through the review and practice of a mock examination. The Examination is comprised of eight (8) multiple choice, scenario-based, gradient scored questions. The standard duration of the exam is Maximum 90 minutes.

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

• Program slide presentation
• Syllabus Document
• ITIL® acronyms and glossary
• Sample examination questions and answers

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 use the client organization as a “case study” example (when a private course is delivered).

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Operational Support Analysis – OSA