ITIL V3 Intermediate programs – so many choices… what is best? June 23, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: certification, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL expert, ITIL V3, itsm
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In generic terms we’ve always said that there is no right or wrong pathway – it all depends. (such a consultancy statement, isn’t it??)
But in reality there are some choices that are better then others:
1. Both the capability Modules and the Lifecycle modules cover the same theory, but from a different point of view and to various levels of detail. As a result of this, you want to check which book is covered in the Capability program. As an example: RCV (Release, Control and Validation) covers a large component of the Service Transition book, so it is best NOT to do the Service Transition Lifecycle program at the same time due to the extend of overlap between the two programs.
2. For ‘ action based’ people, or IT Professionals who want to know HOW the theory would work in a practical situation, the Capability modules would be more suitable. These programs are aimed at the process team member, the people in the field who get their hands dirty and now need to work out how their practical work fits in with the ITIL framework.
3. The umbrella program before reaching ‘ ITIL Expert’ status is the Managing Across the Lifecycle or MALC for short. This course and associated exam are quite theory based and of a more strategic level. A good preparation for this program would be to either attend the Service Strategy Lifecycle Module or the SOA (Service, Offerings and Agreements) Capability Module.
For more information on the ITIL V3 Intermediate programs, check this out… or get us to contact you to answer all your questions.
Didn’t pass your ITIL V3 Foundation exam?? Don’t despair.. you’re NOT alone! June 20, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: certification, exam, EXIN, Foundation, Foundation Bridge, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL V3, itsm, the art of service
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As I mentioned in an earlier blog – as of the 1st of May 2009 there is a new syllabus for the ITIL V3 Foundation and ITIL V3 Foundation Bridge exam. This new syllabus is a result of the global review and lots of feedback from many students, training providers and examination institutes.
The biggest comment was that the Foundation program was basically ‘too much information’ for a 3- day course and the regional representatives spent 2 days talking about a better way of teaching this Foundation level of the ITIL V3 Service Management program.
Based on this feedback and these discussions, APMG created a new syllabus for the Foundation and Foundation bridge exam and a completely new set of examination questions that are in line with the syllabus. The accredited training providers received the new syllabus and two sample exams to prepare their new course materials to be in line with the new formal exams.
Soooooo, as of the 1st of May all training providers are offering new materials based on the updated training and exam requirements.
A quick check with a number of providers shows that from the 1st of July the percentage of successful candidates has decreased quite dramatically for Foundation exam participants. Also – the average results has dropped from 85% -90% to as low as 70 percent.
Now – as training providers we do NOT have access to the real exam questions (and that’s a good thing, as it keeps the training separate from the exam. It ensures that your certification is independent from the training), the only thing we have to go on is the syllabus, exam requirements and the sample exam. This drop in number of successful candidates is something that is being investigated by a number of training providers.
IF you are one of the candidates that sat your Foundation exam AFTER the 1st of May 2009 and you feel that the exam was quite different from the course materials and the sample exam. In other words – you feel that the course and sample exam did not give you a true indication of what the real exam was like – contact your training provider and let them know!
Every 4 months there is a formal review of exam results to assess if the exam and/or syllabus needs to be updated.. all feedback is important, so speak up!
ITIL V3 Certification – are you confused?? You are NOT alone… June 17, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: capability, certification, exam, EXIN, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL expert, ITIL V3, itsm, lifecycle, the art of service
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For a scheme that has been around for approx. 2 years now, it is pretty sad that there is no increased clarity around the ITIL V3 certification scheme. Where a few years ago most clients would be confused because of the scheme it self, now it seems that training providers are able to do their own thing..
OK – so what are the confusions:
1. First confusion: From the start there was the confusion on naming of the toplevel program. Initially the top level was called ITIL Diploma but later on this was changed to ITIL Expert. Try do a google search on ITIL diploma though… I am sure you’ll come up with approx. 103,000 hits.
For the record – the top level is called ITIL Expert. the ITIL V3 Expert certificate is NOT achieved by attending the ITIL Expert course, as there is no such thing. The ITIL Expert certificate is earned by achieving a minimum of 22 credits though either the ITIL V2 + Manager Bridge programs or the ITIL V3 programs. I wrote about the different pathways in this post.
2. The second confusion developed around the 1st of May 2009. From this day onwards, APMG released their new ITIL V3 Foundation and ITIL V3 Foundation bridge syllabus and exams. This means that from this day onwards ALL training providers have to adhere to the new syllabus with the amended timelines for Foundation and Foundation Bridge. The biggest change is in the ITIL V3 Foundation Bridge program, as the number of contact hours has increased to 9.5 hours.
This means that the Foundation Bridge program is now a 2-day classroom program (as I can’t imagine people wanting to do this in 1 day… just imagine: 9.5 contact hours + 30 minutes for coffee break in the morning + 30 minuted for coffee break in the afternoon + 1 hour for lunch + 30 minutes for the exam + some setup time for the exam… a minimum of 12 hours are required for this course! As an educator, teacher and trainer I know from experience that after 8 hours in the classroom people simply don’t absorb any more information…. your guess is as good as mine when you try to think about the effects on the passrates for the ITIL V3 Foundation Bridge exam.)
3. Third confusion is on naming conventions again. The courses that follow the ITIL V3 Foundation program are called “the Intermediate Programs”. Within the Intermediate programs there are 2 type of modules: Capability Modules and Lifecycle Modules. This is the naming convention that APMG described in their certification scheme and the associated documentation and illustrations. However, there are a number of course providers who have created their own petnames for these programs. Probably seemed a good idea when the marketing department came up with it… but what it does is completely confuse and frustrate the clients out there.
Example – earlier this week we received an enquiry to do the ITIL Expert pathway and this person was convinced that this was a 4 day bootcamp. When we viewed the link with the course information we could see where the confusion came from.
“ITIL Expert Certificate: Service Operation”- 4 day bootcamp….
This is NOT the ITIL Expert certificate.. this is a 4 day classroom program around Service Operation which will gain you 3 points towards the 22 needed for ITIL Expert certificate.
4. Fourth confusion is on the difference between ITIL V2 qualification and ITIL V3 qualification. This comes down to naming convention again:
ITIL V2 qualification is build up as follows: Foundation certificate, Practitioner certificates (x4), Manager Certificate
ITIL V3 qualification is build up as follows: Foundation certificate, Intermediate certificate (x9), Managing Across the Lifecycle certificate, ITIL Expert.
As both these qualification pathways co-exist, we as training providers have an obligation to separate to two pathways as much as possible to make it easy for our clients to know which type of program they have signed up for.
The whole certification and qualification thing is confusing enough as it is… let’s work together as training providers to shine a clear light so our clients don’t trip along the way.
Be careful what you wish for… about setting goals and have success June 1, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in business.Tags: business, goal, success, target
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Today I flew Business Class to Hong Kong. For some people that is not a big deal, but for me it is! A few years ago I set myself a goal of flying business class before the age of 40, but had no idea that this was really achievable.
Now – you have to remember that I am Dutch, so by default I am very sceptical about spending money on ‘frivolous things’. I can’t help it… it’s in my genes!! So when I set this goal for myself it was very ‘out there’…. not something that would be easy to achieve, and most people who know me well would argue that it was a ridiculous goal to set as I would NEVER achieve it! But today, about 14 months later and 1 week before my 39th birthday here I am… sitting in Business Class flying to Hong Kong.
So what happened? Well – a couple of things really…
- I verbalised the goal and talked about it to other people
- I figured out the type of activities I needed to do to achieve the goal.
- I stuck with it and chipped away at it… one frequent flyer point at the time… !
- I set myself the goal but that was not enough! I needed to put it into an action plan.
About 14 months ago I would only dream of flying Business Class and hope that it would happen someday. But like my mentor always says: “Hope is NOT a strategy”
So I signed up for a frequent flyer program and started collecting points towards upgrades etc. And now I have my first upgrade.. I achieved my goal! One year and one week ahead of schedule!!! So, what can we take away from this? Well, apart from signing up for a frequent flyer program… it is very important to write our goals down. What is it that we want to achieve? Just talking about it isn’t enough.. WRITE IT DOWN! For some weird reason that is a lot more powerful. Write down your personal goals for the next 12 months… your business goals or your career goals…
Once you’ve written them down you can start talking about it with other people to shape the way you want to achieve your goal (notice that I no longer talk about a dream?!?! A dream doesn’t have an action plan…. goals do!) This stage is important as it will help you identify what you will need to do to make it happen.. what actions do you need to take? What activities and habits do you need to start? Now that you know what you need to do, the hard work is done.. all there is left is simply following your action plan! One day at a time.. .do the little baby steps.
One day you will get there.. believe me! It works for me…
But remember: ”BE CAREFULL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!”
Can I do ITIL V3 Intermediate as self study, or do I have to attend a class? May 5, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: certification, elearning, exam, EXIN, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL expert, ITIL V3, itsm
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Can I prepare for my ITIL V3 Intermediate exam through self study?
I receive this question in my inbox a lot of the time and it seems that there might be some confusion on the exam requirements. The short answer is NO, you can not prepare for your ITIL V3 Intermediate exam by doing self study. The exam requirement is that you have been part of an accredited course, delivered by an accredited ATO.
Does this mean I have to attend a classroom program?
Again, the answer is NO – it is not compulsory to attend a classroom / instructor led program. The Art of Service offers all ITIL V3 Intermediate programs as accredited eLearning courses. The eLearning is still instructor facilitated, but as you can imagine – the instructor is at a distance and facilitation is via email, voice and video conferencing. The difference between classroom and eLearning is that you have your instructor all to yourself! You can ask all questions directly and are guaranteed an answer within 24 hours (but usually much quicker)
But what if my training provider says that I can’t attend eLearning courses, that this is not possible?
I don’t want to talk on behalf of other training providers, but what they probably mean is that they don’t offer elearning courses. Most organisations will have the ITIL V3 Intermediate programs as classroom option only. The Art of Service has chosen for a dual approach: we offer all ITIL programs as classroom option as well as eLearning program. The only exception to this is the ITIL V2 Service Manager program, as this program can not be delivered online and must be delivered as a classroom course.
If I choose to do eLearning, what is my chance of passing the exam?
In the past 5 years of offering ITIL education programs as eLearning as well as classroom option, we have learnt that the passrate for both delivery methods is comparable. If anything, we noticed that due to the highly personalized nature of elearning and the fact that you have the opportunity to restudy the same material when the subject is not quite clear, our online students might actually perform slightly better during exams.
Also, we have developed a number of additional educational tools and instructional material to help you make the best of your exams. These are the exam preparation programs; specialised elearning programs that focus on exam preparation. It’s like you do the last day of the course again and again until you’re confident and ready to sit your exam!
I just passed my ITIL V3 Foundation exam – which ITIL V3 Intermediate path to I choose now? May 4, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: certification, education, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL expert, ITIL V2, ITIL V3, itsm, the art of service, training
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This question was asked in the Linkedin Group for The Art of Service’s ITIL training.
Following is my answer:
Hmmmm… you mean the $64,000 question? Which path you choose depends entirely on your goals and objectives:
PATH 1:
ITIL V2 Foundation – ITIL V2 Manager – ITIL V2-3 Bridge
This path is used by many people who already have their ITIL V2 Manager certificate as they only have to do an eLearning bridge program to achieve ITIL Expert certification. The other reason to do this path is when you really want to master the art of selling the benefits of ITSM, as well as applying various ITIL opportunities to a variety of scenarios (businesses). I would recommend this path to people who already have a solid understanding of the ITIL V2 framework. The V2 Manager program is only available as a Classroom delivery due to the incourse assessments and nature of the program.
PATH 2:
ITIL V2 Foundation – ITIL V2 Practitioners (x4) – ITIL V2-3 Bridge – ITIL V3 Managing across Lifecycle (MALC).
This path is for people who really don’t want to sit the 2 three-hour open question exam that is part of the ITIL V2 Service Manager exam but still want a solid grounding in the ITIL V2 framework. The practitioner courses are more practical in nature with compulsory assignments and specific focus on HOW to design the processes and/or create the documents and communication plans.
Remember that you must do ALL ITIL V2 Practitioner programs (IPRC, IPSR, IPPI, IPAD), however the entire pathway can be done via eLearning or – if you wish to do so – via a combination of classroom and eLearning programs.
PATH 3:
ITIL V2 Foundation – ITIL V2-3 Foundation Bridge – ITIL V3 Intermediate – ITIL V3 MALC
When you have your V2 Foundation certificate you will need to sit the Foundation bridge exam prior to enrolling in the ITIL V3 Intermediate courses. Just like Path 2, it can all be done via eLearning programs but because you don’t have your V3 Foundation certificate you will need to do the bridging program first. Again, you will need to figure out the best balance – what works for you… When you have RCV for instance you don’t want to do Service Transition as it pretty much covers the same processes.
PATH 4:
ITIL V3 Foundation – ITIL V3 Intermediate – ITIL V3 MALC
This is the path followed by those who don’t have any prior certification in the ITIL Framework. The entire expert pathway can be done via eLearning, or alternatively through classroom programs.
Most of our students so far choose to attend the Capability Programs: OSA, RCV, SOA and PPO. At 4 points per program this will give you 16 points and enough to go to the MALC course.
Having said that – the Service Strategy course is also very popular (and I must admit that I thought this would be the least popular option!! see? Even after almost 15 year in the business you still can’t predict what people really like…)
I hope this covers all your questions about the Intermediate pathways, but please don’t hesitate to contact me directly for additional questions. I’ll be more than happy to answer them!
Also – for more information on The Art of Service’s accredited eLearning programs, visit our eLearning portal on http://theartofservice.org
Ivanka
The Benefits of ITIL V3 Intermediate eLearning courses April 18, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in Uncategorized.Tags: certification, elearning, exam, EXIN, Green IT, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL expert, ITIL V2, ITIL V3, itsm, the art of service
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Our students choose to enroll in our eLearning programs for ITIL V3 Intermediate for a number of reasons:
- The ability to study in the evening, nights and weekends (if you so desire); this way you can still attend your day job or complete your project, or maximise your billable hours while you gain new knowledge and prepare for the exam.
- No need for travel; eLearning can be done everywhere, including -but not limited to- your desk at the office or at home on the couch. Additional benefits include: no cost for petrol and parking, no extra demand on the environment because you don’t have to fly to a training venue. This is true for the students, but also for the instructor/trainer. This is offering Green IT in a practical way!
- One on One interaction with your instructor. During classroom programs you always have to share with your fellow students. And sometimes the instructor doesn’t have the time to answer your specific question due to the time pressure of going through the curriculum in 3, 4 or 5 days. With eLearning you have your instructor all to yourself and you can ask as many questions as you want.
- The ability to work in your tempo; In classroom programs you are at the mercy of the instructor and this is usually not in the best interest of the individual. From a tempo point of view – most instructors will work according to the average, or sometimes even slowest, student within the constraints set by the curriculum. As you have access to the eLearning for 3 months you can study at your own convenient tempo. Do you need to finish this program quickly? Go through it in 3 really really long days… need more time to go over the materials again? Just do it. You have 3 months to finish the materials.
- Lower course fee; of course this is a benefit to the student! Because eLearning has a lot less overhead (no need for course venue, catering, etc.) the ‘admission price’ to attend a program is lower than for classroom courses.
The Art of Service has been offering web-based elearning for ITIL V2 and ITIL V3 certification since February 25th, 2002. What started off as an extra service to our classroom students, has grown into a valuable offering to customers and students globally. We have individual students studying for their ITIL certification, but we also offer the complete Learning Management System with a site license to corporations who need company based coaching to complement the online content.
Passrate for ITIL V2 (Foundation and all 4 Practitioner) and ITIL V3 (Foundation and all Intermediate) certification has been equal, if not better than classroom students! We currently have a number of students who are going through the entire ITIL Expert certification stream online. All our ITIL certification courses are EXIN accredited.
For more information on our eLearning and to see a demo of our eLearning programs, go to http://theartofservice.org
What happened to Service Validation and testing in ITIL V3 Foundation Syllabus? April 15, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in Uncategorized.Tags: apmg, certification, EXIN, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL V3, ITIL V4, itsm, rcv, the art of service, value
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Today was a very exciting but also very sad day for me… Our development team showed us the alpha version of the new ITIL V3 Foundation course material which is developed based on the new APMG/EXIN syllabus. This new course and the new exam is going to be launched on the first of May 2009 – so that is less than 15 days away!!
The material looks amazing! Very clear and easy to follow, with new diagrams and new illustrations. It is not just a ‘tweaked’ program, but basically an entire new course. We used the updated syllabus, but also input from our accredited trainers, partners and students to create this new material. So that was the exciting part of it. I think it will be a lot better for our students as a lot of the controversial material has been scrapped to make more room for discussion, debate and exercises.
But the sad part is that I will no longer experience the joy of discussing Service Validation and Testing during the Foundation program! I think I am going to be rebellious and discuss the V-model for service testing anyway.. HA!
To me the process of Service Validation and Testing together with the V-model is one of the most valuable additions to ITIL V3 in comparison to ITIL V2. Should there ever be an ITIL V4 I would really like to see even more of a stronger emphasis on testing and general Quality assurance and Quality control mechanisms in the framework.
I really enjoyed discussing the reasons for testing and validating your Service Design packages as part of this process… to give people at a Foundation level a sneak preview of the amazing value that this process gives to the overall framework. But I guess that cutting it from the syllabus will make the follow up training (like the intermediate program for ‘Release Control and Validation’ ) more desirable.
Why would APMG have made the choice to delete the process of ‘Service Validation and Testing’ from the syllabus? I really don’t know, but would love to find out!
In times of recession – how does ITIL Service Management help to keep your good employees? April 14, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in business, itil, itsm.Tags: certification, crisis, customer service, economy, IT Service Management, itil, itsm, recession, service, service management, the art of service, value
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Today I was interviewed by somebody from the itSMF about trends in the ITSM education and training industry. Inevitably the questions go the the current economic climate and the position of education in all this.
To me this is really easy – but then again: I run an education company so I am slightly biased – ITSM education really helps organisations to make a difference. Note that I don’t say ‘training’ as I don’t have a lot of positive things to say about organisations who only focus on the training aspect.. teaching monkeys tricks… Of course there is a training aspect in each educational program but there is so much more to it! Being an educator means that you know your subject as well as have the ability to make people understand what this new theory means for them – in their working environment. You need to understand that it is NOT about you but about the students. Educating is more than presenting, it is about focusing on the needs and requirements of the students… constantly.
Anyway, stepping down from my soap box for a second here, I strongly feel that ITSM education can make the difference between an IT organisation that is subject to outsourcing or an IT group that adds value to the overall corporate goals. ITSM education make the difference to the individual wanting to get that new job, and helps to get passed by when the redundancies are handed out.
Like I said to the interviewer today; I am constantly looking for new staff. We filled 2 vacancies in March and are currently advertising for 2 additional vacancies. So I see my fair share of applications and resumes across my desk. In comparison to 12 months ago, we receive about 10x the amount of applicants but I can’t say that the overall quality of the applicants has risen. Mind you, there are still gems out there – and they stand out! But what I expected to see as a result of all these job cuts and redundancies was that a lot of highly skilled people with fantastic experience and backgrounds would be applying for jobs.. and I don’t see that at the moment. Not in Australia that is…
Why do I say this? Well, for highly competent – qualified and experienced ITSM staff members the jobs are still out there and it is easy to stand out among the other candidates. So adding ITSM certification to your resume could be a good thing for individual IT professionals.
On the other side – IT organisations can use ITSM education as a differentiator to maintain their high performing employees. Offering educational opportunities to them will make them highly productive in the work place – making sure the IT group can cope with the new requirements and added work pressures – but also happier employees as they know they are valued and continue to improve their skills and qualifications. This seems to be a way to retain your good employees. High performers want to be challenged, and constantly learning new things or improving current processes. ITSM education gives them the opportunity to do this. This ultimately saves you money through retention of your high performers and not having to look for new staff as well as an improved IT Service delivery mechanism.
Benefits no matter where you look! So, what’s keeping you from educating your staff?!
Why The Australian Taxation Office needs to improve its Demand and Capacity Management. ITIL anyone?! March 17, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: capacity, capacity management, Demand, IT Service Management, itil, service management, the art of service
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OK – here’s the deal:
On Saturday I received an email from the ATO (Australian Taxation Office) notifying me that I need to renew my digital certificates. These digital certificates are important as I can’t do my company tax, payroll tax and Sales Tax declarations online without them.
It is now Tuesday and so far I haven’t been able to renew the certificates due to a number of reasons:
- The ATO application only seems to work on Internet Explorer. My laptop defaults to Mozilla Firefox so the initial attempt to renew ran into an error code…
Not too worry, I’ll re-run the renewal in Internet Explorer… or so I thought: - The website didn’t work on Internet Explorer and I had to send 2 requests for support before somebody contacted me this morning with a known error:
The Skype add in to Internet Explorer has to be upgraded as this is incompatible with the Java Applet that the ATO uses for the digital certificate renewal process.
OK… I think I get it… and lucky me: it worked! That is…. it worked for 1 certificate! Now – I need to do 2 certificates and the process started again:
“General Process Error – An unexpected Error has occurred. Please contact your service desk for technical support” - So I called the Service Desk again… And you know what the answer was? (you’re going to LOVE this one!)
A lot of people are trying to use the renewal system at the moment. The server can’t cope – can you try again later?!?!
WHAT THE?!
Hang on – let me get this straight: the ATO sends renewal notices to a number of business owners (I now suspect I wasn’t the only person who received the email on Saturday). But when these business owners actually renew the certificates, the server can’t cope???
ITIL Demand Management and Capacity Management 1-0-1:
When you send an email to 100 people asking them to renew their certificates…. you need to be able to deliver this service to 100 people – in the unlikely event they ALL decide to renew their certificates at the same time!
If you don’t want this for whatever reason….(I can understand that this might be cost prohibitive) stagger or tier the notification process so you can manage the demand for the service… you can do this! You can schedule emails to go out on different days to alleviate the demands for service and spread it out over a longer period of time.
Maybe the ATO needs some TLC from The Art of Service… 
I’ll be happy to have a chat to them over a coffee. I’m sure we can work something out and make this world a less stressful place for business owners!
