Ahhh good old ITIL
ITIL V2 exams will shortly be coming to an end. V2 was based on 10 Processes and 1 function. These were split into Service Support (Incident, Problem, Change, Configuration and Release process and also the Service Desk function) and Service Delivery (Service Level Management, Financial Management of IT, Capacity Management, IT Service Continuity and Availability Management).
The V2 exams are:
Foundation Level which was a 1hr 40 question multi-choice exam after a short classroom/online training course, not sure of the pass mark, but having worked for a few large out-sourcing companies it took me all of 10 minutes to whizz through the test and score 39/40. Some people found it hard and were mainly from the public sector as they had not really come across this way of thinking/working before (Just my opinion!). This was referred to as 'Green Badge' ITIL
Practitioner Level: For this you can do either each process seperately or as a cluster of processes (depending on the training provider). Only have experience of putting people on this course, but it was a three day instructor led classroom course, the exam consists of a 1-hour multiple choice paper consisting of 25 questions and a 1 hour 15 minute written assignment based on a scenario you are given at the start of your course. This gives you a 'Purple' badge if you pass the exam. You can take as many processes as you want.
Managers Level: What can i say, the most painful 2 weeks of my life! It's a 2 week course where you do Service Support one week, then Service Delivery the next. Followed by a couple of days of revision and going over the scenario that the exam is based on. After that it's onto the 2 x 3hr written exams, where you are asked 5 questions in each exam on each of the processes, it may be scenario based or may be purely on the process. You need 50% pass on BOTH exams to gain the certification, and 60% on each to gain a distinction! (Grrr, poxy 59% on Service Support!
) I would say these exams were easily the hardest exams i have taken since 'A' Levels, i think i averaged 50 sides of A4 for each exam.
V3 is the 'New' ITIL, based around lifecycles covers
- Service Strategy
- Service Design
- Service Transition
- Service Operation
- Continual Service Improvement
It gives you more of an insight into what is actually involved from evaluation of ITIL as a service management methodolgy to actually implementing it and using it on a day/day basis. Something V2 was severely lacking in. Not done the exams yet, but would hazard a guess it would be
Foundation - 1hr Multi Choice testing basics of ITIL
Intermediate - Lifecycle Stream & Capability Stream - total of 9 seperate exams each of which are sat seperately much like the old practitioner, you don't have to take all 9
. I would guess they are going to be a using a harder multi-choice exam (Sat my MSP a while back and instead of options A-D you had options A-I with lots of true/false statements etc)
Diploma - You need the foundation level, a few of the intermediate levels and then a further exam to reach a certain number of ITIL points to gain the qualification. You can also get this by having V2 managers and doing a bridging course to V3.
Advanced Diploma - Bsaically write a book on ITIL and know the right people!
only kidding, it's not bee developed yet, but would expect very few people to get to this level.
With regards Prince2, it is 'owned' by the same government agency, the OGC, so can be used/tailored to implement ITIL if you don't already have a project management methodology in your organisation. I didn't find the exams too bad, but i know some have struggled (my latest PM has not passed and is resitting next month). From that, you can do MSP (Managing Succesful Programmes) again from OGC which uses a portfolio of Prince2 projects (if you have no Project methodology) to deliver benefits in a programme. You can then also use M_o_R (Management of Risk) again from OGC to manage risks associated with Projects and Programmes - See where i am going with this???
It's all very OGC'ish isn't it! Prince2, MSP and M_o_R are all available at different levels, usually at least foundation and practitioner.
Jobs are plenty, can be anything from Service Desk people to change analysts, to release managers, to capacity managers to Service Delivery Managers etc. Just put in ITIL into Jobserve and look through the jobs on offer, it's countless. Again, wages differ so much also, from £10 to £100k depending on what you are doing.
/edit PS, can you tell my line of work?
. I actually found it quite interesting so I'm now looking for a job which will involve it.
