ITIL Foundation Certification

Module 1: An Introduction to IT Service Management
The objectives of this foundation course in service management are to enable students to understand the importance of service management, both to the IT service provider, and to their customers.
Specifically, we show how the ITIL best practice framework can be used to improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of service management in every type of organization.

This module looks at the purpose, objective and scope of this phase of the lifecycle; we consider its value to the business and consider how services can deliver value. We then consider 3 of the service strategy processes and their purpose, objectives and scope.

These processes are:

• Service Portfolio Management
• Financial Management
• Business Relationship Management

Module 2: Service Strategy
The service strategy publication provides guidance on understanding the most important practices that need to be employed to define and carry out a service strategy in a service provider organization.

• Providing an understanding of what strategy is
• Identification of the services and the customers who use them
• Understanding how to define value creation and delivery
• Provision of the means to identify opportunities to provide services and how to make the best of them
• Delivering a comprehensive and clear service provision model, in which we identify how the services will be funded and presented, and to whom they will be delivered and the purpose that they will serve
• Understanding the organizational capability that will be required to deliver services according to the strategy
• Coordinating and documenting the use of service assets for the provision of services, and how they can be used, including optimizing their performance
• Defining the processes and services, which will deliver the strategy of the organization, and the level of investment that will be required.
• Understanding the levels of demand and how to establish a relationship between the service provider and the customer

Module 3: Service Design
In the service design part of the course, we look at the Purpose, Objectives, Scope and business value of this lifecycle stage.
We examine what we call the 4 P’s - People, Processes, Products and Partners – the 4 areas we need to consider when designing a service. We then look at the 5 major aspects of Service Design.

These are:

• Designing the Service Solution itself
• Designing the service management system and tools that will be required to manage the service
• Understanding the importance of management and technology architectures
• Understanding the processes that will be required
• The measurement systems, methods and metrics that will show us whether the service is working properly or not

Module 4: Service Transition
Service Transition consists of 7 different processes. We examine the purpose, objectives, scope and business value of this lifecycle stage, and look in detail at:

• The Change Management process.
• Transition planning and support
• Knowledge Management
• Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM)
• Release and Deployment Management

Module 5: Service Operation
In this module we look at the Purpose, Objectives and Scope of Service Operation and the value it provides to the business.

We look in detail at the key processes of Incident management and Problem Management. We then take a high level view of the remaining 3 operations processes of access management, request fulfilment and event management.

Having considered the service operation processes, we move on to consider the ‘people’ aspects of this lifecycle stage.

The majority of IT staff is involved (to a greater or lesser extent) in the service operation stage. Although they may be involved in other lifecycle stages; their main focus is the delivery of the operational services.

In this module, we examine the four functions involved in service operations. These are the service desk, technical management, application management and operations management functions.

The Service Desk function will be considered in detail, whilst the Roles and objectives of the Technical, applications and operations management functions will be reviewed at a higher level.

Module 6: Continual Service Improvement
You can see the contents of this section on the screen, when you have completed this section you should be able to:

• Account for the main purpose, objectives and scope of continual service improvement
• Briefly explain what value continual service improvement provides to the business
  Understand the purpose, objectives and scope for the seven-step improvement process
• Explain the continual service improvement approach
• Describe the CSI register and the Deming Cycle Understand the role of measurement for continual service improvement and types of metrics
• Understand the relationship between critical success factors and key performance indicators and the importance of Baselines

Module 7: Conclusion
By completing this course, you will have gained an understanding of the importance of service management, both to the IT service provider, and to their customers.
Specifically you should now understand how the ITIL best practice framework can be used to improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of service management in every type of organization.

Certification scheme
Once you have passed your foundation exam, you may wish to continue your service management studies.
The qualifications do not expire – there is no requirement to renew them as with some schemes. There are 4 levels of ITIL qualification, shown here. Each exam earns you credits, to add to the 2 credits awarded for the foundation certification.

You may wish to move up through the levels to Expert or Master, or you may just want to increase your knowledge in a particular area. The scheme is designed to satisfy both approaches.

You can take as few or as many Intermediate qualifications as you require, and to suit your needs. The Intermediate modules go into more detail than the Foundation level, and these qualifications are recognized throughout the IT industry.

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