ITIL® 2011 Foundation Certification eLearning - $499 (with exam)

Learning Objectives

The objective of this course is to enable students to understand the importance of service management, both to IT service providers and 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 any organization which makes use of IT.

Service Lifecycle

This module looks at the purpose, objective and scope of this phase of the lifecycle. We consider its importance to businesses and consider how services can deliver value.

We then consider the purpose, objectives and scope behind three of the main service strategy processes:

 Service Portfolio Management
 Financial Management
 Business Relationship Management

Learning Objectives

The Service Strategy module provides guidance on understanding the most important practices that need to be employed in order to define and carry out a service strategy within an organization that provides IT related services:

 Providing an understanding of what a service strategy is
 Identifying required services and the audiences which 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, to whom they will be delivered and the purpose that they will serve
 Understanding the organizational capabilities that will be required to deliver the defined services
 Coordinating and documenting the use of service assets for the provision of services, as well as defining how the assets can be used and how to optimize 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 audience

Learning Objectives

In the Service Design part of the course, we look at the purpose, objectives, scope and business value of this stage of the ITIL Service Lifecycle.

We examine what we call the four P’s: People, Processes, Products and Partners – the four areas we need to consider when designing a service. We then look at the 5 major aspects of the Service Design stage:

 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

Learning Objectives

The Service Transition stage consists of seven different processes. We examine the purpose, objectives, scope and business value of this lifecycle stage, before looking in detail at ITIL’s Change Management process:

 Transition planning and support
 Knowledge Management
 Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM)
 Release and Deployment Management

Learning Objectives

In this module, we look at the purpose, objectives and scope of the Service Operation stage, as well as the value it provides to organizations.

We look in detail at the key processes of incident management and problem management. We then take a high-level view of the remaining three operations processes: access management, request fulfillment and event management.

Having considered the Service Operation stage processes, we move on to consider the ‘people’ aspects of this lifecycle stage. The majority of IT staff within a company will be involved (to a greater or lesser extent) in the Service Operation stage. Although they may be involved in other lifecycle stages, their main focus will be the delivery of the operational services.

Next, we examine the four functions involved in the Service Operations stage:

 Service desk
 Technical management
 Application management
 Operations management

The Service Desk function will then be considered in detail. We will also review the roles and objectives of the technical, applications and operations management functions at a higher level.

Learning Objectives

When you have completed this section you should be able to:

 Account for the main purpose, objectives and scope of the Continual Service Improvement (CSI) stage of the ITIL Service Lifecycle
 Briefly explain the value that CSI can provide to a business
 Understand the purpose, objectives and scope for the seven-step improvement process
 Explain the ITIL approach to CSI
 Describe the CSI register and the Deming Cycle
 Understand the role of measurement for the CSI stage and appropriate metrics
 Understand the relationship between critical success factors and key performance indicators, as well as the importance of Baselines

Learning Objectives

You should now understand how the ITIL best practice framework can be used to improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of service management in any organization that provides IT related services.

Certification scheme

Once you have passed your Foundation exam, you may wish to continue your IT service management studies. ITIL qualifications do not expire and there is no requirement to renew them should a new version of ITIL be released. In other words, you can choose to move on as soon as you are ready without having to backtrack.

Passing the Foundation exam will earn you two ITIL credits. This will qualify you to take Intermediate ITIL modules, each of which can be passed to win additional credits. Once you have 17, you will be able to take the Managing Across the Lifecycle (MALC) module. Passing this will earn you five credits for a total of 22, which in turn will allow you to start working towards an ITIL Expert 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 chosen area for the sake of your job role. The scheme is designed to satisfy both approaches.

You can take as few or as many Intermediate qualifications as you require. All ITIL qualifications are recognized throughout the IT industry. ITIL® is a registered trademark of AXELOS Limited.