Page numbers refer to the pdf page numbers of the Learner Workbook, not the content page numbers.
Chapter numbers (prefixed with §) refer to the Official Book or Practice Guide.
Module 1: General intro, revision of terms
Terms from other management practices
Business as usual: Typically, repeatable routine tasks that can be carried out by people with appropriate technical skills without needing to
be managed as a project.
Continual improvement § 2.2
Risk: A possible event that could cause harm or loss or make it more difficult to achieve objectives. It can also be defined as
uncertainty of outcome and can be used in the context of measuring the probability of positive outcomes as well as
negative outcomes.
Risk management § 2.2.1
The risk capacity of an organization is the maximum amount of risk that the organization can tolerate
and is often based on factors such as damage to reputation, assets, and so on.
Risk management § 2.2.2
The risk appetite of an organization is the amount of risk that the organization is
willing to accept. This should always be less than the risk capacity of the organization.
Risk management § 2.2.3
Control: The means of managing a risk, ensuring that a business objective is achieved, or that a process is followed.
Risk management § 2.2.6
Portfolio: A collection of assets into which an organization chooses to invest its resources in order to receive the best return.
Portfolio management § 2.1
Request for change (RFC): A description of a proposed change used to initiate change enablement.
Change enablement § 2.1
Improvement initiative: Not actually defined in any practice. :-)
Practice guides also use the phrases "improvement initiative", "implementation initiative", and "optimisation initiative".
Terms from outside ITIL
Definitive media library (DML): A secure information technology repository in which an organisation"s definitive, authorised versions of software media are stored and protected. The term is also used in § 5.1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitive_media_library
Infrastructure as Code: The process of managing and provisioning computer data center resources through machine-readable definition files.
Wikipedia.
Microsoft Learn.
Terms I Often Got Wrong
Verification is a continuous background activity while an audit is a planned endeavour.
ITAM § 2.2.5, SCM § 2.2.6.
The CMDB, IT asset register, accounting systems, and so on all indicate what should be found. An inventory reveals what is found. The identification and resolution of gaps between the two is verification.
Module 2: Change enablement
§ 2.3 Scope
Note all the positive language. No mention of "failure" or "minimising" or "managing". It's all about "enabling".
To discuss: Can a change not be an improvement? Can an improvement not be a change?
§ 2.5 Key metrics
What is a timeliness processing index? How is it calculated?
As far as I can find, the only mention of it on the internet is its two mentions in this document.
§ 3.1.1 Change enablement planning and optimization
Additional inputs?
• Change review reports.
• Security policies and plans.
§ 3.1.2 Change lifecycle management
As an aside, SRM uses "service request model initiation and control" for the activity that CE calls "change realization control".
§ 3.2.2 Change enablement in service value streams, Table 3.5
The table does not have an entry for Problem Resolution. I think it should be a line of its own, but it could be covered by "Product and service continual improvement".
This comment applies to all five management practices.
§ 3.2.2 Change enablement in service value streams, Figure 3.4
The diagram (figure 3.5) is slightly different in CE, RM, and DM. It has the same boxes, but the labels are different.
I think the meaning is the same across all three, but since I"m not 100% sure about the meaning, I"m not confident about that. :-(
On the left, I think the boxes relate to management practices, even though they don"t use the normal abbreviations. REQ is service request management, INC is incident management, MEM is monitoring and event management, PRB is problem management, SLM is service level management. I"m not sure how an RFC comes from service level management, though, I would have thought that if SLM asked for a change it would go through service design and/or service validation and testing.
Table 3.5 and the paragraph after it are a better description of where RFCs can originate from. I"d add problem resolution to the table (see above). Note that we should create change models for all of these sources, whenever possible.
DM, RM
In all cases, deployment and release are part of change implementation. The CE practice ensures that the correct deployment or release model is selected, scheduled and managed. DM and RM ensure that valid models are available and correctly executed.
§ 3.2.2.1 Request fulfilment value stream
This refers to, I think, the service request fulfilment control process (service request management § 3.1.1).
§ 3.2.2.2 Service improvement value stream
I don"t know what value stream this refers to. There is no such value stream, at least not in service level management, service design, service validation and testing, and continual improvement.
§ 3.2.2.1 Product improvement value stream
I don"t know what this is either.
§ 4.2 Organizational structures and teams
"With the decrease of manual processing of changes, there is also less need for formalized structures for change enablement."
Not "no need".
Module 3: Deployment management
§ 3.1.1 Deployment model development and improvement
Additional inputs?
• Risk information.
• Financial guidelines and constraints.
• Product architecture. (This is included in RM)
• Service catalogue. (This is included in RM)
Why "Deployment failure reports" instead of just "Deployment review reports"?
I really like how the authors added "lessons learnt" as an output.
§ 3.1.2 Deployment lifecycle management
Why is there no "Identification of applicable model" activity?
Release management § 3.1.2
Additional outputs?
• Deployment review reports.
Should "Deployment requirements and expectations" be rephrased as "Deployment models and procedures"?
§ 4 Organisations and people
Why is there no mention of the deployment practitioner role in the tables?
§ 4.1.3 Roles involved in the deployment management activities
What is "supplier" doing in table 4.2?
§ 4.2 Organizational structures and teams
I think the first paragraph is easier to understand if you replace "designated" with "dedicated".
§ 6 Partners and Suppliers
Replace "Provision of software tools" with "Provision of tools". Partners and suppliers provide both digital and physical tools.
Module 4: Release management
§ 2.1 Purpose and description
Key point: Release management supports onboarding and offboarding. In other words, all IMAC/R/D operations.
§ 2.2.4 Hypothesis testing and experimentation
What are blue/green and canary deployments?
https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/devops/what-is-blue-green-deployment.
https://circleci.com/blog/canary-vs-blue-green-downtime/.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue%E2%80%93green_deployment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_toggle#Canary_release.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing.
§ 3.1.1 Release model development and improvement
Additional inputs?
• Risk information.
• Financial guidelines and constraints.
• Service configuration information.
Additional outputs?
• Communication of release management approaches and models.
• Release review reports.
I really like how the authors added "lessons learnt" as an output.
§ 3.1.2 Release planning and coordination
Additional outputs?
• Improvement initiatives (it's in the workflow).
Module 5: Service configuration management
Overview
For all value streams, SCM plays a supporting role, but a very important one, as does ITAM.
It is rare to see SCM and ITAM activities in the core value streams of an organisation, however those value streams often reply on the information provided by the SCM and ITAM practices. Assessment and planning activities, in particular, are often highly dependent on the trustworthiness, timeliness, and usefulness of this information.
Key point
SCM (and ITAM) could manage our resources, upstream providers" resources, and downstream consumers" resources.
Terms
CMS and CMDB are used interchangeably a lot, both in PeopleCert"s publications and in the wider industry. Sometimes organisations will define the CMS as the organisation"s CMDBs and AMDBs (though ITIL 4 uses the term "asset register" instead of "asset management database", and in a few places "CI register" instead of "configuration management database").
§ 2.1 Purpose and description
The question "Is a person a CI?" has generated a lot of discussion during Foundation classes.
On the "yes" side, we have the idea that a person"s knowledge and certifications need to be managed. For example, I am required to be an Authorised PeopleCert Instructor to teach these classes. Someone"s role includes making sure that Lumify"s trainers have current certs. Doesn"t that come under service configuration management?
On the "no" side we have the idea that CIs are things and we shouldn"t treat people as things. In this case, the organisation might manage certifications as part of the workforce and talent management practice.
§ 2.2.4 CI lifecycle models
ITAM has a formal definition of "IT asset lifecycle" but SCM does not have one for "CI lifecycle".
§ 2.4.2 Ensuring that the costs of providing configuration information are continually optimized
There is no mention of "risk" or "outcome" in the title of this section, just "cost", but it is about optimising all three. See the "effectiveness and efficiency" comment in the first paragraph.
Why is "avoid adding new sources and tools unless they are justified" under SWYA, not KISP?
§ 3.1.1 Managing a common approach to service configuration management
The activities and outputs for this process are the same in ITAM and SCM, but the inputs are very different.
Additional inputs?
• Technology trends.
• Financial data.
• Organisational strategy.
Typo/Error: In the input column, the entry "Monitoring datas" (note the boldfaced s) should be two entries.
• Monitoring data.
• Practice records.
Typo?: In the output column, "CMDB" should be "CMS".
§ 3.1.3 Verifying configuration data
This process is very different to the corresponding one in ITAM.
Why does this process not include audit activities? They don"t appear in any of the processes, and this one seems like where they should be (based on ITAM practice).
§ 4.1.3 Resource owner role
Note that the resource owner is responsible for developing and maintaining the CI lifecycle models.
§ 5.2.1 Recommendations for the automation of service configuration management
From ITAM, we might also add:
• Consider leveraging super-users.
• Ensure that self-help capabilities are available and convenient.
Typo?: In the last bullet point, "CMDB" should be "CMS".
§ 7.1 Practice Capability Levels
Note that "Configuration information is managed using an integrated information system" is level 4, not the level 3 you might expect from looking at other practices and at the description of the levels.
ITAM has a VSP level 4 criterion of "The quality and availability of the IT asset information are measured and reported". SCM has no equivalent.
§ 8 Recommendations for practice success
"Develop the practice continually but don’t overcomplicate it" is great advice for every practice. :-)
Module 6: IT asset management
§ 2.4.2 Ensuring that the utilization of IT assets is continually monitored and optimized
I feel that what this section is talking about is not just technical debt but also waste.
https://theleanway.net/The-8-Wastes-of-Lean.
It is technical debt because we have accepted a workaround of underutilisation instead of a systemic solution of reconfiguring the assets and/or our use of them.
Page 149: The key PSF metrics
What is ROI and VOI?
https://institute.uschamber.com/move-from-roi-to-voi/.
https://visitjeromeidaho.com/2019/05/roi-vs-voi/.
§ 3.1.1 Managing a common approach to IT asset management
The activities and outputs for this process are the same in ITAM and SCM, but the inputs are very different.
Financial guidelines and constraints is not listed as an input. ITAM doesn"t cover making purchase decisions; just on managing the assets that have been purchased.
Additional inputs?
• Stakeholder requirements (it's in the workflow).
• Organisational architectures.
• Organisational portfolios.
§ 3.1.2 Managing the IT asset lifecycle and records
The equivalent SCM process included an input of requests for data. This process doesn"t include that at all.
§ 3.1.3 Verifying, auditing, and analysing IT assets
Additional inputs?
• Surveys.
Why no "Identify an IT asset lifecycle model" activity? The lifecycle model is where the audit and verification procedures are listed.
Additional outputs?
• Improvement initiatives.
§ 4.1.6 IT asset owner
In SCM, the owner is responsible for developing and maintaining the CI lifecycle models. There is no such responsibility in ITAM.
§ 7.1 Practice Capability Levels
Note that "IT asset information is managed using an integrated information system" is level 4, not the level 3 you might expect from looking at other practices and at the description of the levels.
Sample paper 1
27) An organization has a small, centralized IT asset management team. One team member is responsible for the maintenance of all IT assets throughout their lifecycle. They are also the most knowledgeable person in how to manage software and cloud assets.
What TWO roles is this staff member carrying out?
1. IT asset analyst
2. IT asset manager
3. IT asset custodian
4. License manager
A. 1 and 2
B. 2 and 3
C. 3 and 4
D. 1 and 4 (Correct)
My comment: This is an example of a "least wrong answer" question. The staff member is definitely not an IT asset manager (who manages the ITAM approach) or an IT asset custodian (who ensures that ITAM procedures are consistently applied), so they have to be the other two, even though nothing in the question (apart from the word "cloud"?) is in the description of license manager. To confuse things even further, the practice guide says "… this role is commonly combined with the software IT asset manager role." (§ 4.1.5).
29) There is no asset type for a low-cost device that a product team has bought to test a new idea. How should this device be treated by IT asset management while this new idea is being tested?
A. The IT asset manager should create a new IT asset type for the device
B. The device is not an IT asset and can be ignored by IT asset management (Correct)
C. The closest matching IT asset type should be assigned to the device
D. The ITAM approach should be updated to include this new asset type
My comment: While (B) is the answer to the question (remember the point of multichoice questions), I think it's dangerous in the real world situation. The correct response to "we"ve found an asset that has no type/model" is to stop and consider "do we need to create a type and/or model?" before choosing to ignore the device.
Sample paper 2
2) Which TWO activities should be covered as part of change enablement initiation?
1. Informing stakeholders about any changes to change models
2. Analysing the procedures related to change enablement
3. Describing the rules used to assign priorities to changes
4. Agreeing on the roles and responsibilities for change enablement
A. 1 and 2
B. 2 and 3
C. 3 and 4 (Correct)
D. 1 and 4
My comment: I think this is another "least wrong answer" question. The "change enablement initiation" activity (the first in the "change enablement planning and optimization" process) involves documenting the initial version, not about agreeing on anything. However, 1 (the "change model and procedure update communication" activity) and 2 (the "change review and planning" activity) are certainly incorrect.
45) An organization has noticed that releases involving products developed in-house are more successful than those involving third-party products.
What action should the organization take to improve this situation?
A. Create metrics for each stage of the release planning and coordination process and automate the data capture and analysis of the metrics
B. Create appropriate models for each type of release and automate the execution of the activities in each model (Correct)
C. Create collaboration opportunities for each group of specialists working within the organization’s value steams
D. Create a single set of automated procedures for releases which are close in nature to the procedures used for the successful third-party product releases
My comment: Wouldn"t your first action be to find out why? Only then can we create/modify the appropriate models. Then again, "least worst answer".