ITIL

Hi,

More job offers in the UK seem to mention ITIL as one of the requirement they want. I understand its some king of official guidence for how an IT department should be run/managed. SLA, standards etc.

Has anyone completed one of these ( the foundation exam or other ) or is part of a company that uses this/is accredited?

Any info would be good. Is it worth persuing?

Cheers

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Webmaster

I used to work at a company were ITIL foundation was a requirement for all employees. I studied for it, but never took the exam. Most of it was plain logic, especially once you get the terminology down. The follow-up certs were supposed to be quite a bit harder. That was about 6-7 years ago though. I'm sure ITIL evolved. There are some more or less recent topics in these forums about ITIL:

www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10521

www.techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14039

Munck

I'm "ITIL Foundation" certified. I went to one of the official courses, as my employer is to implement some of the domains. The test was one of the easiest I have ever taken. If you can get you hands on some study material, I see no reason to sit for the official course. Good luck

royal

Munck wrote:

I'm "ITIL Foundation" certified. I went to one of the official courses, as my employer is to implement some of the domains. The test was one of the easiest I have ever taken. If you can get you hands on some study material, I see no reason to sit for the official course. Good luck

This sounds good. My company has some study material and is requiring me to do the study material. I'm doing my 284 really soon and afterwards, I am to begin my ITIL. They are not requiring me to do my exam, however. If the exam is as easy as you state, I might just go take the exam after I do the preparation for it.

amyamandaallen

thanks for replys

I know I should get on with my MCSA but brains a bit fried and I think this might bump me to the top of the CV piles in some cases.

Any recommended books?

malcybood

My company are in the process of going through an ITIL Maturity Assessment to become ITIL Compliant.

We had a couple of consultants in that were explaining what ITIL was and the driving message was "to make things easier for you". It involves as previously mentioned in earlier posts the introduction of processes such as Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management and some other types of Management to do with "Service Desk" systems/Processes and ensuring that the business has the correct tools/resources to do it.

There is loads of stuff on Google about ITIL, Problem Management, Change Management etc so have a look.

It is highly sought after in the UK especially for IT/Service Delivery Manager positions though so it's worth getting certified by going on the foundation/practitioner course.

amyamandaallen

well this seems to be the 'bible' for ITIL ( though the review seem not too keen

anyone know if there is anyway to get a discount/code for the exam as Im paying for it myself

Kaminsky

ITIL is just best practices for support including how you deal with a fault call, keeping track of equipment, that sort of thing. Pretty much along the lines of a conciencious IT Support person.

The reason I think it is being sought after is as a way of employers trying to find good support workers and covering their backside against the "how good is your helpdesk" kind of situation. Say you know of a neighbour who "fixes PCs" and you have another person with an A+ certification. Now both of them may be able to deal with PC Support problems most admirably but from a hiring prospective, the A+ pretty much says that they definately can fix PCs.

I recently had an interview and was questioned about ITIL. I have an extensive background in Support and I just said that I had looked through it and it just seemed like common sense to me. They were very happy with that answer. I got the job offer but had to turn it down once I found out about the weird shift work.

If you have an opportunity to get certified in it, get it unless you can prove a long track record of good support work. Can only work in your favour.

amyamandaallen

have bought the book and company have agreed to pay for the exam ( SUCKERS )

although this SHOULD be very boring management type jargon it actually is quite enlightening. it makes you realise that companies that implement this are probably better to work for as you/they have an idea what you are supposed to be doing. also provide any relevent product training to ensure you can provide relevent product support. also recomends that IT management/HR ensure they reward and promote the staff they already have if they provide the agreed service levels.

Kaminsky

amyamandaallen wrote:

although this SHOULD be very boring management type jargon it actually is quite enlightening. it makes you realise that companies that implement this are probably better to work for as you/they have an idea what you are supposed to be doing. also provide any relevent product training to ensure you can provide relevent product support. also recomends that IT management/HR ensure they reward and promote the staff they already have if they provide the agreed service levels.

We can only hope

Edit:

I have been looking further into this and realised to study this off your own back is very expensive. The books alone are a fortune. Even the initial course book is about £60 (*1.9) roughly $110 and thats without the exam.

This is definately one of those that you get sent on by the company I would geuss.

I've seen some test questions and it's very common sense if you have been in IT support for any length of time.
ie if user has a problem with a new network implementation who should they report it to initially?
a) Network Manager
b) Support Manager
C) IT Director
D) Helpdesk

Yes having this would fit well in a resume but too expensive too get on your own unless you have the money to spare.

Will have a look around the net for some PDFs books about it.

amyamandaallen

If you read the book its actually alot more deep than that. The foundation exam shows you know the principles and framework.

Heres the recommended book ( about £26 ) avoid the 'official' ones, as even ITIL doesnt recommend this

try http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Service-Management-English-version/dp/9077212582/sr=11-1/qid=1170063461/ref=sr_11_1/104-5353398-5505529

Good luck

strauchr

Gees it has been ages since I have posted here, mainly because I've been on a break from study certs. Time to get back into it soon.

Anyways, on topic, I can confirm the above book is worthwhile getting and will give you everything you need to know to pass the exam as its the one I have used to get my certification.

Just to help with any doubts.

Webmaster

strauchr wrote:

Gees it has been ages since I have posted here, mainly because I've been on a break from study certs. Time to get back into it soon.

Welcome back strauchr

sprkymrk

Webmaster wrote:

strauchr wrote:

Gees it has been ages since I have posted here, mainly because I've been on a break from study certs. Time to get back into it soon.

Welcome back strauchr

Nice to see you again!

strauchr

Thanks guys.

plettner

I completed my ITIL Foundations exam last December.

Whether it's worth it or not I think it is.

There'll be a lot of IT companies such as CSC and IBM Global that will tender for work to banks, government, etc. A lot of the organisations (i.e. banks, government) will expect the tenderer to be ITIL "certified" through various standards. This will mean the employees will need some sort of training and/or certification.

Personally, I have applied for a goochie job which required ITIL certification (only a week or so ago). I am yet to hear if I get an interview.

zebra-3

plettner wrote:

I completed my ITIL Foundations exam last December.

Whether it's worth it or not I think it is.

There'll be a lot of IT companies such as CSC and IBM Global that will tender for work to banks, government, etc. A lot of the organisations (i.e. banks, government) will expect the tenderer to be ITIL "certified" through various standards. This will mean the employees will need some sort of training and/or certification.

Personally, I have applied for a goochie job which required ITIL certification (only a week or so ago). I am yet to hear if I get an interview.

Could you tell us more about the exam ? what to expect, ie length of the exam and difficulty of questions.
thanks

amyamandaallen

From what I understand there is 40 multiple choice questions, and you have to get 65% or above to pass ( 26 right ). I presume you can mark these for review, the same as MS ones and go back? Exam length is 1 hour

Everyone tells me that this should be easy. Its not technical more of a massive flow chart to understand what interacts with what. Its quite interesting but can get mindnumbing as its a lot of jargon.

Did the first lot of questions from the book above and maybe got half right. Some seemed so obvious BUT other times unless you think their way you get the answer wrong.

Definate seems to be a wanted skill now http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/itil.do

it my foundation exam on the 8th of march

plettner

amyamandaallen wrote:

From what I understand there is 40 multiple choice questions, and you have to get 65% or above to pass ( 26 right ). I presume you can mark these for review, the same as MS ones and go back? Exam length is 1 hour

Yes, that's correct.

zebra-3 wrote:

Could you tell us more about the exam ? what to expect, ie length of the exam and difficulty of questions.
thanks

The focus is on the flow of incidents and changes from start to finish. For example, a question might be: The network cards used in all your company's computers needs to be replaced. Which of following is repsonsible for the replacement of the NICs.
1: Change Management
2: Incident Management
3: Service Desk
4: Resource Management

There's always a stupid answer (like option 4). But the others need to be looked at more closely.

Other questions might be: What is the role of CAB?
1. Organise meetings
2. Authorise changes
3. Advise change management
4. Maintain the CMDB

So you need to know "jargon" and terms and also worklfow practices.

I purchased a practice Exam from Self-test Software. EX0-100. This is a good representation of the one from Exin.

Kaminsky

Where can you sit these exams?

What are the different test numbers etc ?

Anyone have a good link ?

I have found lots of sites selling training but not any where you can study at home and then go certify yourself.

Incidentally: I was speaking to an old colleague of mine recently who's organisation's IT dept put him on the first ITIL course for a week but he couldn't go on it in the end as the HR department wouldn't pay for his hotel costs and expenses. They lost the initial money for the course because of it. There is a reason why I don't work for that organisation any more.

amyamandaallen

prometric or VUE do them but not all sites host the exam. look for either exin or espb?

plettner

Kaminsky wrote:

Where can you sit these exams?

What are the different test numbers etc ?

Anyone have a good link ?

www.exin-exams.com/

amyamandaallen

For this one be prepared for boredom around 3/4 of the way through....

Dont get me wrong, I like it and its interesting......BUT without having anything to do hands on, watch, break, fix, but just page after page of management jargon and processes it does get rather mundane.

I've got to drag myself through another 40 pages and I just hear homers bla , bla , bla , blah , bla....... ( I've actually had to break to read a starwars novels first 90 pages in between, daft really, as I have the exam on less than 2 weeks.

Oh well back to the book....hope this certs worth it on my resume

( in truth I've learnt quite a bit )

Bring on 291! Im looking forward to the beast ( maybe I could give it the ITIL book and bore the poor creature to death )

janmike

Well, it's sure thing now. Our Helpdesk group will be taking "formal training" for ITIL certification. Our manager announced this Wednesday at our monthly group meeting. She and the Information Services Director will be taking training in the near future, and then the techs and phone coordinators will go for it.

In addition, we will eventually become Servicedesk, Deskside Support and will no longer call ourselves Helpdesk. Our manager reports that she has experienced a certain stigma concerning the term Helpdesk at conferences and meetings, but when she started using the term servicedesk, people became much more receptive to her comments.

I personally think that the expense for formal training needs to be spent in some formal training on application support--something more than just the reset of a password. Or, on documentation for supporting users.

Anyway, it appears that there are exciting(lol) times coming for us.

Good luck, amyamandaallen![/i]

Kaminsky

amyamandaallen wrote:

For this one be prepared for boredom around 3/4 of the way through....

Dont get me wrong, I like it and its interesting......BUT without having anything to do hands on, watch, break, fix, but just page after page of management jargon and processes it does get rather mundane.

I've got to drag myself through another 40 pages and I just hear homers bla , bla , bla , blah , bla....... ( I've actually had to break to read a starwars novels first 90 pages in between, daft really, as I have the exam on less than 2 weeks.

Oh well back to the book....hope this certs worth it on my resume ( in truth I've learnt quite a bit )

Bring on 291! Im looking forward to the beast ( maybe I could give it the ITIL book and bore the poor creature to death )

If after you have done that, you get the next one up which is for support managers + you will be laughing at interviews. That's if you don't bleed from the ears and eyes first whilst studying it
.

amyamandaallen

FINALLY finished reading it.

Not many places to get revision questions as such only whats in the back of the book(

got approx 86% )

Roll on next thursday!

drakhan2002

I took the 2 day class and took the test. It is not necessarily a hard class. The test SUCKS...and it is HARD. You get a 40 question test and you need to a 26/40 to pass. I can see why so many people fail it. The material in the books do not map well to the questions on the test.

Good luck if you're self studying. I don't think I could have passed without taking a class.

amyamandaallen

Well thats ITIL foundation done!

Only took me 25 mins to complete ( from the hour )

This is a VERY straightforward exam if you are a logical thinker and read ( and understand ) the book I mentioned earlier in this thread you will pass .

Still avoiding the beast!

drakhan2002

amyamandaallen wrote:

Well thats ITIL foundation done!

Congrats! Welcome to the club!

malcybood

May have missed it but what book did you use......you got an ISBN?

Cheers

Malc

amyamandaallen

Heres the recommended book ( about £26 ) avoid the 'official' ones, as even ITIL doesnt recommend this try http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Service-Management-English-version/dp/9077212582/sr=11-1/qid=1170063461/ref=sr_11_1/104-5353398-5505529