ITIL Certification – What Does It Involve?
ITIL stands for the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, and essentially offers companies a framework for managing IT services that will make their company stronger. It is a stronger management system than just having an IT department alone, and it provides many benefits. Some of these benefits include being able to allocate appropriate resources by separating administrative tasks from technical tasks, a better measurement of technical performance, being able to access more documents and templates, as well as many more. ITIL can be used for any company that relies on an IT department, which is basically every successful business.
To become ITIL certified involves enrolling into an accredited training program that teaches all of the information that an ITIL professional needs to know. There are six parts to ITIL, including: service support, service delivery, planning to implement service management, ICT infrastructure management, applications management, and the business perspective. Courses will be based upon these different disciplines.
V3 Certification
The V3 is the most current version of the ITIL and is more business-based than IT-based. Certification consists of four different levels, and is credit-based. This means that students must gain a certain number of credits at each level in order to advance to the next level. The four levels are foundation, intermediate, expert, and master. For each level, there are only a few mandatory courses and the rest are electives that are chosen by the student often based on their job titles. The first two levels are made for everyone in IT to take in order to understand the terminology. The expert level is more for those in management positions who are going to implement the ITIL processes, and the master level is for those who are going to be teaching the processes.
Foundation Certification
This certification entitles the student to understand the basic terminology and knowledge of ITIL, and is also the prerequisite to the next level of certification. The exit exam for this level is comprised of a multiple choice exam. The training program is open to anyone who is interested in learning about ITIL to benefit themselves in their career or just interested in the subject.
Certification Path
In order to be ITIL certified as a master, students must first past the first three levels. The foundation level must be passed, followed by the intermediate level, then the expert level, and finally the master level. The ITIL V3 system is based on a point level, and the foundation level has 2 points from passing the exit exam.
The next level can earn either 15 or 16 credits by passing the exams for either Lifecycle or Capability courses. This level is more for those who want a deeper understanding of ITIL. The Lifecycle courses are: service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continual service improvement. The Capability courses are: operational support and analysis; service offerings and agreement; release, control and validation; and planning, protection, and optimization.
The expert level involves receiving 22 credits and does not require an exam. Essentially, after passing the courses in the intermediate level, the student becomes an expert. However, 5 of the 22 credits come from taking a course called Managing Across the Lifestyle.
The last and most prestigious level is the master level. Students in this level will be assessed on how well they can implement and manage ITIL and ITSM (Information Technology Service Management) issues.
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