First, ITIL is an acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library and its a non proprietary certification sponsored and organized by ITIL Certification Management Board (ICMB).
ITIL gives the foundational knowledge in It management and From a definition stand point, ITIL can be defined as a library of documents, it is an information technology framework that presents best practices and guidance to help facilitate the delivery of high quality IT services. Also, it outlines a management set of procedures to help support businesses to achieve high financial quality and high value in their IT operations
- ITIL Certification Path
ITIL provides 3 level of Certification namely:
- Foundation
- Practitional
- Manager
The ITIL foundation exam is an entry level exam which is required for the mid-level practional exam and the advanced Manager's exam.
Who Needs ITIL
Now, you might be wondering or asking yourself some questions such as: i am a system developer do i really need ITIL? I am a technical support person, do i need ITIL in technical support etc. The answer is YES, you do need ITIL skills. ITIL skills is required in almost every department of any organization because sometimes, its required that all of your staffs speak the same language regardless of their different background or knowledge base - This common language platform can be found in ITIL.
ITIL is meant for anyone who wants to get familiar with the best practices and guidelines for IT service management as defined by the ITIL guidelines. When you think about it, the concept of IT service management is critical to every organization and because every organization today largely depends on technology to operates and function, you need to be able to deliver quality IT services and these services have to be matched with your organizational needs and also the requirement of your clients and customers. Understand that this is an evolving process and must be provided in an economic fashion. Information Technology resources are limited, hence, you want to make sure that you make uptimum use of the scares resources. For this to happen, IT management skill is key and ITIL can give you the manageablity skills that you require.
Listed below are some of the departments that requires ITIL skills
IT Service management Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Management
Technical Support
Application Development & Maintenance
Business and IT stakeholders
Taking The Exam
The ITIL certification exam falls under IT Service Management exam. This Exam can only be taken from an accredited EI (Exam Institute) and EXIN is the body that is responsible for delivering IT service exams which ITIL happens to be one of.
The exam is composed of 40 multiple choice questions with a 90-minute time limit.
Advantages and Disadvantage of ITIL
Below are some of the pros and cons of ITIL:
Benefits
* Service agreements are more customer – focused
* Quality, Availability, Reliability, are better-managed
* Communication with IT organization improves
* Better control of infrastructure and services
* Framework for IT outsourcing
Cons (Pitfalls)
* may involve drastic change in biz culture
* Baseline data is critical to analyze result/improvement
* Commitment is needed from all levels of business*
* Can't isolate task to single team, committee, or department
* Must understand ITIL is framework of best practices and not a document Nig. const.
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Kazeem Adegboyega provides consulting services to companies. He also regularly instructs in workshops on courses such as CCNA, MCSE, Oracle and other technical courses. Feel free to drop him a line at kazman@theikons.com. |
