ITIL study system that has worked well for me

genxfinalrevision

This is how I am going to put that $25 a month subscription at GoGoTraining.com to good use (first 500 subscribers get the courses for $25 a month). This is not an endorsement or an ad. I have no affiliation, this is just something that has worked for me on other exams and I feel it’s worth sharing.

There are both Service Lifecycle and Capability courses...all of them. This is beneficial because the Lifecycle video series are mapped almost identically to the actual ITIL books. FYI - if you don't want to risk a $300 exam, purchase and read the ITIL publication for each Lifecycle.

This is my system – a huge caveat is that I have worked in IT Service Management for a long time and in many different roles (Incident and Problem; Knowledge and Change; Service Desk) so I have experiences that map to many of the concepts but as you can see, those are all in either Service Operation (IcM and PbM) or Transition (KM and ChM). I haven’t worked directly in CSI and a lot of people shy away from that one because it is further away from what they do on a daily basis. I did very well on the exam without having years of CSI (except that CSI is sort of everywhere) by following a cadence that I will detail later.

ITIL publications are kinda generic for the first few chapters (introduction and SM as a Practice). Read them anyway (I don’t but it’d be shitty advice to say, “don’t read them”). Anyway, starting at chapter 4, you have the Lifecycle’s processes. The Lifecycle video series is often in the exact same order. I’ll include a table for clarity based on the Service Transition Lifecycle:

ITIL 2011 Service Transition Chapter 4


ST book section
ST video duration in minutes
ST book number of pages


Transition planning and support
19
10


Change management
24
20
28


Service asset and configuration management
23
13
25


Release and deployment management
13
23
36


Service validation and testing
10
13
12
25


Change evaluation
17

6


Knowledge management
17
18



The longest video session would be ~45 minutes. The longest reading section would be 36 minutes. One could easily tackle a process area a day in terms on both reading and video or do just read a section one day and watch the video the next.

This of course is only mapping the core process sections but that’s the meat. And the videos often map to the other sections of the boo also…I just didn’t go all in on the example.

So after this, I have not even mentioned the Capability videos which are based on a more practical application end of the corresponding Lifecycle module. In this instance, we would have the Release, Control, and Validation video series. I will paste the contents below and you should see how you could easily add the videos here into your training mix:

[Could not paste image]

If you break your trainings out and go with like a video- reading- video, or reading-video-video cadence, you’ll be able to sit the exams once you learn how to actually take one of these tests. I’ll cover that in another write up someday. I really haven’t scored below a 95% on any of these exams – it’s just about taking a systematic approach and tackling them through attrition.

Last thing I will say (again). Purchase the ITIL publications and read them. In fact, these are the only books that I use for each exam:
1- ITIL Lifecycle Publication
2- ITIL Key Element Guide (the $15 one that is just the bullet points of the core publication…leave this off if you are on a budget…it is a pretty neat thing to thumb through the day of the exam.
3- Non-ITIL/Axelos title: ITIL Intermediate Certification Companion Study Guide Intermediate ITIL Service Lifecycle Exams…I’ll be real, I didn’t read all of this but it does offer a second source of information that is somewhat less dry. Also, while it does not have scenario based questions like the exam, it does have some chapter ending questions to make sure you haven’t missed the make completely.

ItsmHarun

Thanks genxfinalrevision for sharing such information.

genxfinalrevision

Thank you...I was hoping I didn't sound like a salesman. It's just a regimen that has benefitted me. Maybe it's because I need to hear the same things from multiple sources for it to click (at least for the life cycle modules and processes that I am less familiar with).

zidane050708

Hi genxfinalrevision! Would you advice any good books for ITIL RCV or any practice exams link? I am scheduled to take the exam next month and your help will be very much apppreciated! Thanks a lot!

Yoshii Capone

This was a great read and does give me "food for thought"...much appreciated!!