ITSM Professor

Every ITIL (Version 5) Class. One Trusted Training Partner.

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 19:00:00 +0000

Build the knowledge, credentials, and confidence to move from Foundation to ITIL Master.

With ITIL (Version 5), professionals can now develop deeper capabilities across digital products, services, experience, transformation, strategy, AI governance, and the operational practices that support reliable service delivery.

And ITSM Academy is ready with the full portfolio.

Whether you are beginning with Foundation, updating an existing ITIL certification, building toward a Managing Professional or Strategic Leader designation, or planning your complete journey to ITIL Master, we can support you in every step of your journey.

ITIL (Version 5) Foundation

Foundation introduces the essential concepts, language, principles, and models used throughout ITIL (Version 5), with an increased emphasis on digital product and service management (DPSM).

Upcoming Virtual Instructor-Led classes open for enrollment:

📅 September 15-18, 2026

📅 December 1-4, 2026

ITIL Managing Professional

The ITIL Managing Professional stream builds practical capabilities for designing, delivering, managing, and improving digital products, services, and experiences.

► 1 Course, 2 Certification Exams:

PSE: Product, Service, Experience & Transform: Transformation.

All sessions delivered 10 am-4 pm ET. There is no required order. You may take either course first and complete the second when it best fits your schedule.

📅 PSE: September 15-18, 2026 & Transform: October 27-30, 2026

📅 Transform: October 27-30, 2026 & PSE: December 8-11, 2026

📅 PSE: December 8-11, 2026 & Transform: January 19-22, 2027

Prerequisite Certification(s):

ITIL 4 Managing Professional → Earns the ITIL (Version 5) Managing Professional designation, or
ITIL 4 Master → Earns the ITIL (Version 5) Master designation, or
ITIL v3 Expert → Earns the ITIL (Version 5) Managing Professional designation, or
ITIL v3 Master → Earns the ITIL (Version 5) Master designation

ITIL Product

Delivering Value Through Digital Products

Product focuses on managing digital products across their lifecycle, aligning product thinking with service value delivery, and integrating development, delivery, and operational practices.

Public classroom dates are coming soon.

Prerequisite Certification(s):

ITIL 4 Foundation or ITIL (Version 5) Foundation

ITIL Service

Service Management Excellence

Service connects service design, delivery, operations, support, and improvement to measurable business outcomes.

📅 October 20-23, 2026

Prerequisite Certification(s):

ITIL 4 Foundation or ITIL (Version 5) Foundation

ITIL Experience

Designing and Managing Experience

Experience moves the conversation beyond process performance and SLA achievement to the perceptions of customers, users, and employees. Learners explore how to measure and improve experience across value streams and connect operational performance with perceived value.

📅 January 26-29, 2027

Prerequisite Certification(s):

ITIL 4 Foundation or ITIL (Version 5) Foundation

ITIL Strategy

Defining Direction. Aligning Value. Driving Growth.

Strategy helps leaders connect vision, governance, investment, execution, and value realization across digital products and services.

📅 November 17-20, 2026

Prerequisite Certification(s):

ITIL 4 Foundation or ITIL (Version 5) Foundation

ITIL Transformation

Driving Organizational Change

Transformation is a core module across the ITIL Managing Professional and Strategic Leader pathways. It focuses on aligning people, processes, technology, governance, and continual improvement to create sustainable organizational change.

📅 October 27-30, 2026

📅 January 19-22, 2027

Prerequisite Certification(s):

ITIL 4 Foundation or ITIL (Version 5) Foundation

ITIL AI Governance

Enabling AI. Building Trust. Delivering Value.

AI Governance addresses responsible, ethical, transparent, and compliant AI adoption. The course helps organizations move beyond experimentation by connecting AI initiatives with accountability, risk management, regulatory expectations, and measurable business value.

📅 February 23-25, 2027

Prerequisite Certification(s):

None

ITIL Monitor, Support and Fulfil

Monitor, Support and Fulfil develops cross-practice capability across five of the most widely adopted ITIL practices:

Incident Management, Service Desk, Problem Management, Service Request Management, and Monitoring and Event Management.

📅 July 13-16, 2027

Prerequisite Certification(s):

ITIL 4 Foundation or ITIL (Version 5) Foundation

Open-Book Exams and Official Publications

Except for ITIL Foundation and the Foundation Bridge, all ITIL (Version 5) advanced certification exams are open book. Learners may use an approved official ITIL publication during eligible exams, shifting the emphasis from memorization to understanding, application, and quickly locating the right guidance. Learn more about the open-book exam experience.

As a PeopleCert Accredited Training Organization and authorized reseller, ITSM Academy also offers official ITIL publications for purchase. Explore ITIL books and publications.

All ITSM Academy classes are available through our live instructor-led virtual open-enrollment classrooms and as dedicated corporate delivery.

Explore our ITIL (Version 5) training portfolio: https://itsmacademy.com/itil-5-courses/

Explore our (free) curated, practical, easy-to-consume ITIL (Version 5) insights and resources: https://itsmacademy.com/what-is-itil/

Planning training for your organization? Contact ITSM Academy to discuss dedicated delivery, volume pricing, training passes, and a coordinated education strategy.

A Clearer Way to Explore ITIL: New Resources and an Interactive Qualification Scheme

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 19:42:00 +0000

Where do I start with ITIL (Version 5)? Does my ITIL 4 certification still count? Which class will help me the most? Which course leads to the designation I want?

These are practical questions, and the answers depend on where you are today and what you want to do next. That is why we keep expanding ITSM Academy’s All Things ITIL resources - to help professionals and training planners find clear information and make confident decisions.

The collection brings together ITIL (Version 5) guidance, certification FAQs, course information, and focused breakdowns of topics such as the Managing Professional, Strategic Leader, and Master pathways.

New: Explore the Qualification Scheme for Yourself

Our latest addition is our unique, interactive ITIL (Version 5) Qualification Scheme.

A qualification diagram shows how the pieces connect. Our tool lets you go much further. Select a course or designation to see what it covers, where it sits in the scheme, its prerequisites, and links to learn more. You can also focus the view on pathways such as Practice Manager, Managing Professional, and Strategic Leader.

Two Quick Ways to Find Your Next Step

If you are planning your own development, you can find your best ITIL path by answering three quick questions to identify the ITIL certification path that best fits your experience, professional interests, and goals. Select one answer for each question to see your recommendation. Take the quiz now.

Planning ITIL (Version 5) training for your team? Assess your organization’s readiness for AI-enabled product and service management, stronger operating models, and improved resilience, then identify where your team should focus. Take the ITIL 5 readiness assessment. Your score and recommendation appear immediately after submission.

Resources for the Questions That Come Next

A recommendation is a starting point. You may also want to understand how a designation is earned, what a module covers, or how continuing professional development works. Our All Things ITIL page gathers resources for those questions, including the ITIL (Version 5) Cheat Sheet, certification FAQ, Practice Manager and Master breakdowns, and CPD guidance.

We will continue adding to the collection as new questions arise and the qualification scheme evolves. Our goal is simple: make ITIL easier to understand and easier to apply.

These tools, and more to come, are all part of ITSM Academy's commitment to helping you understand ITIL (Version 5).

Clarity first. Credentials Second. Outcomes always.

We Teach Continual Improvement. Turns Out, We Practice It, Too

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 19:30:00 +0000

When PeopleCert first announced the ITIL (Version 5) Managing Professional Transition (MPT) course, we did what we have done since 2004: scheduled an early beta class for North America.

At that point, the course was still taking shape. Based on the previous ITIL v3 and ITIL 4 capstone transition courses - each of which concluded with one exam - we initially planned MPT as one consolidated class leading to one exam. As we approached our launch date and additional details were released, PeopleCert established that MPT would include two distinct areas of study and two certification exams:

Product, Service and Experience (PSE): 120 minutes, 40 case-based questions
Transformation: 90 minutes, 40 case-based questions

Both exams are open book, with a passing score of 70%. Depending on learners' prior certifications, those who pass both earn either their ITIL (Version 5) Managing Professional or ITIL (Version 5) Master designation.

As of August 2026, prerequisite designation mapping:

ITIL 4 Managing Professional → Earns the ITIL (Version 5) Managing Professional designation - or -
ITIL 4 Master → Earns the ITIL (Version 5) Master designation - or -
ITIL v3 Expert → Earns the ITIL (Version 5) Managing Professional designation - or -
ITIL v3 Master → Earns the ITIL (Version 5) Managing Professional designation - and -
Attend an accredited training course

We adjusted our course materials to address the finalized requirements, but kept the June 2026 launch as one accelerated delivery.

It was successful: within the first week, five learners passed both exams and became ITIL (Version 5) Masters. Several others passed one exam.

But successful does not mean there is nothing to improve.

What We Learned

MPT focuses on what has changed, but it still covers significant updates across Foundation, Product, Service, Experience and Transformation - along with preparation for two case-based exams.

Since our first virtual delivery in 2007, we have done everything possible to avoid eight-hour virtual training days. This MPT delivery reinforced why. The schedule was brutal for our learners and instructors.

We proved we could deliver all the material in one accelerated class. As adult education professionals, we also determined that we should not.

So, we changed the structure.

MPT is now scheduled as two separate cohorts:

MPT: Product, Service and Experience
MPT: Transformation

There is no required order, and the time between courses allows learners to absorb the material, complete the first exam, and return ready to focus on the second.

Continual Improvement in Practice = Drink Your Own Champagne

We teach organizations to focus on value, progress iteratively with feedback, and improve based on evidence. It would be rather awkward if we did not apply those principles to ourselves.

Our first cohort confirmed the value of the MPT pathway - and showed us how to make the delivery better.

That is continual improvement at its most practical: observe what happens, listen to the people involved, and improve the next iteration.

Start where you are. Progress iteratively with feedback. Focus on value.

Learn more about the updated ITIL Managing Professional Transition pathway.

Upgrade from ITIL 4 to ITIL (Version 5)

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:30:00 +0000

If you already hold an ITIL 4 certification, you can now take a shorter route to ITIL (Version 5) Foundation. The exam may be streamlined. Your learning experience shouldn’t be.

ITIL (Version 5) builds on concepts ITIL 4 professionals already know while expanding the framework for today’s digital product and service environment. That creates an interesting question for certified ITIL 4 learners:

What does it really take to make the move from ITIL 4 to ITIL (Version 5)?

A Foundation Bridge course can provide an abbreviated transition. It focuses on what has changed and gives eligible ITIL 4 certificate holders a shorter path to the new certification. For some learners, that may sound like all they need.

At ITSM Academy, we see the opportunity differently.

If you are going to update your certification, why not also give yourself the time, context, and instructor guidance to understand the new framework in depth?

Go Beyond the Bridge

For a limited time, learners with a valid ITIL 4 certification can attend ITSM Academy’s complete, instructor-led ITIL (Version 5) Foundation course for $895, the cost of the Foundation Bridge.

The certification exam is included.

Rather than completing only abbreviated transition training, you participate in the full Foundation course. That means more time to explore the concepts, terminology, practices, principles, and structure of ITIL (Version 5), with an instructor available to add context, answer questions, and connect the guidance to the realities of your work.

Full ITIL Foundation class. Bridge price. Shorter exam.

Why Take the Complete Foundation Course?

ITIL 4 gives you a valuable head start. You already understand the importance of value, guiding principles, service management practices, and working holistically. You are not starting over.

But ITIL (Version 5) is more than a list of renamed terms or a handful of updates to memorize. It reflects the continued evolution of digital management and places greater emphasis on the creation, delivery, management, and continual improvement of digital products and services.

The complete course gives you room to do more than identify what changed. It helps you understand:

How familiar ITIL concepts carry forward into the new framework
Where terminology, structure and emphasis have evolved
How products and services work together to create value
How the guidance applies in modern, complex and increasingly AI-enabled environments
How to discuss the changes confidently with colleagues and stakeholders

That depth matters. A certification confirms that you passed an exam. A well-designed learning experience prepares you to use what you learned after the exam is over.

A Shorter Exam Designed for ITIL 4 Learners

Eligible learners attend the complete ITIL (Version 5) Foundation course but receive the official Foundation Bridge exam voucher created specifically for ITIL 4 certificate holders.

20 questions
30 minutes
Closed book

Upon successful completion, you earn the ITIL (Version 5) Foundation certification.

It is a practical combination: the breadth and discussion of the complete Foundation class, paired with the more focused exam pathway available to learners who have already demonstrated their knowledge of ITIL 4.

Who Is Eligible?

This offer is available to learners who hold either:

An ITIL 4 Foundation certificate, or
An advanced ITIL 4 certification

Certification documentation must be validated before promotional registration can be completed.

How to Claim the $895 Upgrade Offer

Email a copy of your valid ITIL 4 Foundation or advanced ITIL 4 certification to class@itsmacademy.com. Once your certification is validated, the Academy team will provide the promotional code needed to register.

The limited-time offer is available for select virtual, instructor-led ITIL (Version 5) Foundation classes.

Ready to upgrade from ITIL 4?

Get the complete ITIL (Version 5) Foundation learning experience for $895, including the certification exam.

VIEW THE ITIL 4 TO 5 UPGRADE OFFER

Do not simply cross the Bridge. Use it to move forward with clarity, confidence, and a stronger understanding of ITIL (Version 5).

The Official ITIL (Version 5) Publications Have Arrived

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:15:00 +0000

Back in May, I wrote about the arrival of the new ITIL (Version 5) Advanced Certifications and what they mean for service management professionals looking to stay ahead of the curve. Read What Open Book Exams Really Mean for Learners.

At the time, one of the biggest questions we received was:

"When will the official books be available?"

The wait is over.

ITSM Academy now has the official ITIL (Version 5) hardcopy publications available for purchase and immediate shipment.

Why These Books Matter

The transition from ITIL 4 to ITIL (Version 5) is more than a simple update. While many of the foundational concepts remain intact, the framework expands significantly to address how modern organizations create value through products, services, experiences, strategy, and transformation.

These publications provide the detailed guidance behind the certifications and offer valuable reference material for practitioners, leaders, consultants, trainers, and organizations adopting the new framework.

Whether you plan to pursue certification or simply want to understand the future direction of ITIL, these books belong on your shelf.

Available Titles

The current collection includes:

ITIL (Version 5) Product
ITIL (Version 5) Service
ITIL (Version 5) Experience
ITIL (Version 5) Strategy
ITIL (Version 5) Transformation

For professionals pursuing the Managing Professional pathway, the Product, Service, Experience, and Transformation publications form the foundation of the Managing Professional Transition (MPT) designation.

More Than Exam Preparation

While many learners purchase the publications to support certification preparation, the books are designed to be practical reference guides long after the exam is complete.

Inside, you'll find guidance on topics such as:

Product and service lifecycle management
Customer, user, and employee experience
Organizational transformation
Strategic planning and governance
Value creation and measurement
Cross-functional collaboration
Modern digital operating models

These are the challenges organizations are actively working through today.

A Valuable Resource for Leaders

One of the most interesting aspects of ITIL (Version 5) is its expanded audience.

Historically, ITIL was often associated primarily with Service Desk and Operations teams. The new publications speak directly to a broader set of stakeholders, including:

IT leaders
Product managers
Service owners
Enterprise architects
Transformation leaders
Governance professionals
Digital strategy teams

The result is a framework that better reflects how organizations actually operate in 2026 and beyond.

Available Now

The official ITIL (Version 5) publications are available now through ITSM Academy.

Whether you're preparing for certification, building an internal ITSM program, evaluating the new framework, or simply want to understand where service management is headed, these books provide the most authoritative source available.

If you've been waiting to get your hands on the official books, now is the time.

Happy Reading!

We’re Not Ready for ITIL (Version 5). We’re Too Immature.

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Wed, 20 May 2026 12:30:00 +0000

"We’re Not Ready for ITIL (Version 5). We’re Too Immature."

It is a common reaction.

When organizations hear about ITIL (Version 5), especially in the context of digital product and service management, AI governance, experience, and transformation, they may assume it is intended only for those with a mature ITSM program already in place.

They think:

We are still trying to get incident management under control.
Our request process is inconsistent.
We have too many silos.
We are not ready for something more advanced.

But that conclusion misses the point.

You do not need to be mature to benefit from ITIL (Version 5). In many ways, less mature organizations may have the most to gain.

ITIL Is Not a Reward for Maturity

ITIL has never been something organizations earn the right to use once they have everything figured out. It is guidance that helps organizations improve how they create, deliver, and support value.

That matters at every stage of maturity.

For organizations with emerging or inconsistent service management practices, ITIL (Version 5) can help create:

Shared language across teams
Better alignment between work and outcomes
Clearer thinking about products, services, and value
More consistent decision-making
A stronger foundation for future improvement

In other words, ITIL is not what you do after you mature.

ITIL is one of the tools that helps you mature.

Immaturity Is Often a Sign That Alignment Is Needed

Organizations that describe themselves as “too immature” are often experiencing very real symptoms:

Different teams define “service” differently
Work moves through the organization inconsistently
Improvement efforts are reactive rather than intentional
Leaders struggle to connect IT activity to business outcomes
Customer and user experience is discussed, but not designed for
New technology, including AI, is introduced without a shared operating context

These are not reasons to avoid ITIL (Version 5).

They are reasons to explore it.

ITIL (Version 5) broadens the conversation beyond traditional IT service management alone. It connects service management to digital product and service management, emphasizing how organizations co-create value, design for experience, manage complexity, and evolve in response to changing needs.

For an immature organization, that perspective can be especially valuable because it helps prevent improvement efforts from becoming too narrow, too tactical, or too disconnected from the organization’s real goals.

The Risk of Waiting Until You Are “Ready”

When organizations delay foundational alignment, they often do not remain still. They continue to grow, buy tools, add workflows, launch initiatives, and respond to pressure.

Without shared principles and language, that growth can make maturity harder to achieve later.

Processes become more fragmented.
Tool configurations reflect local habits instead of organizational intent.
Metrics proliferate without improving decisions.
Teams optimize their own work while the end-to-end experience suffers.

By the time the organization decides it is finally “ready,” it may have years of inconsistency to unwind.

Adopting ITIL best practices earlier does not mean overengineering. It means creating enough shared understanding to grow with purpose.

ITIL (Version 5) Does Not Require a Big-Bang Transformation

Another reason organizations resist is that they assume ITIL (Version 5) requires a massive implementation effort.

It does not.

Organizations can begin with a focused, practical approach:

Build a shared understanding of key concepts
Clarify how products and services create value
Improve one practice, workflow, or pain point at a time
Use ITIL guidance to frame decisions, not to create bureaucracy
Develop internal capability gradually

The goal is not to become “fully ITIL” overnight. In fact, organizations do not implement ITIL as a monolithic system. They adopt ITIL best practices in ways that support their needs, context, and desired outcomes.

That distinction matters.

A Better Question Than “Are We Mature Enough?”

Instead of asking:

Are we mature enough for ITIL (Version 5)?

A better question is:

Would a stronger shared understanding of value, services, work, experience, and improvement help us mature more effectively?

For most organizations, the answer is yes.

If teams are struggling to align, if service delivery feels inconsistent, if improvement initiatives stall, or if leaders want IT to operate with greater clarity and relevance, ITIL (Version 5) can provide a modern foundation for moving forward.

Start Where You Are

Maturity is not a prerequisite. It is a journey.

ITIL (Version 5) meets organizations where they are and provides guidance on becoming more intentional, more connected, and more value-focused over time.

You do not wait until your organization is mature to learn how to manage products and services better.

You use that learning to help your organization mature.

How ITSM Academy Can Help

At ITSM Academy, we help organizations build practical understanding before pushing toward credentials or large-scale change. Whether your team is just beginning its ITSM journey or preparing for what is next, we can help you identify the right starting point.

Clarity first. Credentials second. Outcomes always.

ITIL (Version 5) Advanced Certifications: What Open Book Exams Really Mean for Learners

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Mon, 04 May 2026 18:42:00 +0000

There’s a meaningful shift happening across ITIL (Version 5) advanced certifications - and it’s one worth paying attention to.

Advanced courses now include open-book exams.

It may feel like a shortcut at first. In reality, it’s a different kind of challenge. One centered on application, not recall.

Why Open Book? A Shift Toward Real-World Application

Open-book exams reflect a deeper evolution in how capability is assessed and how professionals are expected to apply what they learn. They focus on:

Applying concepts in context
Navigating and interpreting guidance quickly
Making informed decisions using trusted sources

This aligns directly with the direction of ITIL (Version 5): a move toward digital product and service management (DPSM), where success depends on how well you use knowledge, not just memorize it.

In practice, this means learners need to be comfortable working with the official publications during the exam, just as they would on the job.

What This Means for Your Preparation

Preparation now looks a little different.

Yes, you still need to understand the material, but you also need to know:

Where to find key concepts quickly
How topics connect across the guidance
How to interpret and apply recommendations in scenario-based questions

In short, familiarity with the official publications becomes a critical success factor.

Where PeopleCert Plus (PC+) Comes In

If you’re considering an ITIL (Version 5) advanced course, PeopleCert Plus (PC+) becomes more than a “nice to have” - it’s a practical advantage. Your membership gives you immediate access to the official digital publications aligned to the certifications (ITIL Foundation excluded), so you can begin preparing well before class begins.

Explore PeopleCert Plus Annual Membership

With PC+, you can:

Access official publications anytime through the VitalSource Bookshelf App
Save, search, and highlight key content for easy reference
Use a second device during your exam to access the official publication, in line with exam guidelines

In addition to the official publications, PC+ includes:

The official syllabus
Sample exams to support your preparation
The official glossary

There’s also a timing advantage.

ITSM Academy issues exam vouchers once a final class roster is set. PC+ gives you advanced access to key materials, so you can begin preparing before your course begins - showing up ready to engage, not just absorb.

The Learner Experience

During your open book exam, you may use either the hard copy of the Official Book or your Official eBook on a second device through the VitalSource Bookshelf app. Your second device must be set to airplane mode.

Both formats allow you to:

Annotate and tabulate the text, including adding personal notes and using sticky or colored post-it notes to navigate the Official Book.
Utilize notes or annotations created during your exam preparation, written on the blank pages of the Official Book.
Use the "annotation" functionality provided by the Official e-Book reader (Bookshelf) to mark text and take notes.

Important note:

Loose-leaf papers containing additional notes are not permitted.
Unofficial printed copies of the Official Book or any other books (e.g., the ITSM Academy Learner Manual) are not allowed.

Hardcopy books: If you are interested in obtaining hardcopy versions of the books, they can be ordered here.

Digital books: As discussed above, if you have PeopleCert Plus, the books associated with each certification course are available under the ‘Books’ option.

What This Means for Organizations

For organizations investing in ITIL (Version 5), this shift reinforces an important point:

Training is no longer just about certification. It’s about capability building.

Open-book exams encourage:

Better alignment between learning and real-world work
Stronger adoption of practices post-training
More confident, resourceful practitioners

And when learners come prepared, the classroom experience becomes more interactive, practical, and outcome-focused.

Final Thought

Open-book exams don’t lower the bar. They move it.

From memorization → to application
From theory → to practice
From knowledge → to capability

For ITIL (Version 5), that’s exactly the point.

And for learners stepping into advanced certifications, the smartest approach is clear: come prepared to work with the guidance, not just study it.

Clarity First: A Faster Way to Navigate ITIL (Version 5)

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:11:00 +0000

If you have visited ITSM Academy's All Things ITIL page recently, you may have noticed some big changes.

We are not just adding more content. We are curating practical, easy-to-consume insights designed to help you make sense of ITIL (Version 5) quickly and confidently.

As updates continue across the ITIL landscape, ITSM Academy’s focus is simple: stay at the forefront and make it easier for you to keep up without getting overwhelmed.

This collection is designed for IT professionals, team leaders, and organizations looking to build a shared understanding of ITIL and align on training and implementation decisions. It is especially useful for individuals and teams exploring ITIL (Version 5), comparing certification paths, or preparing for upcoming training.

Clarity first. Credentials second. Outcomes always.

That mindset guides how we build and organize every resource we share.

As of April 7, 2026, on our All Things ITIL page, you will find:

Introductory ITIL overview deck for quick understanding
Certification scheme download to map learning pathways
Curated ITIL resource collection for deeper exploration
Open enrollment class schedule and printable calendar
ITIL Certification FAQ for common questions and decisions
PDF request option for offline review and sharing

One of the most useful starting points is the introductory deck, which provides a clear, high-level view of ITIL and helps you quickly understand what matters most right now.

The certification scheme download makes it easier to see how the pieces fit together without having to interpret complex diagrams or scattered information.

If you prefer a broader view, the curated resource collection brings everything together so you can explore without jumping across multiple sources.

Turning insight into action

Understanding ITIL is one thing. Knowing what to do next is another.

That is why we include direct access to open enrollment class dates and a printable calendar, helping you move from exploration to planning without friction.

For quick answers to common questions, the ITIL Certification FAQ provides straightforward guidance on versions, pathways, and decisions many professionals are working through.

Start with clarity

There is no shortage of information about ITIL (Version 5). The challenge is finding what is relevant, current, and actionable. We focus on filtering the noise, organizing what matters, and helping you move forward with clarity.

We will continue evolving this collection so it remains a practical, reliable place to start and a useful guide as you move forward.

What We’ve Seen Go Wrong (After the Class Ends)

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 17:30:00 +0000

What We’ve Seen Go Wrong (After the Class Ends)

After two decades of delivering ITSM training, we’ve had a front-row seat to what happens after the exam is over.

And here’s the truth that many providers don’t talk about: passing the exam is not the hard part.

What goes wrong usually happens when learners return to work, and good intentions collide with real organizations, real constraints, and real habits.

Here are the most common patterns we’ve seen.

1. The credential becomes the finish line

Too often, certification is treated as the outcome instead of a milestone. Learners celebrate (as they should), but there’s no next step defined for application. No time carved out to try something new. No expectation that behavior will change.

Without intent, learning quietly fades back into routine.

2. “We took the class.” replaces “We changed how we work.”

Organizations sometimes check the training box without addressing the environment learners return to. The tools stay the same. The incentives stay the same. Leadership language doesn’t change.

When learners feel they’re expected to work exactly as before, even the best ideas stall.

What we do differently: the Personal Action Plan

To prevent “great class, now what?” we embed our Personal Action Plan into every course delivery. It’s a simple, structured way for learners to translate concepts into real work - immediately.

Turns learning into next steps: learners identify 1-3 concrete actions they can apply in their current role, not “someday.”
Builds accountability: learners define who they’ll share the plan with, what support they need, and when they’ll review progress.
Creates momentum through small experiments: learners pick low-risk changes they can test, measure, and iterate - so training becomes behavior change.
Helps leaders reinforce application: we include guidance for managers on how to sponsor follow-through and remove barriers back on the job.

Net effect: learners leave with a plan, a timeline, and a practical bridge from classroom to workplace - so the value of training doesn’t evaporate after the exam.

3. Too much theory, not enough translation

Frameworks are powerful, but only when people know how to translate them into their context.

When learners leave with concepts but no bridge to their services, their customers, and their constraints, they struggle to apply what they learned with confidence.

4. No shared language across the team

Training individuals without aligning teams creates friction. One person comes back excited, using new language, while everyone else is still operating from an older mental model.

Instead of momentum, you get confusion, or worse, quiet resistance.

5. Learning without reflection

The biggest missed opportunity is not pausing to ask: What should we stop doing now that we know this?

Without reflection, learning adds noise instead of clarity.

We’ve learned that training succeeds not because of what’s covered, but because of what learners are supported to do next.

Which leads to the flip side of this story - What Actually Sticks After Class (And Why)

What Actually Sticks After Class

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 19:00:00 +0000

What Actually Sticks After Class (And Why)

After two decades of delivering ITSM training, we’ve had a front-row seat to what happens after the exam is over.

What makes training stick isn’t memorizing a definition perfectly; it’s understanding the thinking behind it. It sticks because something shifted.

Over the years, we’ve noticed a consistent pattern in what learners carry forward long after class ends.

1. Mental models, not mechanics

The most durable takeaway isn’t a process diagram; it’s a new way of seeing.

When learners grasp why practices exist and how value is co-created, they begin making better decisions, even in situations not covered in class.

That mindset travels with them.

2. Shared language

When teams learn together - or at least align around the same concepts - conversations change.

Suddenly, people can say:

“What outcome are we optimizing for?”
“Who actually experiences this?”
“Is this adding value, or just activity?”

That shared language becomes a quiet accelerant.

3. Small, intentional experiments

What sticks is rarely a full transformation. It’s usually one or two small changes that feel achievable:

A better intake conversation
A clearer definition of value
A new way to review work

During our classes, learners capture these ideas in their Personal Action Plan - a simple tool designed to help them translate insights from the classroom into specific next steps once they return to work.

Success builds confidence, and confidence invites more change.

4. Relevance to real work

Learners remember what they could immediately map to their own world.

When examples reflect real services, real customers, and real trade-offs, learners don’t have to imagine application; they recognize it.

5. Permission to think, not just follow

The most powerful moment in class is often when someone realizes they’re allowed to question the status quo.

Not to rebel...but to improve.

That sense of agency is what keeps ideas alive long after the slides are closed.

Education isn’t about transferring knowledge; it’s about enabling judgment.

And the real test of learning happens after class ends.

That’s why every ITSM Academy learner is provided with a Personal Action Plan - a structured way to identify opportunities, experiment with improvements, and track progress over time.

Because training creates insight, but action creates change.

That’s what learners carry forward.

And that’s why we design learning the way we do.

How the Job Market Values ITIL Certifications Today

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:40:00 +0000

I got asked the question, "How do you see the job market valuing ITIL certifications today - particularly Foundation vs higher-level?"

That got me thinking, and I had many thoughts, so I wanted to get them all down "on paper".

When we talk about ITIL certifications today, the first thing we have to acknowledge is that the job market has changed.

Twenty years ago, only cutting-edge teams were adding ITIL certifications to their job requirements, as they understood it was a competitive differentiator.

Ten years ago, ITIL Foundation was often a checkbox. It signaled that someone understood incident, change, problem - the basics. It was credibility currency.

Today, Foundation still matters - but it plays a different role.

Foundation demonstrates literacy.

It tells an employer:

You understand value.
You understand service relationships.
You understand structured operating models.
You speak the language.

In a market flooded with automation, AI tools, and platform specialization, that shared language is actually becoming more important, not less.

“Who shot J.R.?” was the cliffhanger from the TV show Dallas that carried an entire nation through the summer of 1980.

Everyone from 9 to 90 was talking about it.

It was shared cultural language.

Today, in our curated digital bubbles, very little cuts across generations. And when it does, it’s often tragic news. The more segmented our information streams become, the less shared language we have.

That’s one of the understated strengths of ITIL. When professionals are trained in it, regardless of generation or background, they start from a common ground.

They share definitions, principles, and operating assumptions.

In a fragmented world, that shared foundation is more powerful than it looks.

Common ground is powerful. What you build from it is what differentiates you.

Foundation gets you in the conversation.

Advanced certifications shape the trajectory of that conversation.

The job market increasingly differentiates between operational familiarity and strategic capability.

Higher-level designations signal:

You can align services to enterprise outcomes.
You understand governance, risk, and experience.
You can design value streams - not just participate in them.
You can lead transformation, not just execute tickets.

And employers are rewarding that distinction.

We’re seeing stronger value in roles like:

Service Owners
Product Managers in IT organizations
IT Operations Leaders
Experience and XLA practitioners
Governance and Risk leaders
Enterprise and Solution Architects
Transformation program leads

Foundation supports credibility across the board - especially for early-career professionals, service desk analysts, business analysts, project managers, and those transitioning into IT.

But higher-level certifications increasingly correlate with leadership readiness.

Now, with ITIL (Version 5) emerging, professionals are asking the right question:

Do I need to upgrade?

My answer:

If your goal is employability, Foundation remains very valuable.

If your goal is influence, design authority, or transformational leadership, upgrading becomes strategic.

ITIL (Version 5) is not just a rebrand. It deepens emphasis on:

Product and service integration
Experience management
Organizational change
AI-enabled operating models
Governance in complex ecosystems

So professionals should think less in terms of "Do I replace what I have?", and more in terms of:

“What can I learn to stay not just current, but indispensable? What will propel my career over the next 5 years?”

Because certifications are not just credentials. They are positioning signals.

Which leads to the certification pathways themselves.

If you look at the new pathways, what you’ll notice immediately is clarity of intent.

The structure now more explicitly separates:

Foundational literacy
Operational leadership
Strategic leadership
Practice-level depth
Enterprise-level mastery

The progression feels less like collecting courses and more like building capability layers.

Foundation establishes common ground.

The next levels develop either:

Advanced operational leadership and product/service capability, or
Strategic leadership and governance orientation

The Practice Manager track strengthens deep execution capability.

The Strategic Leader track sharpens enterprise thinking.

And the Managing Professional designation reflects integrated capability across product, service, and experience domains.

What’s different in the new pathways is the explicit recognition that service management is no longer just an IT function - it is an enterprise design discipline.

And that’s aligned with how organizations are hiring.

They are not just looking for ITIL-certified. They’re looking for people who can connect operations to business value.

So the takeaway for professionals is this:

Foundation is still relevant.

Advanced levels are increasingly differentiating.

ITIL (Version 5) represents alignment with the operating realities of AI, digital ecosystems, and value-stream thinking.

In a competitive job market, alignment matters! A certification alone won’t transform your career - but it can significantly accelerate how quickly you’re given scope, influence, and responsibility.

And when credentials both educate and inspire, that acceleration becomes meaningful advancement in practice.

ITIL (Version 5) Foundation Exam Goes Live Feb 12 – U.S. Classes Scheduled

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 21:09:00 +0000

The next evolution of ITIL is officially here.

The ITIL (Version 5) Foundation exam goes live on February 12, 2026, marking a significant milestone in the progression of modern service management and digital product and service management (DPSM).

For professionals and organizations asking, “What does this mean for us?”

The answer is both practical and strategic.

What ITIL (Version 5) Represents

ITIL (Version 5) is not a reset. It is an evolution.

It builds on the strengths of ITIL 4 while expanding guidance to reflect the realities of modern digital organizations:

Unified digital product and service lifecycle management
AI-ready governance and digital-first operating principles
Stronger integration between strategy, delivery, and measurable outcomes
Experience-centered service management
Clearer, role-aligned guidance for practitioners and leaders

In short, ITIL (Version 5) aligns the framework with how organizations actually operate today.

The Foundation Level: Why It Matters

The Foundation certification remains the entry point into the ITIL qualification scheme. It establishes shared language, foundational concepts, and structured thinking that organizations rely on to scale service and product management practices.

With the February 12 launch, candidates can now sit for the official ITIL (Version 5) Foundation exam.

For many organizations, this triggers important considerations:

RFx requirements referencing the latest ITIL version
Certification alignment across teams
Budget planning for 2026 training cycles
Transition strategies from ITIL 4

U.S. ITIL (Version 5) Foundation Classes Are Scheduled

With the exam going live, scheduled training is already underway.

Instructor-led virtual classes aligned to U.S. time zones are scheduled beginning February 24–27, 2026. These public sessions include:

Live, instructor-led delivery
Official exam voucher
Structured exam preparation
Access for both individual learners and corporate teams

Additional ITIL (Version 5) modules will be onboarded and scheduled as they are released throughout 2026.

Transition from ITIL 4

For professionals currently certified in ITIL 4, Version 5 does not invalidate prior investment.

ITIL (Version 5) is backward compatible and evolutionary in nature. Transition options and bridge pathways will support organizations needing explicit Version 5 alignment.

The key question is not whether Version 5 replaces Version 4 - it is how organizations will leverage Version 5 to strengthen governance, product thinking, AI readiness, and measurable value delivery.

Why This Launch Is Different

Previous ITIL updates reflected shifts in IT service management.

Version 5 reflects shifts in:

Digital operating models
Product-centric structures
AI-enabled workflows
Experience measurement
Enterprise-wide service ecosystems

It is designed not only for IT practitioners but for product leaders, service owners, digital transformation teams, and executive stakeholders.

Final Thoughts

February 12 is more than an exam date. It represents a formal recognition that service management has matured into digital product and service management.

Organizations that treat ITIL (Version 5) as a compliance exercise will miss its value.

Organizations that treat it as a strategic alignment opportunity will gain clarity, structure, and competitive advantage.

The next chapter of ITIL has begun.

Whether you’re new to ITIL or transitioning from ITIL 4, our goal is simple:

Clarity first. Credentials second. Outcomes always.

New ITIL Explained for Certified Professionals

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:43:00 +0000

ITIL evolves. Your expertise remains valuable.

A confident step forward for the ITIL community

The new ITIL builds on everything professionals already value in ITIL, evolving the framework to reflect today’s digital, product-centric, and AI-enabled reality. Existing knowledge, experience, and certifications remain fully relevant as part of this evolution.

If you are already certified or familiar with ITIL, this is not a reset. It is a natural next step that allows you to move forward with confidence, when and how it makes sense for you.

The key innovations in New ITIL

The new ITIL evolves to match today’s AI-driven, fast-changing environment. It provides practical, role-relevant guidance in digital product and service management that helps professionals and organizations deliver measurable value with consistency.

Modern, integrated, and comprehensive

ITIL (Version 5) provides guidance that works across the entire organization, from leadership and strategy to day-to-day operations. It helps teams collaborate more effectively, align priorities, and create value consistently in both stable and rapidly changing environments.

AI-native and practical by design

ITIL (Version 5) supports professionals working in AI-enabled contexts. It provides clear, practical guidance for adapting ways of working, making informed decisions, and responding to change as technology, business needs, and customer expectations evolve.

End-to-end lifecycle for digital products and services

Digital experience is a core focus in ITIL (Version 5). The framework helps teams design, deliver, and improve digital products and services with greater visibility, stronger collaboration, and a clearer understanding of how different stakeholders experience value.

Why the new ITIL?

A new digital landscape

The digital landscape has changed dramatically. Organizations must operate faster, smarter, and with greater flexibility, particularly as AI reshapes how work is designed, delivered, and governed.

Digital-first business models

Modern organizations are increasingly digital-first and product-centric. While earlier versions of ITIL focused primarily on service management, today’s organizations manage integrated products and services that require updated, holistic guidance.

The AI revolution

AI and automation are transforming operations across industries. The new ITIL is AI-native by design, helping organizations adopt and scale AI responsibly while maintaining trust, transparency, and control.

Greater adaptability

Organizations need frameworks that support agility and rapid change. ITIL evolves to enable adaptive, outcome-focused practices aligned with real-world operating needs.

Stronger interconnection and value focus

Attribution: Originally published by PeopleCert on Jan 29, 2026.

---

Moving forward - without starting over

As ITIL evolves, one thing remains constant; the experience, judgment, and practical knowledge built by the global ITIL community still matter. This evolution is not about discarding what works, but about strengthening it, so professionals can continue to deliver value in environments shaped by digital products, AI, and constant change.

As ITSM Academy onboards the new courses within the ITIL (Version 5) qualification scheme, our focus remains the same as it has always been; helping learners translate framework guidance into real-world understanding and application. Each new course is being introduced thoughtfully, with continuity in mind, so existing knowledge is respected and extended; not replaced.

Whether you are just starting your ITIL journey or building on years of certification and experience, the path forward is designed to meet you where you are. The new ITIL builds on familiar principles while providing clearer guidance for modern operating models, enabling professionals and organizations to move forward with confidence.

We’ll continue to share updates, insights, and practical perspectives as the new scheme rolls out - keeping the conversation grounded in what matters most: delivering measurable value through effective service and product management.

Download Introducing ITIL 5 Presentation

Celebrating 22 Years of ITSM Academy: Educate. Inspire. Evolve.

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:58:00 +0000

Twenty-two years ago, ITSM Academy opened its doors with a simple goal; deliver high-quality, practical IT service management education that actually works in the real world.

What started in 2004 as a single training center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has grown into a globally recognized, female-owned small business trusted by professionals across enterprise, government, healthcare, and higher education.

As we celebrate 22 years, this milestone isn’t just about longevity; it’s about evolution, relevance, and community.

A Journey of Firsts, Growth, and Continuous Learning

When we started training, there were only two ITIL v2 classes available: Foundation and Service Manager. Through every version of ITIL, we have developed - or “Academized” - the entire ITIL course portfolio, while also expanding well beyond it with many additional titles, including a full DevOps catalog and my personal favorite course, Certified Process Design Engineer (CPDE). #DonnaSaidDeming!

Over the past two decades, ITSM Academy has consistently been ahead of the curve, expanding well beyond traditional ITIL training and adapting as service management itself has changed. See our timeline.

More Than Courses

While our catalog has grown, what hasn’t changed is how we show up:

Instructor-led, discussion-driven classrooms
Real-world context over rote memorization
A focus on helping learners translate concepts into action

Tens of thousands of professionals have trusted ITSM Academy not just to help them earn certifications, but to build confidence, capability, and credibility in their roles.

Looking Ahead

Service management continues to evolve through AI, automation, experience design, and changing organizational expectations. And so will we.

As we celebrate 22 years, we’re grateful to our instructors, learners, partners, and community members who have been part of this journey. Your curiosity, questions, and commitment to improvement are what keep this work meaningful.

Here’s to the next chapter. Continuing to educate, inspire, and evolve together.

Gratefully,
Lisa Schwartz
Co-Founder & CXO, ITSM Academy

🦩 #IndustryGratitude #BusinessMilestone #Educate&Inspire #ILoveMyTeam

—
ITSM Academy
Celebrating 22 Years of Learning That Lasts

How to Build Value Streams from Your Training Investment. Spoiler Alert: It's all about the PAP.

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 13:07:00 +0000

Organizations continually invest in building skills, but not every organization realizes the value of that investment. Training is frequently viewed as a checkbox activity instead of a powerful enabler of lasting, outcome-focused change.

The question can no longer be, “Did people attend training?” but rather “Did our investment accelerate our value streams and improve outcomes?”

The good news: with the right structure, your learning programs can become engines of continuous improvement. Here’s how to do it.

Start with the Value Stream, Not the Class

Training should never exist in a vacuum. Whether you are adopting ITIL practices, strengthening DevOps capabilities, or maturing SRE and process design skills, the first step is defining the value streams that matter most to the business.

Ask:

What outcomes are we trying to accelerate?
Where is friction slowing down flow?
Which teams are closest to these constraints?

This ensures training is purposeful, not generic, and directly tied to strategic objectives.

Identify the Skills and Behaviors That Enable Flow

Every value stream is shaped by people, processes, and technology. Training should map directly to the capabilities that improve speed, quality, or customer experience.

Examples:

Incident restoration value stream: skills in monitoring, diagnostics, situational awareness, and cross-team collaboration.
Change enablement value stream: risk evaluation, peer review, automation, and communication competencies.
Experience value stream: human-centered design, measurement, and storytelling.

Once you identify the capabilities required to improve flow, you can select the right learning pathway; ITIL, DevOps, AIOps, SRE, CPDE, Value Stream Mapping, or a combination.

Connect Learning to Work Through Personal Action Plans

Knowledge has no value unless it becomes applied knowledge.

That’s why every ITSM Academy class Learner Kit includes a Personal Action Plan (PAP). A simple but powerful tool to capture the short and long-term actions they want to take back to their daily work.

We encourage our clients to review these PAPs with their teams after training. When leaders look across individual responses, patterns emerge: shared obstacles, common improvement opportunities, and quick wins that directly support the organization’s value streams. Together, leaders and learners can translate those notes into a coordinated plan for improvement.

To make this even easier, ITSM Academy offers a complimentary PAP Review Session with every corporate training engagement. Our Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) walk through the collected action plans, help teams prioritize next steps, and ensure the training investment turns into measurable progress.

A Personal Action Plan helps you:

Translate training concepts into specific “first actions.”
Identify bottlenecks in the value stream that learners can influence.
Make progress visible and trackable over time.
Reinforce accountability between the learner and their leader.

This is where value streams start to move, because individuals take targeted actions aligned with specific business outcomes.

Build Enablement into Your Governance

Training is not the end of the journey... it's the beginning! To maximize value stream improvements, fold learning into your operating model:

Review action plans during team meetings, standups, and retrospectives.
Measure progress using existing OKRs or KPIs.
Include learning objectives in role expectations and performance discussions.
Celebrate improvements that can be linked to training-driven initiatives.

This step turns training into a structured contributor to your continuous improvement ecosystem.

Use a Layered Learning Strategy

High-performing organizations don’t rely on a single course. They build a strategic blend of foundational, role-based, and advanced training aligned to value stream stages.

A layered strategy may include:

Foundation-level awareness to align language and concepts across teams.
Practice-based courses to strengthen the processes that enable flow.
Advanced design courses (such as CPDE or Value Stream Mapping) to rethink and redesign work.
Community engagement to sustain energy and knowledge sharing across the organization.

This creates a learning culture capable of adapting and improving continuously.

Measure the Value of Your Training Investment

To demonstrate ROI, connect outcomes back to your most important value streams. Look for changes in both performance and experience.

Key indicators include:

Faster incident resolution and restoration times.
Increased change success rates and fewer failed changes.
Reduced toil and manual rework.
Improved experience metrics (including XLAs).
More predictable, reliable delivery across teams.
Higher employee confidence and capability.
Reduced dependency on tribal knowledge.

When organizations track these metrics before and after training, the value becomes visible, and repeatable.

The Bottom Line

Training is not just a check-box or an expense. When aligned to value streams, it becomes a strategic lever for digital transformation, operational excellence, and customer experience.

If you want training that moves the needle, and not just fills a seat, start with your value streams, align capabilities to outcomes, and turn learning into a continuous flow of improvement.

Your value streams will thank you.

Ready to turn your training into measurable value? Learn more about ITSM Academy’s Education Strategy Planning (ESP) and build a roadmap that connects every learner in every course to the outcomes that matter most.

The Personal Action Plan is more than a worksheet. It is a bridge between learning and lasting improvement. When PAPs are reviewed and activated, your organization captures more value from every training engagement.

Download the PAP Schedule time with a SME

From Processes to Practices: How ITIL 4 Reshaped Roles in the SMO

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 18:30:00 +0000

When ITIL 4 was introduced, one of its biggest - and most misunderstood - shifts was moving away from processes to a broader, more flexible concept: practices.

In earlier versions of ITIL, each process had a clear sequence of activities, inputs, and outputs. That approach helped organizations standardize service management but often led to rigidity, especially as digital transformation accelerated and work became more cross-functional.

ITIL 4 recognized that service management isn’t just about what we do, but also who, how, and why. A practice is a holistic set of organizational resources - people, processes, information, and technology - working together to achieve outcomes. Processes still exist, but they now sit inside practices rather than defining them.

What This Means for the Service Management Office (SMO)

For many SMOs, this shift has been transformational:

Roles are less linear and more integrated. Instead of “Process Owners,” we now see Practice Owners, Practice Managers, and Practice Practitioners who think beyond workflows and consider the full ecosystem - skills, data, culture, and automation.
Collaboration replaces silos. Practices often overlap and interconnect (for example, Incident Management and Problem Management share data, tools, and people). SMOs are now challenged to foster capability rather than simply enforce compliance.
Assessment and improvement look different. Maturity models once focused on process documentation and adherence. Practice-based assessments evaluate adaptability, governance, and outcomes - key measures in a value-driven enterprise.

The Bigger Picture

By adopting the language and mindset of practices, the SMO becomes a value enabler rather than a process auditor. It supports continual improvement, empowers practitioners to experiment, and aligns service management with modern digital operating models.

Processes may have given ITSM its foundation, but practices are what keep it evolving.

Updated Definitions in ITIL 4:

Process Owner: In ITIL 4, the concept of 'processes' has expanded into broader 'practices.' Consequently, the Process Owner is now often referred to as the 'Practice Owner.' This individual is accountable for the overall design, performance, integration, and improvement of a specific practice within the organization. They ensure that the practice achieves its intended outcomes and aligns with the organization's objectives.
Process Manager: Now commonly known as the 'Practice Manager' in ITIL 4, this role is responsible for the day-to-day management of the practice. The Practice Manager ensures that activities are carried out as intended, manages resources assigned to the practice, and oversees the practitioners performing the work.
Process Practitioner: Referred to as 'Practitioners' in ITIL 4, these individuals are responsible for performing specific activities within a practice. They follow the established procedures and guidelines to carry out their tasks and contribute to the practice's objectives.

Key Updates in ITIL 4:

From Processes to Practices: ITIL 4 shifts focus from isolated processes to holistic practices that encompass governance, culture, and continual improvement. This change emphasizes a more integrated approach to service management.
Service Value System (SVS): ITIL 4 introduces the SVS, which provides an end-to-end view of how demand is converted to value within an organization. It integrates various components, including practices, to ensure cohesive and effective service management.
Guiding Principles: ITIL 4 outlines seven guiding principles to help organizations adopt and adapt service management practices effectively. These principles promote flexibility, collaboration, and a focus on value creation.

For a more comprehensive understanding of these roles and their alignment with ITIL 4, consider enrolling in updated training courses that reflect these changes.

ITIL 4 in the Cloud Era: From Process to Practice Through Training

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 19:30:00 +0000

The cloud has changed everything. The way we build, deliver, and manage services looks nothing like it did when ITIL first emerged.

Traditional frameworks were designed for centralized, relatively static infrastructures. Today, most organizations live in the dynamic, distributed reality of cloud computing - where scalability, automation, and speed rule the day.

ITIL 4 bridges that gap beautifully. Its Service Value System (SVS) connects governance, Agile, Lean, DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and continual improvement into one integrated approach. I often describe ITIL 4 as moving from rigid processes to flexible, value-driven practices. Nowhere is that shift more evident than in the cloud.

New Realities in Cloud Environments

Cloud computing gives us extraordinary power: elastic scalability, self-service provisioning, and global reach. But it also introduces new challenges. Resources appear and disappear in seconds. Ownership lines blur between customers and providers. And high-speed deployments mean incidents can emerge and spread faster than ever.

That’s why ITIL 4’s guidance emphasizes adaptability over rigidity. Governance now needs to support automation, resilience, and real-time visibility, not just static documentation. The key is training teams to think dynamically - to interpret data, apply principles, and collaborate across technical and business boundaries. These are learnable skills, and the best way to build them is through hands-on learning experiences that mirror real-world complexity.

Smarter Detection Through Modern Tools

Today’s incident detection is smarter, faster, and more connected. Modern AIOPs and observability platforms don’t just flag threshold breaches; they learn from patterns. AI-driven anomaly detection and self-healing capabilities help teams see trouble brewing across microservices and take action before users even notice.

But tools alone aren’t enough. Without training, even the best dashboards can overwhelm instead of inform. ITSM Academy's ITIL and DevOps, SRE, and AIOps courses emphasize observability as a capability, not a product - helping practitioners translate alerts into insight, and insight into action.

Dynamic Categorization and Ownership

Cloud operations require flexible classification models. ITIL 4 replaces rigid categories with approaches based on business impact. Emerging metrics like “Time to Own” (TTO) measure how quickly the right team accepts responsibility... an essential factor in reducing handoff delays.

Through learning, teams develop the ability to prioritize not only by urgency or impact, but also with consideration to the enterprise's brand, reputation, and commitment to user experience. In other words, they begin thinking like value managers, not just incident responders.

Collaborative and Accelerated Investigations

Gone are the days of siloed troubleshooting. ITIL 4 promotes collaboration supported by automation. Centralized log aggregation, knowledge management databases, and AI-driven pattern matching mean possible or probable root cause analysis can happen faster and more accurately.

In class, we explore how concepts such as swarming bring together development, operations, and business experts - just like in the real world. When learners experience this kind of collaboration firsthand, they return to work ready to streamline their own incident response culture.

Resolution Through Automation and Recovery

Cloud-native recovery strategies are game changers. Immutable infrastructure lets teams replace rather than repair. Automated rollbacks and traffic shifting minimize risk during remediation. And self-healing systems can restore services before users even notice.

These practices don’t happen by accident. They are the result of trained professionals who understand ITIL’s guidance and how to apply it within the context of modern adjacent frameworks and toolchains. The best automation starts with people who know when and how to use it.

Embedding Continuous Improvement

Every incident is an opportunity to learn. ITIL 4 encourages structured, no-blame post-incident reviews that connect immediate fixes to long-term resilience. When teams conduct reviews with curiosity rather than criticism, they foster psychological safety and continual improvement.

Our learners often tell us this is one of their biggest takeaways: improvement is not a one-time activity; rather, it’s a mindset. That mindset is what transforms ITSM from a set of siloed processes into a culture of excellence.

Modern Practices for the Cloud Era

ITIL 4's incident management highlights four essential elements for success - each one strengthened through professional training:

Automation and Integration – Automate workflows across value streams to reduce human error and speed recovery.
Observability (or insight) as an enabler – Connect performance data directly to business outcomes and SLAs.
Adaptive Governance – Evolve governance models to focus on value and accountability by empowering teams, rather than enforcing strict hierarchies.
Cultural Transformation – Promote trust and psychological safety by providing cross-functional training and by encouraging effective collaboration across Dev, Ops, and Business experts.

I was speaking with a client at a financial organization recently, and they estimate that since upskilling from ITIL 3 to 4, they are enjoying measurable gains: a 41% reduction in MTTR, 51% improvement in first-time resolution, and 38% fewer high-severity incidents. Those numbers aren’t magic - they’re the result of educated and empowered teams.

Training Makes the Difference

At ITSM Academy, we believe that the most advanced tools and the integration of frameworks means little without people who have the skills and competencies to bring them to life. Whether you’re modernizing your incident management, adopting cloud-first strategies, or simply looking to reduce firefighting, the right training equips your teams to turn theory into action.

ITIL 4 provides the blueprint. Our role as educators is to help you and your team build the skills—and confidence—to make it real.

Ready to bridge your ITSM practices with the realities of cloud computing? Explore our upcoming ITIL training schedule and start your journey toward modern, value-driven service management today.

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 2 – Conducting Self-Assessments

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 21:52:00 +0000

By Donna Knapp

Part 1 of this series explores the activities involved in planning and preparing for practice capability assessments. This blog focuses on conducting assessments.

Organizations typically use three broad types of practice capability assessments, each differing in purpose, depth, and rigor.

Self-assessments – internally led, often using surveys or worksheets where practitioners rate their own practices.

Helps to raise awareness of strengths and weaknesses and capture a baseline

Facilitated assessments – led by a neutral internal facilitator or cross-functional team (e.g., a Certified Process Design Engineer (CPDE), a process improvement team or members of a Service Management Office (SMO)) that guides stakeholders through structured discussions and consensus-based scoring exercises.

Provides a shared understanding of capability across stakeholder groups

Independent or formal external assessments – conducted by experienced consultants, certified assessors or accredited organizations using recognized standards or models.

Provides objective, auditable validation of capability levels and can be used to benchmark performance against external standards or industry peers

There are pros and cons to each assessment type related to factors such as time, cost, objectivity, and credibility.

In practice, organizations often progress through these assessment types – starting with self-assessments for awareness, moving to facilitated assessments to build consensus and agree on priorities, and eventually to formal external assessments for validation and benchmarking.

The remainder of this blog focuses on self-assessments, but the guidance is generally applicable to any type of assessment. Regardless of type, the core structural elements of assessment models are the same. They include:

Assessment scope – as described in Part 1 of this series.

Capability levels – the progressive stages that describe how well a practice is defined, managed, measured, and continually improved.

Scoring mechanism – the method used to rate the degree to which each criterion is achieved.

Evidence – the artifacts, affirmations, or observations used to validate achievement.

Criteria – the specific indicators used to evaluate whether a practice demonstrates the behaviors, controls, or outcomes expected at each capability level.

Scoring worksheets – structured worksheets that list the criteria and corresponding rating scales for each capability level.

Part 3 of this series describes how to analyze, interpret and report on the results of your scoring exercise and translate assessment findings into an actionable improvement plan or roadmap.

There are several models and standards that can be used to assess practice capability. These include Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), the ITIL Maturity Model, and ISO/IEC 33020. ISO/IEC 33020 is part of the ISO/IEC 33000 family of International Standards which provides a framework for the assessment of process quality characteristics and organizational maturity.

You can choose to use one of these existing models or standards, or use them as inspiration to build your own. Whichever approach you choose, the key is consistency.

Consistently applying the same assessment approach ensures that results are comparable and repeatable over time. This builds credibility and confidence in the findings, enabling fair benchmarking across practices, teams, or assessment cycles.

Repetition and practice are prerequisites to mastery.

Capability levels

Level 1 – Initial – no structured practice – activities are ad hoc and inconsistent
Level 2 – Managed – recognized practice – practice is planned and controlled
Level 3 – Defined – standardized practice – practice is institutionalized across the organization
Level 4 – Predictable – quantitatively managed practice – decisions and improvements are driven by reliable, quantitative data
Level 5 – Optimizing – continuously improved practice – innovation opportunities that support business goals are identified and implemented

Adapted source: The ITSM Process Design Guide

Scoring mechanism

At the criterion level, most models use a binary or categorical judgment.

In its simplest form, scoring can be yes or no. While this mechanism has limitations, it is quick and easy to apply and ideal for introductory self-assessments.

A more nuanced approach could provide a scale such as:

Achieved – criterion is fully and consistently demonstrated – there is objective evidence
Partially achieved – criterion is inconsistently demonstrated – evidence may be incomplete or informal
Not achieved – criterion is absent or ad hoc – no credible evidence

This approach supports data-driven decisions and makes it possible to track trends over time.

Evidence requirements

Evidence is objective proof that a capability criterion has been met. It can take the form of:

Documents (e.g., policies, procedures, guidelines)
Records (e.g., completed forms, logs, minutes)
Data and reports (e.g., dashboards, charts)
Interviews (e.g., employee confirmations)
Observations (e.g., workflow inspections)

Capability refers to how well the practice is defined, how embedded it is in the organization’s culture, and how capable it is of being continually improved through measures tied to business goals.

Models tend to categorize assessment criteria under a high-level structure. For example, ITIL 4 practices align with practice success factors (PSFs) and the four dimensions of service management. The PSFs and capability criteria are available via PeopleCert Plus.

For organizations building their own model, example characteristics might include:

Business alignment and outcomes
Funding, resource stewardship, and cost effectiveness
Governance, accountability, and compliance
Skills, competencies, and culture
Lifecycle management
Technology and digital enablement
Knowledge management and reuse
Proactive and predictive activities
Customer satisfaction and experience

Once characteristics are defined, criteria (indicators) are identified within each category that help assessors determine capability level.

Scoring worksheets or surveys

These list the criteria and rating scales for each level. Participants score based on perception and provide supporting evidence.

The level where all criteria are achieved with supporting evidence reflects current capability; partially achieved or not achieved criteria represent improvement opportunities.

Use worksheets or surveys as a starting point for stakeholder conversations. Techniques like observation, interviews, and workshops clarify perspectives and encourage engagement.

Part 3 of this series describes analyzing, interpreting, and reporting results.

Once criteria are scored, aggregate and interpret results to transform assessments into actionable improvement plans or roadmaps.

Adapted source: The ITSM Process Design Guide

Other relevant webinars and blogs include:

It's Not About the Number: Assessing Practice Capability

ITIL Maturity and Practice Capability Assessments

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 1 – Planning and Preparation

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 3 – Analyzing and Reporting Results

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 4 – Creating and Executing a Roadmap

Relevant ITSM Academy certification courses include:

Certified Process Design Engineer (CPDE)
Value Stream Mapping Fundamentals (VSMF)
ITIL 4 Foundation (a prerequisite for all advanced ITIL 4 courses)

Our advisory services also include Process to Practice Workshops to help your team evaluate and improve selected service management practices.

In the ITIL 4 Qualification Scheme, a Practice Manager designation validates skills in specific practice areas. Each ITIL 4 Managing Professional and Strategic Leader course introduces practices relevant to its focus.

Click here to learn more about the ITIL 4 Qualification Scheme

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 1 – Planning and Preparation

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 21:52:00 +0000

By Donna Knapp

Whether or not an organization has formally adopted a framework such as ITIL, IT service management (ITSM) practices are doomed if you fail to recognize the need for continual improvement.

Capability assessments can be used to determine how well your practices are established and improving, and they serve as a diagnostic tool for continual improvement.

A capability assessment typically involves a straightforward set of activities.

Plan and prepare – define the scope, objectives, and participants of the assessment. Define and organize the supporting elements of the assessment model.
Conduct the assessment – collect input through interviews, workshops, observations, or surveys and validate evidence against the defined criteria.
Analyze, interpret, and report out the results – aggregate the findings to identify the current capability level. Identify gaps, improvement opportunities, and options. Formulate prioritized recommendations for improvement. Compile a report and present the findings and recommendations along with expected benefits, assumptions and constraints.
Develop and execute an improvement action plan or roadmap – translate the prioritized results into a clear, measurable plan for capability growth. Carry out improvements or experiments and study the results. Act on what you’ve learned.

Planning and Preparation

A starting point for many organizations is to assess the ITSM practices that are causing the greatest pain or business impact. For example, it is common to start with practices such as incident management or change enablement, because these practices are directly tied to service stability and user experience. And they typically are areas where the complaints are loudest. This reactive approach makes sense when there is a need to stabilize performance, deliver quick wins, and build a solid foundation for future improvement efforts.

Focusing on a single practice, however, has its downsides. One downside is that improvements can lead to local optimization – where improvements that benefit one practice may not benefit, and can even hinder, the overall system. Another downside is that a single practice can never progress beyond capability level 2 on its own. This is because capability level 3 requires defining and implementing dependencies and integration with supporting practices and the overall service value system.

Value Stream Aligned Assessments

If an organization is in crisis or immature, narrowing the scope is a great place to start. This does not mean, however, narrowing the focus to a single practice. A better approach would be to identify practices in the context of value streams.

As an example, the ITIL 4 Create, Deliver and Support course introduces two value streams that are found in nearly all organizations:

Development of a new service
Restoration of a live service

Many practices contribute resources to these value streams. Some of these practices may be performing well. Others may need incremental improvement. One represents a constraint. Making improvements at the constraint will enable the greatest end-to-end improvement in the value stream. Consider that practice the primary focus of your assessment, and the others supporting practices.

Strategic Focus Aligned Assessments

For an organization that seeks transformation, thinking and working holistically is a better way to go. Such an approach balances the practical (i.e., focusing initial efforts on those areas that are causing pain) with a vision that ensures improvements are aligned with the organization’s areas of strategic focus and objectives.

As an example, areas of strategic focus might include:

Business alignment and integration/effectiveness
Organizational resilience
Organizational agility
Operational excellence/efficiency/efficient use of IT resources

Going back to where organizations typically start… focusing on the incident management or change enablement practices (along with practices such as problem management and service validation and testing) would absolutely be a great starting point if the organization’s strategic focus is organizational resilience. If the focus is organizational agility, however, practices such as strategy management, business analysis, software development and management, release management, deployment management, and continual improvement would demand greater attention.

In 2021, AXELOS (now a part of PeopleCert) introduced the ITIL Maturity Model. The AXELOS publication An Overview of the ITIL Maturity Model provides an example mapping of common strategic focus areas, objectives, and practices. This publication acknowledges that while an organization might not have a clearly defined list of its objectives, it usually can explain its current priorities in terms of strategic focus. This then can be used as a starting point when scoping an assessment.

Example:

The ITIL Maturity Model also recognizes the need to identify primary and supporting practices during assessment scoping. As an example, if the scope of assessment is identified based on the organization’s strategic objectives, the practices directly contributing to the achievement of those objectives should be classified as primary for the assessment. Supporting practices are needed for the primary practices to effectively achieve their objectives and to function at higher capability levels.

A practice can be identified as primary or supporting for different scopes of assessment.

In the ITIL Maturity Model, for a primary practice within the scope of an assessment to achieve capability level 3, all supporting practices within the scope of that assessment must achieve capability level 1. This again recognizes that it is not really possible to focus only on a single practice when scoping and performing assessments.

Gaining clarity on the organization’s strategic areas of focus and objectives, and taking care to define a manageable scope for assessments is essential as it:

Ensures alignment with organizational priorities
Influences (or is dictated by) the availability of resources
Highlights the importance or relevance of specific practices
Encourages collaboration across practices
Helps to minimize change fatigue

Assessment Participants

A practice capability assessment typically involves a cross-section of stakeholders who represent different perspectives on how the practice performs and delivers value. Key participants include:

Practice owners and managers who provide insight into the design, governance, and performance aspects of the practice
Practitioners and support staff who describe how work is actually performed and where challenges exist
Practice customers who provide feedback on practice deliverables (outputs) and share how the practice impacts outcomes and satisfaction
Facilitators or assessors who guide the assessment process, ensuring alignment with the chosen assessment model and encouraging consistency in scoring

Together, these stakeholders provide a balanced view that blends strategic intent, operational reality, and employee and customer experience.

A well-scoped assessment will allow your organization to build out an actionable improvement plan or roadmap that is grounded in reality but guided by vision. A clear, intentional scope transforms assessments from a checklist into a course of action that helps your organization focus its energy where it matters most, and lays the groundwork for measurable, sustainable improvement.

Adapted source: The ITSM Process Design Guide

Other relevant webinars and blogs include:

It's Not About the Number: Assessing Practice Capability

ITIL Maturity and Practice Capability Assessments

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 2 – Conducting Assessments

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 3 – Analyzing and Reporting Results

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 4 – Creating and Executing a Roadmap

Relevant ITSM Academy certification courses include:

Certified Process Design Engineer (CPDE)
Value Stream Mapping Fundamentals (VSMF)
ITIL 4 Foundation (a prerequisite for all advanced ITIL 4 courses)

Our advisory services also include Process to Practice Workshops in which we help your team to successfully and rapidly evaluate and improve your selected service management practices.

In the ITIL 4 Qualification Scheme, a Practice Manager designation is available for professionals that want to prove and validate their skills in specific practice areas. Each of the ITIL 4 Managing Professional and Strategic Leader courses also introduce a set of practices that are relevant to the focus of the course.

Click here to learn more about the ITIL 4 Qualification Scheme.

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 3 – Analyzing and Reporting Out Results

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 21:52:00 +0000

By Donna Knapp

Before you can chart a course toward higher capability levels, you need to know your current position. A capability assessment provides that orientation. It is the moment you unfold the map and mark, “You are here.”

Capability assessments reveal not only how well individual practices are established, but how deeply they are embedded into the organization’s culture. They are not about chasing a number. They are about obtaining a clear, evidence-based understanding of where your capabilities stand. Well-scoped and well-conducted assessments shine a light on both strengths and weaknesses, and perhaps most importantly, they allow you to determine where targeted improvement will create the greatest value.

Assessments transform perception into data and data into direction.

Once you have gathered scored criteria, evidence, and data from across the organization, now comes the part of the assessment process where insight begins to take shape.

Each of the most widely used assessment models – Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), the ITIL Maturity Model, and ISO/IEC 33020 – define distinct capability levels that describe the degree to which a practice is established, managed, and continually improved.

To identify the current capability level for each practice within the scope of your assessment, compile the collected participant scores and evidence for each of the assessment criteria. Then, analyze those results by examining where evidence consistently support achievement, where interpretations differ, and where performance is different across teams and practices.

The level at which all of the criteria are being achieved with supporting evidence reflects your current capability level. This is not about counting votes or producing an average score. It is about looking for a consensus. If participants disagree on whether a criterion has been fully or partially achieved, next steps might include reexamining the evidence or clarifying participants’ interpretation of the criteria. It is the responsibility of the lead assessor or facilitator to either drive the group to a consensus based on evidence or, when that is not possible, declare that the lower rating prevails.

The capability level provides a baseline of the current state, but the analysis does not end there. The criteria that are being partially achieved or not achieved at the next capability level represent performance gaps that need to be filled. They may also represent untapped potential – areas where capability exists but is not being fully leveraged. For example, a practice that partially achieves data capture may already have tools in place but lacks the data quality, consistent usage or integration needed to produce meaningful information. In such a situation, a small improvement could make a big difference. Similarly, if communication or collaboration scores are low because teams lack a shared vocabulary, introducing a common language through targeted training can reduce confusion and misunderstanding, improve collaboration, reduce rework, and accelerate the adoption of best practices across the organization.

Look for the story the evidence is telling. Look for patterns, outliers, contradictions, areas of strength that can be expanded, and weak spots that indicate structural or cultural challenges.

Patterns suggest areas where improvements may be needed and include:

People (e.g., clarifying roles, providing needed education and training, addressing cultural debt)
Processes (eliminating waste, optimizing workflows, introducing or removing controls)
Technology (automating activities, integrating tools, leveraging AI or machine learning)
Information (improving data quality, enhancing reporting and analytics, promoting knowledge sharing and making knowledge accessible)

Now that you have illuminated where improvement may be needed, the next important step is to report out the results. Effective reporting blends narrative with evidence. Summaries should highlight capability levels for each practice, key strengths that can be leveraged, and the most critical performance gaps that require attention. Visuals such as heatmaps, radar charts, or before-and-after comparisons can make patterns immediately understandable. Narrative context helps stakeholders see not just what the results are, but what they mean in terms of the objectives that have been set for the assessment.

How the results are communicated, and how they are socialized, determines whether the assessment inspires action or gathers dust.

Socialization is the collective learning and shared understanding that occurs as stakeholders compare perspectives, ask questions, and explore the implications of the results. Think of it as a two-way conversation that encourages alignment, reduces misinterpretation, and strengthens the accuracy and usefulness of the results.

A myriad of methods enable effective socialization. If your stakeholders are used to speaking up in town hall meetings or Ask-Me-Anything webinars, that’s great. If they are more comfortable contributing to threads in Teams or Slack, take that route. There is no one right way, and the best method(s) should reflect your organization’s culture and the desired depth of interaction.

Feedback from circulating and socializing the assessment report provides invaluable insight that can be used to fine-tune the results and prepare the organization to act on the findings. Most importantly, the report must connect the findings to decision-making.

Once people have had a chance to digest and respond to the results, the focus shifts to “what are we going to do about it?” It is at this point that the organization is ready to translate the findings into concrete improvement opportunities. In other words, figure out how to improve.

Optimally, all improvement opportunities are captured in an improvement register or backlog and then prioritized based on the value they deliver. Considerations include:

The assessment scope and objectives
Your ITSM roadmap

Part 4 of this series describes the ITSM roadmap.

A clear view of your current capabilities is powerful. It replaces assumptions with insight and enables leaders to make decisions rooted in data and evidence rather than perception. With that clarity in hand, the organization is ready to turn understanding into action—and that is where meaningful improvement begins.

Adapted source: The ITSM Process Design Guide

Other relevant webinars and blogs include:

It's Not About the Number: Assessing Practice Capability

ITIL Maturity and Practice Capability Assessments

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 1 – Planning and Preparation

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 2 – Conducting Assessments

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 4 – Creating and Executing an ITSM Roadmap

Relevant ITSM Academy certification courses include:

Certified Process Design Engineer (CPDE)
Value Stream Mapping Fundamentals (VSMF)
ITIL 4 Foundation (a prerequisite for all advanced ITIL 4 courses)

Our advisory services also include Process to Practice Workshops in which we help your team to successfully and rapidly evaluate and improve your selected service management practices.

In the ITIL 4 Qualification Scheme, a Practice Manager designation is available for professionals who want to prove and validate their skills in specific practice areas. Each of the ITIL 4 Managing Professional and Strategic Leader courses also introduce a set of practices that are relevant to the focus of the course.

Click here to learn more about the ITIL 4 Qualification Scheme.

ITIL Maturity and Practice Capability Assessments

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 21:52:00 +0000

With the introduction of ITIL 4, some concepts have changed in ways that affect how service management assessments are performed.

(1) Focusing on practices vs. processes

ITIL 4 has evolved to focus on holistic practices vs. isolated processes. By definition, a practice is a set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective. In ITIL 4, each practice includes resources based on the four dimensions of service management. One of those dimensions is ‘value streams and processes’, and so while processes are still an important component of service management, they are now considered in a much more holistic context.

(2) Assessing practice capability vs. maturity

In 2021 AXELOS (now a part of PeopleCert) introduced the ITIL Maturity Model. Organizations can use this model to objectively and comprehensively assess their service management capabilities and the maturity of the organization’s service value system (SVS).

In this model, the term ‘maturity’ is applied to the organization’s SVS, and the term ‘capability’ is applied to the organization’s service management practices.

Although the ITIL maturity model is based on the architecture and concepts of ITIL 4, it is NOT designed to assess the extent or success of implementation of the ITIL guidance. Both practices and SVS components can be assessed in organizations that have been developing their service management capabilities and management systems using any relevant guidance and sources of good practice.

Assessing Service Value System Maturity

The SVS’s maturity is calculated based on the results of assessments of each of the five SVS components:

Guiding principles
Governance
Service value chain
Practices
Continual improvement

The overall maturity level of the SVS is defined as the lowest level achieved by an individual component. The maturity of the practices and continual improvement components is based on the results of capability assessments. Which practices are assessed when evaluating SVS maturity is based on the scope of the assessment.

Assessing Practice Capability

Organizations can also assess only the capability of one or more selected practices. This is a great starting point for organizations looking to improve their practices. Assessment models allow you to know how well your practices are established and improving.

These models are NOT designed to assess the efficiency or effectiveness of your practices, compliance with regulations or standards, or the progress of organizational initiatives.

These models provide a structured way to evaluate your organization’s ability to manage and improve your practices, and they serve as a diagnostic tool for continual improvement.

There are three assessment models you might think about using: Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), ISO/IEC 33020, and the ITIL Maturity Model.

Let’s dive deeper into how these models work using the ITIL Maturity Model as an example.

Where practices fall in terms of capability level is determined by analyzing evidence of practice specific criteria. Some (but not all) of the criteria for assessing ITIL practices can be found in the practice guides that are available via the PeopleCert Plus membership subscription.

The following scale applies to every management practice defined in the ITIL framework.

Level 1 – The practice is not well organized; it is performed as initial/intuitive. It may occasionally or partially achieve its purpose through an incomplete set of activities.
Level 2 – The practice systematically achieves its purpose through a basic set of activities supported by specialized resources.
Level 3 – The practice is well defined and achieves its purpose in an organized way, using dedicated resources and relying on inputs from other practices that are integrated into a service management system.
Level 4 – The practice achieves its purpose in a highly organized way, and its performance is continually measured and assessed in the context of the service management system.
Level 5 – The practice is continually improving organizational capabilities associated with its purpose.

Generally speaking, the levels are characterized as follows: At level 1, no formal practice has been established. Level 2 focuses on establishing the practice you are assessing. To achieve level 2, you must take on the tasks of defining, documenting, and implementing aspects of the practice such as its purpose and scope, processes, roles and responsibilities, and tools. You must also move away from relying on ad hoc ways of doing things and knowledge that exists only in the heads of subject matter experts (SMEs). This can be accomplished by providing education and knowledge resources to the practitioners responsible for doing the work of the practice. For some practices in some organizations, level 2 is adequate as it ensures the practice is documented, resourced, and consistently followed. It is not yet, however, deeply embedded in the organization nor is it continually measured and improved. It is enough when all the organization needs is stability and a baseline of consistency—without the overhead of higher maturity levels.

For organizations aiming to optimize the efficiency, effectiveness and economy of a practice, however, it’s time to consider higher levels.

Levels 3-5 focus on embedding practices into the organization, integrating them with other practices and business goals, and driving continual improvement through ongoing and proactive review and optimization. At level 3 we are moving towards integrating practices into the service value system and with other practices across value streams and so the focus becomes how two or more practices work together to achieve results. Use of an integrated information system comes into play at level 3 as well. Criteria related to practice automation are typically defined at levels 3 or higher because effective automation is only possible if the practice is well defined and organized. Level 4 focuses on managing practices with business-aligned metrics and metrics that drive improvement. At level 5, a commitment to continual improvement is key. This level involves allocating resources to regular reviews of the practice (all dimensions) and regular reviews of efforts to improve and optimize the practice.

Assessments make it possible to build improvement plans or a roadmap that describes the level of capability you want your practices to achieve in their future states. They also help identify what specific steps need to be taken to close the gap between your “as is” state and your desired “to be” state… one level at a time.

Other relevant blogs include:

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 1 – Planning and Preparation

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 2 – Conducting Assessments

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 3 – Analyzing and Reporting Results

Relevant ITSM Academy certification courses include:

Certified Process Design Engineer (CPDE)
Value Stream Mapping Fundamentals (VSMF)
ITIL 4 Foundation (a prerequisite for all advanced ITIL 4 courses)

Our advisory services also include Process to Practice Workshops in which we help your team to successfully and rapidly evaluate and improve your selected service management practices.

Click here to learn more about the ITIL 4 Qualification Scheme

Service Management Trinity: A Holistic Approach to Excellence

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 19:30:00 +0000

In ITIL 4, there are four dimensions… but at the heart lives the Service Management Trinity.

In the dynamic landscape of business operations, achieving and sustaining service excellence is a complex challenge. Service management plays a pivotal role in ensuring that organizations meet and exceed customer expectations. Enter the Service Management Trinity: a holistic approach that encompasses three key pillars: People, Processes, and Technology. In this blog, we explore how these elements synergize to create a framework for unparalleled service delivery.

People: The Heart of Service Management

At the core of any successful service management strategy are the people who drive it. The human element is the heartbeat of service excellence, as dedicated and skilled individuals form the backbone of effective operations. This includes not only frontline service professionals but also those working behind the scenes in roles such as training, leadership, and continuous improvement.

Communication, along with training and development programs, are crucial for cultivating a service-oriented mindset among employees. This involves imparting not only technical skills but also emphasizing soft skills such as communication, empathy, and problem-solving. When individuals are empowered and motivated, they become the driving force behind a positive customer experience.

Processes: Streamlining Operations for Efficiency

Efficient processes are the arteries that carry the lifeblood of service delivery. Establishing clear, standardized, and well-documented processes ensures that services are delivered consistently and meet predefined standards. This not only enhances the customer experience but also enables organizations to identify and rectify issues swiftly.

Adopting best practices such as ITIL can be instrumental in defining and optimizing service management processes, including (the other holy trinity 😀) incident management, change management, problem management, and more. Regular audits and evaluations help identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement, ensuring that processes evolve with the changing needs of the business.

Technology: Enabling Innovation and Automation

In the digital era, technology acts as the nervous system of service management. Leveraging modern tools and platforms can significantly enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Automation streamlines routine tasks, allowing human resources to focus on more complex and value-added activities.

Service management platforms, CRM systems, and artificial intelligence (AI) can revolutionize service delivery. These tools facilitate better communication and collaboration and provide valuable insights through data analytics. By harnessing technology, organizations can stay ahead of the curve and adapt to changing customer expectations. The old expression, A Fool With a Tool is Still a Fool, will always ring true, but the reality is a skilled individual can leverage a tool to achieve great results.

Perhaps we should shift it to:

“A fool with a tool creates tickets.

A skilled ITSM practitioner creates outcomes.”

Conclusion

The Service Management Trinity - People, Processes, and Technology - represents a comprehensive and interconnected framework for achieving and sustaining service excellence. Organizations that prioritize the development and empowerment of their people, streamline their processes, and leverage innovative technologies are better equipped to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of customer expectations. By embracing this holistic approach, businesses can not only meet but exceed customer demands, fostering long-term success and growth.

🧼📦 On the Soapbox - Slogans are easy. Action is harder.

Can you really say ‘People are the most important part of People, Process & Technology’ if you can’t answer yes to these three questions?

Are you actively measuring and improving the Employee Experience alongside the Customer Experience?
Do your people have the training, tools, and time they need to succeed?
Is leadership consistently prioritizing people outcomes over process convenience or technology adoption?

Don’t let ‘People First’ stop at words. Contact ITSM Academy, let us help you turn it into action.

Problem, Incident and Change Enablement Integration

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 20:32:00 +0000

“The purpose of the Problem Management practice is to reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents and by managing workarounds and known errors. (ITIL® 4)”

One of the ways that Problem Management reduces the likelihood and impact of incidents is by making changes via the Change Enablement practice.

Given the benefits, it’s a wonder more organizations don’t have highly capable and well-integrated Problem Management, Incident Management, and Change Enablement practices in their organizations.

One reason could be misconceptions about the Problem Management practice, which we explore in our blog Misunderstood and Misused - A Rant About Problem Management. Another reason could be the inability to support these practices with an integrated toolset that includes a solid Configuration Management System (CMS), as configuration information supports the activities of all these practices.

Of course, before we talk about tools, we must first optimize our practices. This means we must, as part of process engineering, think about how to integrate these practices in the context of a value stream. This will allow us to:

Leverage standardized workflow models that can effectively guide analysts through best practices for each of these practices
Optimize the flow of information and work across these practices to ensure that the right information and knowledge are communicated quickly and clearly to the correct stakeholders
Reduce resolution times and minimize impact by cutting across practice boundaries and breaking down silos (including practice silos)

We must also think about ensuring that the capability of these practices is appropriate for the desired level of integration. In the ITIL Maturity Model, it is at capability level 3 that practice integration comes into play.

Level 3 – The practice is well defined and achieves its purpose in an organized way, using dedicated resources and relying on inputs from other practices that are integrated into a service management system.

In this model, for the defined scope of an assessment, some practices are identified as primary and some as supporting. Primary practices are directly involved and necessary to achieve the objectives of the service value system (SVS) in the scope of the assessment. Supporting practices are needed for the primary practices to effectively achieve their objectives and to function at higher capability levels.

For a practice (Incident Management as an example) to be assessed at capability level 3, the supporting practices within the scope of the assessment must be assessed at capability level 1 at a minimum. Given that level 1 is still ad hoc in nature, supporting practices optimally assess at level 2, which means that even if only in a basic way, the practice systematically achieves its purpose.

It is common for organizations to first introduce the Incident Management practice, as the absence of this practice is likely to result in pain to both the organization and its customers. Also, without Incident Management, Problem Management lacks the data needed to validate that there is, in fact, a problem, and for subsequent problem analysis.

Integration points include:

Incident Management supports Problem Management activities by logging and categorizing incidents and by providing symptom and resolution data
Incident Management triggers Problem Management when recurring incidents are detected or when an incident (such as a major incident) requires problem analysis
Incident Management provides initial workaround and resolution information to assist with Problem Management activities

When organizations do introduce Problem Management, they often begin with reactive problem identification, which implies that incidents are already happening (vs. a proactive approach that focuses on identifying problems before they cause incidents).

Integration points include:

Problem Management supports Incident Management by analyzing identified problems and by providing workarounds and known errors to assist with incident diagnosis and resolution
Problem Management proactively identifies problems by analyzing monitoring data, configuration data, and information about potential errors from users, vendors, specialist teams, and external user and professional communities

Both Incident and Problem Management ensure that resolutions or workarounds that require a change to a configuration item are handled via the Change Enablement practice. Change Enablement manages these changes and provides status information back to Incident and Problem Management.

Integration points include:

Both Incident and Problem Management trigger Change Enablement when changes are needed to introduce resolutions
Incident Management identifies changes that have or are suspected of causing incidents
Change Enablement controls and implements changes initiated to resolve incidents and problems
Change Enablement uses incident data when evaluating change success rate
Change Enablement publishes the change schedule to promote awareness of scheduled and recently implemented changes for use as insight when incidents occur
Change Enablement supports incident and problem reviews, especially when it has been determined that a change has caused incidents, or to verify that a permanent resolution has been achieved

Effective integration of the Incident Management, Problem Management, and Change Enablement practices requires a shared understanding of the purpose of each practice and a smooth information flow. Each practice must fill its unique role while respecting the boundaries of interfacing practices.

Incident Management focuses on minimizing the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible
Problem Management focuses on identifying actual and potential causes of incidents, and managing workarounds and known errors
Change Enablement ensures that change-related risks are properly assessed and changes are authorized to proceed

When these practices are effectively integrated, they support each other without overlap or interference. Challenges arise when one practice oversteps or delays the work of another, or when one practice lacks the capability to consistently fill its role.

It's essential that they collaborate while respecting boundaries to drive continuous improvement and service stability.

To learn more, consider the following ITSM Academy courses:

Service Requests and Change Enablement

noreply@blogger.com (Professor P. Ross S. Wise) — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 19:30:00 +0000

I was having a discussion with a learner this morning about the difference between Service Requests and Standard Changes.

This learner's organization publishes a list of standard services that users can request via a self-help tool. The Service Request is routed to the Service Desk. The Service Desk reviews the request. If appropriate, the Service Request may be fulfilled by applying a Standard Change that has been pre-authorized by the Change Enablement practice.

By definition, a Standard Change is a low-risk, pre-authorized change that is well understood and fully documented, and which can be implemented without needing additional authorization. Standard Changes must be recorded, possibly as a Service Request. However, each individual change does not require operational oversight by a change authority. ‘Pre-authorized’ means that the procedure for making the standard change has undergone a full risk assessment and authorization. These risk assessment and authorization steps would only need to be repeated if there is a modification to the way the change is carried out.

It is important to note that not all Service Requests are Standard Changes. Service Requests are an important type of user query and can include requests for a service action or information, requests for access to a resource, service, or service offering, and even feedback, such as complaints and compliments. Similarly, not all Standard Changes are Service Requests. Standard Changes can be operational in nature and can include routine housekeeping tasks and updates, installations, moves or changes being performed as part of an internal project, and other low-risk changes that are not "requestable" by users. Any Service Request or Standard Change that presents a higher risk may require reassessment or may be classified as a Normal Change or Emergency Change by the Change Enablement practice.

An efficient Service Request Management practice requires good process integration with the Change Enablement practice. It is also important to provide the Service Desk staff with the training and empowerment to fulfill either Service Requests or apply Standard Changes when appropriate. Requiring both mechanisms to perform one action is bureaucratic. Finally, users must be made aware of available service requests (typically via a Request Catalog) and fulfillment procedures.

In ITIL 4, the relationship between Service Requests and Standard Changes is explored in the following classes:

ITIL 4 Foundation: Provides an overview of key concepts, including the definition and management of Service Requests and Standard Changes within the Service Value System.

ITIL 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver, and Support: Explores in detail the practices related to service management, including handling and processing Service Requests and Standard Changes, and how they support service delivery and support.

ITIL 4 Specialist: Drive Stakeholder Value: Covers the management of stakeholder interactions and the role of Service Requests and Standard Changes in meeting stakeholder needs and expectations.

ITIL 4 Specialist: Monitor, Support and Fulfil: Covers the key concepts of five ITIL Practices: Incident Management, Service Desk, Service Request Management, Monitoring and Event Management, and Problem Management.

10 Reasons You Should Get ITIL Certified

noreply@blogger.com (ITSM_Lisa) — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 19:30:00 +0000

Whether you’re just starting out in IT or you're looking to advance your career and make a bigger impact in your organization, ITIL certification is a smart investment in your future. Here are 10 compelling reasons to get ITIL certified. The 1st three are focused on Foundation, and the remaining seven spotlight the benefits of building on those credentials with Practice Manager, Managing Professional and Strategic Leader courses

Start Here: Why ITIL Foundation is Your First Step

1. Understand the Language of Modern IT
The ITIL Foundation certification introduces you to the key concepts, terms, and practices used across the IT Service Management (ITSM) landscape. Knowing how to “speak ITIL” helps you better communicate with colleagues, vendors, and leadership. No more lost-in-translation moments.

2. Get the Big Picture of Service Management
ITIL Foundation gives you a clear view of how IT contributes to business success, showing how value flows through services. You'll learn how customer experience, service delivery, and continuous improvement all fit together in a well-run IT organization.

3. Improve Your Daily Work, Immediately
Even if you're not in a leadership role, ITIL Foundation equips you with practical knowledge you can apply right away, in a way that supports better outcomes and reduces chaos.

Now That You Have Your ITIL Foundation Certification…

4. Deepen Your Expertise in Key Practice Areas
After Foundation, you can dive into specialized areas like Incident Management, Change Enablement, Problem Management, and more. These advanced certifications build tactical skills that help you run operations more effectively...and make you a go-to expert on your team!

5. Increase Your Career Opportunities and Earning Potential
ITIL-certified professionals are in high demand across industries. Adding more advanced certifications to your resume shows you’re committed to excellence and leadership, and often leads to better job prospects and higher salaries.

6. Drive Business Value, Not Just IT Projects
ITIL helps shift your focus from "just keeping the lights on" to delivering outcomes that matter to the business. The more you progress in your ITIL journey, the more you learn how to measure and communicate that value.

7. Lead with Confidence and Clarity
Whether you're managing a team, a project, or a transformation initiative, ITIL provides a structured framework that supports informed decision-making. Certifications like ITIL Managing Professional or Strategic Leader empower you with the tools to lead effectively in complex, fast-paced environments.

8. Become a Catalyst for Change and Innovation
ITIL is not just about processes (or practices!) It's about adaptability, agility, and continuous improvement. Advanced certification gives you the confidence to propose and implement changes that drive innovation without disrupting essential services.

9. Strengthen Collaboration Across Teams
As you move beyond Foundation, you’ll learn how to build stronger bridges between IT and other business units. ITIL emphasizes value co-creation and stakeholder engagement. Both are essential skills for today’s collaborative, cross-functional teams.

10. Future-Proof Your Skills in a Digital World
Digital transformation is not a trend; it’s the new normal. ITIL's updated guidance, especially in areas like Digital & IT Strategy (DITS), helps you stay relevant as technologies evolve and expectations rise. The more you grow your ITIL knowledge, the more adaptable and future-ready you'll be.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Whether you’re just starting with Foundation or ready to go deeper with ITIL Managing Professional, Strategic Leader, or Practice Manager, there’s a path that aligns with your goals.

📘 Read our "cheat sheet": Which Class is Right for Me?

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