Why do training organisations pay mega $$ for ITIL accreditation? October 21, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: apmg, elearning, exam, EXIN, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL V3, itsm, the art of service, value
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Caveat and pre-warning. This might turn into a little bit of a rant…
Today I was notified that we didn’t win a large training opportunity. This doesn’t happen often, but still.. not happy with the results. And as always I try to figure out where I could have assisted the client better in their purchasing process. Good thing is that this time I know who I lost the opportunity to, so I decided to check out what the differences are in our approach.
Now here’s the deal: The Art of Service is accredited with EXIN for all ITIL V2 and ITIL V3 certification courses, both for our classroom delivery and our eLearning delivery methods. And yes, the full list is:
- ITIL V2 Foundation
- ITIL V2 Practitioner IPAD, IPPI, IPSR, IPRC
- ITIL V2 Service Manager
- ITIL V2-V3 Foundation Bridge
- ITIL V2-V3 Manager Bridge
- ITIL V3 Foundation
- ITIL V3 Intermediate Capability SOA, PPO, OSA, RCV
- ITIL V3 Interemediate Lifecycle SS, SD, ST, SO, CSI
- ITIL V3 Managing Across the Lifecycle
This is important to us, as we want to do the right thing AND have that independent validation of our course materials.
(and I must admit – I am very critical of the fact that we have to be accredited for ITIL Foundation programs, when people can do self study or no study and sit the exam anyway… but we want to cover all bases hence the full suite of programs.)
This is what the friendly lady on customer service told me when I quizzed ‘the other company’ on their accreditation status:
you: Who is your ITIL Foundation course accredited with?
XXX: we don’t offer credits
you: ?
you: You offer ITIL V3 Foundation
XXX: yes
you: I only want to know if your ITIL course is ACCREDITED
you: who are you accredited with
you: ?
XXX: the training is a self study course
you: yes – I understand that
you: but who is the accrediting body who approved the courseware
you: or are you using somebody else’s materials?
XXX: We use the book from OCG which is the Official Guide to ITIL v3
you: that is great – but that’s only a book
you: who authorized the coursematerials?
XXX: and the training is instructor lead training delivered thru streaming video
XXX: the training is guaranteed
XXX: its not authorized by anyone
you: yes – who is the course approved / accredited / authorized by?
XXX:and noone has ever failed the exam after doing the training withus
XXX: with us
you: are you sure? (as this is compulsory for all providers due to copyright restrictions)
XXX: yes I am sure
you: ok – thank you
Isn’t that interesting? I mean – it will be a HUGE cost saving not to have to worry about the accreditation, audits, paperwork, renewals etc.
I might need to rethink our business model … what do you think?
The future of ITIL certification : NO more ITIL V2 exams October 16, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: certification, exam, EXIN, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL V3, itsm, the art of service
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I am packing up as my stay in Cairns has finished. The last 2 days were very good – I was invited to attend the EXIN partner event to hear about the direction EXIN is going to take in the future.
As always the presentations are mostly marketing and sales from EXIN to the training providers, but I did learn a few things that may be of interest to non-trainers as well:
1) Of all exams taken, approx. 40% are still ITIL V2 exams.
I was quite amazed at this number as my assumption was a lot lower percentage. We still have clients, in Europe and the Middle East mainly, who prefer ITIL ITIL “>V2 to ITIL V3 but I was not aware that this number is this high.
2) APMG / OGC are alledgedly taking the V2 exams out of production
The current understanding is that the ITIL ITIL “>V2 Foundation exam will no longer be available after June 2010 and that the ITIL V2 Practitioner exams and ITIL V2 Manager exams will be phased out between June and December 2010. There will still be the option for resits until somewhere in early 2011 but no new exams will be issued.
So when I take both of these together, that means that 40% of the market must change certification strategies.. OR we are going to lose that part of the market because these companies take an “ITIL V2 of nothing” approach.
Don’t like your job? How about this one?… must be better than implementing ITIL Processes! October 14, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: improvement, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL V3, itsm, massage, model, quality, service, service management
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On facebook there is a video going around about a massage therapist complaining about the fact that he has to massage beautiful models all day – every day.
Sort of reminded me of my experience with IT people (sometimes). In my opinion ITIL consultants and IT Professionals have the best job in the world! We get to improve the way businesses work – and we get to play with some serious toys. We get access to the latest and greatest and still…. still most IT professionals complain!
WHY?
I think that no matter what type of job you have after a while it gets normal.. same with this guy: he sees beautiful models all day, every day… it is normal. That becomes his reference frame and he complains.
We can learn from this in relation to our IT Service Management Framework as well: not matter how sophisticated our service is.. eventually our clients will start complaining about it. When our clients get used to the level of service they start to poke holes in other areas of our service delivery.
This is the exact reason why the ITIL framework has a lifecycle phase called “Continual Service Improvement” as this phase keeps ahead of what clients want and need. the activities in this lifecycle phase help to keep the service fresh and up to scratch so that the clients ar continually reminded of the fact that we achieve our service levels and deliver a fantastic service!
Which ITIL lifecycle phase interacts with the clients? October 11, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: change management, customer, customer service, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL V3, itsm
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The ITIL Framework is based around IT Service Management (so basically the activities that need to be done to create, deliver and manage IT Services).
As the focus is on the management of services it is of vital importance to stay in constant contact with your clients, every phase in the Service Lifecycle focuses on customer interaction.
For Example:
Service Strategy – Demand Management needs to listen to the clients to figure out what the Patterns of Business Activity are. What is it that the client needs from IT in terms of service types and support?
Service Design – This phase has processes like Service Level Management and Service Catalog Management. The Service Catalog has a business component to help clients make appropriate decisions in relation to the type of services they wish to purchase. This phase also starts the creation of a Service Design Package which features User Acceptance criteria.
Service Transition – This phase interacts with the customers about changes to the Services and Service Experience. Change Management will interact with the clients for high impact changes as their input is important in the assessment and authorization of changes.
Service Operation – This phase interacts mainly with the End-users of the service as this is the phase where all day-to-day activities take place. The Service Desk is the first point of contact between the business community and the IT Group.
Continual Service Improvement – This phase needs clear direction from the business and as such interacts with the customers in relation to vision, mission and strategy. Customer Satisfaction surveys are usually initiated from this phase in the lifecycle.
See? Every phase interacts with the clients and end-users at various levels. The IT group can’t work in isolation (anymore…) and needs to know exactly what it needs to deliver to the customers to what level of expectations.
Comment on Tweet from Majid Iqbal [ @majidiqbal ] September 24, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: business, certification, EXIN, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL V3, the art of service, value
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Majid wrote the following tweet on the 17th of September:
Call for re-write is for benefit of ITIL training industry; not necessarily for advancement of current best practice. Tails wagging dogs.
This may be so for a few influential players who will be involved with the re-write but most training organisations out there will be disadvantaged (yet again) by this update. It will most likely mean that the training provider has to update course materials, review practice exam questions and spend time understanding what these changes mean in the context of the entire framework.
It means another investment into the knowledge of the ITIL trainers, who will need non-billable time to digest the changes and update their materials.
It also means that the market has to deal with another level of confusion: when you did your Foundation exam for ITIL V3, does this mean you will need to do an update session to the new-ish version before you commence your Intermediate programs?
It also means that the exams will have to be updated, with all quality learning curve issues that appears to be the standard (if history repeats itself)…
So with all due respect – I don’t think that there are many training providers out there who are very happy with this result.
As an ITSM Professional I think that this review is a good thing for the advancement of current best practice – we all know that it could do with a few improvements! But as training provider I cringe at the additional workload that’s coming our way… again.
BREAKING NEWS – ITIL V4 is already for sale (TiC) September 23, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: book, itil, ITIL V3, ogc
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After all the discussion about the refresh of the refresh of ITIL V3 you can imagine the surprise I got this morning when I saw this in an online bookshop:
itil Version 4 (itil)[Paperback] |
|
|---|---|
| By Ogc | |
| List Price : | $199.50 |
| Min Price : | $132.59 |
Not everybody might find this funny, but it made me laugh!
Oh, and when you look back in the list they have for sale – there is also an itil version 5 and 6 if remember correctly.
But seriously – The current version of the ITIL framework is ITIL V3 which consists of 5 core volumes:
- Service Strategy
- Service Design
- Service Transition
- Service Operations
- Continual Service Improvement
OGC (the owner of the framework) has just announced that a refresh of this version will take place to rectify some mistakes, but the current version is still version 3.
ITIL pop quiz: Remember what Sharon Taylor said in October 2008? September 22, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: change management, IT Service Management, ITIL V3, service management
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The answer: There will be no ITIL V4
Ok – it is now nearly 12 months later and so far there is no talk about ITIL V4, or is there?….
The IT Skeptic was one of the first globally to find the announcement from OGC about the review of the current version of ITIL. Mind you – OGC has not given a timeframe in which all this is supposed to happen
Reason given for this review is:
The core guidance will be updated in response to issues raised
via the Change Control Log and from criticism of inconsistencies
in both the content and structure of the five titles. The update
will include corrections to the manuals based on responses to
issues raised in the Change Control Log, such as clarification of
diagrams and concepts, and other general incremental
improvements.
Additionally, user feedback and feedback from the training
community indicate that the Service Strategy publication
is difficult to understand. The text needs to be made more
accessible by using simpler language, so that all the concepts
remain the same but are explained in a clearer manner. The
readability is to be improved by a technical edit that will involve
rewording but not necessarily rewriting the whole text.
The ITIL pyramid scheme September 20, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: certification, exam, EXIN, ITIL V3, the art of service, value
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One of the entries in our ITIL Experience Book talks about the “Pyramid Scheme” for the ITIL V3 Certifications.
He probably referred to the way the certification scheme is illustrated
the official qualification scheme
APMG probably didn’t mean to have people talk about this qualification scheme as a ‘pyramid scheme’ but a lot of discussion is happening in offices around the world about the investment required to do the certification Programs.
This has been one of the drivers for The Art of Service to develop the entire qualification pathway as eLearning Programs. You go through fully accredited course materials, supported by ITIL Expert Trainers, at a fraction of the classroom price.
You can achieve your entire ITIL Expert qualification through our eLearning programs, which are accredited by EXIN.
Do you get PDU credits when you enrol in ITIL V3 eLearning Programs? September 17, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: exam, EXIN, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL expert, ITIL V3, itsm, the art of service, value
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Many of our students are registered with PMI and because of this, they are interested in the PDU values.
After you complete your eLearning Program you receive a certificate of completion. This certificate has our company name on it and the contact hour equivalent of the program.
For example:
ITIL Foundation eLearning is equivalent to 18 contact hours
ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle eLearning is equivalent to 21 contact hours
What most students do is forward a copy of the certificate to PMI to get the PDU’s approved.
There is curently also a discussion going on about this exact question in a Linkedin Group:
“I heard on the AOS Foundations forum that PMPs can get 17 PDUs for the v3 Foundations cert.
Did any PMP’s here get this credit? Can you confirm the number of PDUs and which Category Code was used?”
-Manish Gupta: I applied for 16 PDUs against the ITIL V3 e-learning program under category 4. And, it was accepted.
- Christopher Little: I have since passed my exam and received 18 PDU’s for the ITIL v3 Foundation cert under Category 4. TAOS does indeed put them on their certificates.
So go ahead – enrol in an eLearning class.. it has the same end result as the classroom programs, at a fraction of the cost!
Mind your language! August 28, 2009
Posted by ivankamenken in itil, itsm.Tags: customer, IT Service Management, itil, ITIL V3, itsm, service management
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This week I’m sitting in on an ITIL V3 Foundation course and it’s funny how you see things differently when you’re not the one standing in front of a group.
One thing that really hit me this week is how pedantic we must be as ITIL trainers in the use of our language. The students need to know the exact process names for their exam. So it is ‘IT Service Continuity Management’ rather than ‘Continuity Management’, and it is ‘Service Asset and Configuration Management’ rather than ‘Configuration Management’.
Yes, it will come across as pedantic – but that’s what we need to be. Attending an ITIL Foundation program is like learning a new language. The trainer has to know and speak that language fluently.
But what happens when you come back into your workplace after you’ve attended the Foundation program? Will you continue to speak the new language? Does the Service Desk deal with ‘incidents’ and not Problems or issues? And does this language make sense in your job?
Part of creating a culture in an organization is making sure we all live and breathe our core values, that we speak the same language and are consistent in our delivery of the message. By doing this we create a consistent experience for our clients and internal employees. People know what to expect and as a result see you as a trusted partner for IT Services.
