ITIL 4 education; The story so far and what’s next?
- Date: 30 October, 2019
ITIL 4 education has been undergoing its slow reveal for almost 12 months now. As the process is passing the halfway point I’m committing my own and Global Knowledge’s thoughts to print. I’d also like to share with you some tips for continuing your ITIL education journey.
Foundation – a true bedrock
I’ll admit I have been surprised by a number of aspects of the ITIL4 foundation story since its release in February 2019. First has been the almost instantaneous abandonment of ITIL v3 foundation. I’m thinking that the fact that you can still sit ITIL v3 intermediates classes with the ITIL 4 foundation qualification coupled to the 13 year wait for ‘something new’ at this level may be key contributors to that situation. Second has been the strength of the support for the new ways of thinking introduced in the ITIL 4 texts. All those rumours of ITIL’s demise have been grossly exaggerated!
ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition – the ‘next level expert’ one
Just released as I put virtual pen to paper the ITIL 4 Managing Professional provides those of you who already hold the ITIL v3 expert (or have 17 points under the ITIL v3 scheme) with a transition to the ITIL 4 Managing Professional designation. It is a wide ranging 4.5 day course covering many of the new concepts for those who are already in all probability ITIL devotees. Particularly useful is the extended opportunity to discuss how to improve based on the new guidelines.
ITIL 4 Specialist Create, Deliver, Support (CDS) – the ‘core ITSM’ one
We’re going in December 2019 with this the first of four ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition titles. As with all “next level” ITIL 4 courses, the ITIL 4 foundation qualification is a pre-requisite. CDS provides you with an understanding of how to integrate different value streams and activities to create, deliver and support IT-enabled products and services, and relevant practices, methods and tools. It gives you an understanding of service performance, service quality and improvement methods. This is the must have course for any individual either in a support role or architecting new services.
ITIL 4 Strategist Direct, Plan, Improve (DPI) – the ‘don’t try to adopt ITIL 4 without it’ one
Alongside CDS we will be releasing DPI. It affords you the practical skills necessary to create a ‘learning and improving’ IT organization, with a strong and effective strategic direction. It provides practitioners with a practical and strategic method for planning and delivering continual improvement with the necessary agility. Without doubt this is the pre-cursor to any improvement programme.
ITIL 4 Specialist Drive Stakeholder Value (DSV) – the ‘collaboration and co-creation of value’ one
In early 2020 we will release the DSV course. This is for you if you want to understand of all types of engagement and interactions between a service provider and their customers, users, suppliers and partners, including key CX, UX and journey mapping concepts. Having spent much time in this area in my career I’m really looking forward to helping to develop Global Knowledge’s courseware for this offering.
ITIL 4 High Velocity IT (HVIT) – the ‘end-to-end go faster stripes’ one
When DSV takes to the stage it will be co-starring with HVIT. If your future includes understanding the ways in which digital organizations and digital operating models function in high velocity environments then this is your course. It focuses on rapid delivery of products & services to obtain maximum value. This promises to be an exciting course with an eclectic mix of concepts drawn from DevOps, Lean, Agile, Cynefin and ITSM presented as guidance to speed up time to value in your digital capability.
There’s always a pipeline
There are other courses in the Axelos ITIL pipeline which we know less about at the moment. The key title is the Digital and IT Strategy (DITS) which is likely to arrive later in H1 of 2020. DITS will be the second element of the ITIL Strategic Leader. We are also hearing very early rumours of an extra exciting ITIL title covering ‘Ethics and Sustainability’
