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
