Passed APMG Change Analyst

eMeSeMeS Member Posts: 1,875 ■■■■■■■■■□
This week found me heading to London and back in order to attend a 1-day Train the Trainer session for a new APMG class that is soon to be released. The big news this week out here are all of the public service and military cuts that are happening. Who even knew the UK had its own military, how cute! :)

The new class is called "Change Analyst", and it's part of a series of forthcoming classes to include "Problem Analyst" and "Service Level Analyst". The Change Analyst class focuses on all of the activities expected of a change analyst in an organization. I was asked to take this on behalf of one of my customers, who expects to soon have demand for this in the US.

The class that I attended was only a 1-day overview session. When the real class is released in about a month it will be a 3-day class. One of the things that I found interesting about it is that the students build a workbook of exercises throughout the class. This is not handed in, however, it is a requirement that it be completed before the end of class. The class is much more practical that I expected.

The exam occurs at the end of the class, and it's a 20 question multiple choice exam. Real students will need to get 13 correct out of 20 to pass. The exam that I took was a first pass and will likely be revised; I scored 16 of 20 for the pass. Currently only 5 people in the world hold this credential.

There is also a plan to release some classes that focus on the higher-level roles, such as Change Manager. Those will likely be released sometime in 2011.

If you has asked me before attending this class what my expectations were I would have said something along the lines of the "the last thing the ITIL world needs is more certifications". However, after attending this class I'm left with the impression that APMG is indeed listening to the feedback that they're receiving from students and working to introduce more practical courses in service management. I left very impressed.

MS

Comments

  • Claire AgutterClaire Agutter Member Posts: 772 ■■■■■■■□□□
    Congratulations! That's interesting feedback as well. I wonder if the APMG certs will 'go global' more than the BCS qualifications that have just been launched.
  • eMeSeMeS Member Posts: 1,875 ■■■■■■■■■□
    Congratulations! That's interesting feedback as well. I wonder if the APMG certs will 'go global' more than the BCS qualifications that have just been launched.

    Thanks.

    I live in the US and I only flew out here so that I could deliver this class back home on behalf of my customer. I expect the demand to be enough to have 8 or so students 2 to 3 times per year. I know one of the first things that I will do is probably get a couple of other instructors trained on it.

    I get the sense that the BCS versions of these have a bit more academic leaning...is that wrong? I'm told that APMG is releasing Problem, Service Level, Supplier and others over the coming months. I suspect that these will do ok in the US market, but we'll see.

    It was a completely different experience than the other complementary that I hold, the APMG Service Catalogue. The exam for Change Analyst was much easier and was only 20 questions. I got to hang out at the "Sword House" and watch as it was graded by hand

    MS
  • Claire AgutterClaire Agutter Member Posts: 772 ■■■■■■■□□□
    How do you think it compared to the old V2 practitioners? From what I hear, the BCS qualifications are pretty similar to the practitioners.

    I think there's definitely a requirement for process-specific courses. I do wonder what will happen if all 9 EIs launch their own versions though icon_rolleyes.gif
  • eMeSeMeS Member Posts: 1,875 ■■■■■■■■■□
    How do you think it compared to the old V2 practitioners? From what I hear, the BCS qualifications are pretty similar to the practitioners.

    It was much, much easier. Even the Service Catalogue one was easier than the old practitioner exams.
    I think there's definitely a requirement for process-specific courses. I do wonder what will happen if all 9 EIs launch their own versions though icon_rolleyes.gif

    We likely share the same, or at least a similar opinion. As I said, I feel like the last thing ITIL needs is more certifications, but I think it sometimes looks like that's really all that's happening. Prism is a good example of something that really makes little or no sense to me. These complementary courses make a bit more sense, and are a step in the right direction in terms of their practicality.

    MS
  • N2ITN2IT Inactive Imported Users Posts: 7,483 ■■■■■■■■■■
    MS well done!

    Thanks for the information!
Sign In or Register to comment.