Wednesday, June 20, 2007
So I took the V3 Foundation exam
A week ago today, I took the ITIL V3 exam (my apologies, but I am always uncertain if I am to take, sit or write an exam) Anyway, this is beside the point. I can report that the exam is fair and well constructed. It is still 40 questions, 60 minutes and you need 65% (or 26 correct answers) to pass.
Of course, I cannot tell you what the questions were - I could not remember the exact wording anyway. What I can tell you is the following:
- All books are covered
- There are general questions about the framework
- All questions have 4 possible choices
- There are questions asking you something like “which of the following is NOT…”
- There are questions giving 2 statements and asking you which are correct; first, second, both or neither
- There are definition questions
- There are questions about which roles belong with which process or function
- And there are other questions as well
So why am I telling you this? Simply because the exam is no more or less difficult than the V2 exam. It is simply different as the range of topics is much wider in V3 than in V2. The V3 Foundation syllabus covers the five ITIL V3 core books, while the syllabus for the V2 exam only covers the Service Support and Service Delivery books from OGC (and the Introduction book from Van Haren if you use EXIN exams).
Now don’t panic. Yes the syllabus covers all five core books, but not all processes are covered and you won’t need to know everything about all the material. If you pay attention during class, read the material given to you by the course provider and do the sample exam you should do well on the real exam. Hey, I am not going to guarantee that everyone will pass. People usually fail the Foundation exam because a) they don’t pay attention in class, or b) they keep answering the questions from how they have always done things rather than the ITIL way. The exam is not about how you do it but rather it is about “what” ITIL is.
I have to admit that some questions were relatively simple and easy to answer. I have to admit that I was stumped at first by a few questions as well. I had to carefully read the question and the options. Sometimes, the question or the options were a bit wordy but it is the nature of the material. I was actually expecting that. What I am trying to say is that you need to take your time and read carefully.
Of course people will complain that the exam is there to trick them, that it is not about testing their knowledge, that the material was not covered in class, etc. STOP! The exam is fair, it is well constructed, it is not there to trick you and it is about testing your knowledge. PERIOD. To accomplish this the examiner has to construct the questions and the options in such a way that it will test your knowledge and comprehension of the framework. By the way, course providers usually give you a workbook and in that workbook, there is a lot of valuable information. Read the passages that you are unfamiliar with.
So very few people get 100% on these exams. The important thing is to learn and to get that certificate on your wall. You get the certificate whether you get 65% or 100% or something in between. The score does not appear on the certificate.
By the way, I will only let you know if I pass or fail. I won’t divulge my score.
Remember to enjoy the course, come in with a positive attitude and an open mind.
Question: What do they call the person who graduates with the lowest score from medical school?
Answer: Doctor. They graduated. 
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
how how does the new certification credits work?
Now that the new certification scheme has been announced by APMG, the official ITIL certification and exam provider, what does it mean?
Foundation Level
It is quite simple. There is still a V3 Foundation level course and it is worth 2 credits. For anyone holding a current ITIL V1 or V2 Foundation certificate from ISEB or EXIN (dating all the way back to the mid-1990’s), it is worth 1.5 credits.
This means that you need to attend a bridging course and pass an exam at the end to attain 0.5 credits and achieve the 2 Foundation level credits. Once you have successfully completed either the V3 Foundation course or a V2 + bridging course, you may proceed to the next level of certification.
Intermediate Level
The Intermediate level contains two streams: Service Capability and Service Lifecycle. Here is how it works.
The Service Capability stream is akin to the existing clustered practitioner courses. Theses courses will be worth 4 credits each and there are four courses to choose from, which are:
• Service Portfolio & Relationship Management
• Service Design & Optimization
• Service Monitoring & Control
• Service Operation & Support
The single process practitioner courses are worth 1 credit each. These are still available from ISEB, but are no longer offered by EXIN. If you hold a clustered practitioner, such as ITIL Practitioner: Release and Control (IPRC), ITIL Practitioner: Support and Restore (IPSR), ITIL Practitioner: Plan and Improve (IPPI) or the ITIL Practitioner: Agree and Define (IPAD), these are worth 3.75 credits each.
The following are possible scenarios to consider at the Intermediate level:
Scenario 1: You complete and pass all four Service Capability certification courses, giving you 16 credits + 2 for Foundation = 18 credits
Scenario 2: You complete all four existing ITIL V2 clustered practitioners, giving you 15 credits + 2 for Foundation = 17 credits
Scenario 3: You complete a mixture of V2 and V3 clustered certification; however, they can not be the same topics, such as Service Operation and IPSR (that would be too easy, as they will cover the same material)
For those of you who are more interested in a deeper understanding of each of the five core V3 volumes from a management perspective, the Service Lifecycle stream is for you. There will be a course for each book (with an exam) and each course will be worth 3 credits. If you complete all five courses, you now have 15 credits + 2 Foundation credits = 17 credits.
It is also possible for you to mix and match courses from both streams. In this case, don’t worry about taking courses that cover all the books. This will not be necessary, as there will be one course to tie everything together: the Managing Through the Lifecycle course, which is worth 5 credits.
This course is mandatory to achieve the ITIL Diploma. You will need a minimum of 17 credits before you can attend this course, and providing you pass the exam, you will reach the magical number of 22 credits to receive your ITIL Diploma.
For those of us who hold the Service Manager certification, we only need to take a V3 Manager bridging course and pass the exam in order to be awarded the ITIL Diploma. There is no need to take a practitioner course or a course in any of the two new streams unless you want to.
Advanced Level
Finally, the Advanced Level Diploma will assess an individual’s ability to apply and analyze the ITIL V3 concepts in new areas. This higher Diploma has not been developed at this stage.
Please see APMG’s website (http://www.apmgroup.co.uk) for more details on the qualification scheme.
The only unknown with all this is how it will be received by you in the industry. Please let me know what you plan on doing.