ITIL Foundation ITIL Practices Overview and the Concept of Practices Syllabus

Why must each practice be considered against all four dimensions of service management?

To ensure a holistic, balanced approach; neglecting any dimension can cause a practice to fail to deliver expected value or quality.

Which of the four dimensions is most directly addressed by the supplier management practice?

Partners and suppliers (it manages the organization's relationships with the suppliers that provide products and services).

Which of the four dimensions is most directly addressed by the information security management practice?

Primarily information and technology, though it spans all four dimensions to protect information.

What is the purpose of the information security management practice?

To protect the information needed by the organization to conduct its business, including managing the risks to confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information, plus authentication and non-repudiation.

What does the 'CIA triad' stand for in information security management?

Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability — the three core properties of information that the practice seeks to protect.

In information security, what does 'confidentiality' mean?

Ensuring that information is only observed or disclosed to people who have a right to know it (not made available to unauthorized people).

In information security, what does 'integrity' mean?

Ensuring that information is accurate and complete, and is not modified without authorization.

In information security, what does 'availability' mean (security context)?

Ensuring that information is available and can be used when required, and that the systems providing it can resist attacks and recover from failures.

In information security, what do 'authentication' and 'non-repudiation' mean?

Authentication = ensuring someone is who they claim to be. Non-repudiation = ensuring that someone cannot deny that they took an action (e.g., a transaction is undeniable).

What is the purpose of the supplier management practice?

To ensure that the organization's suppliers and their performance are managed appropriately to support the seamless provision of quality products and services.

What are the typical activities of the supplier management practice?

Creating a single point of visibility and control over suppliers; negotiating and agreeing contracts; managing relationships and contracts during operation; and managing supplier performance.

What is an SLA, and which practice primarily uses it?

A service level agreement (SLA) is a documented agreement between a service provider and a customer that defines required services and expected service levels. It is central to service level management (and underpinned by supplier contracts in supplier management).

What is the purpose of the IT asset management practice?

To plan and manage the full lifecycle of all IT assets, to help the organization maximize value, control costs, manage risks, support decision-making about purchase/reuse/retirement, and meet regulatory/contractual requirements.

What is an 'IT asset' as defined by the IT asset management practice?

Any financially valuable component that can contribute to the delivery of an IT product or service.

What is the purpose of the monitoring and event management practice?

To systematically observe services and service components, and record and report selected changes of state identified as events; it identifies and prioritizes infrastructure, services, business processes and security events, and establishes appropriate responses including responding to conditions that could lead to faults or incidents.

In ITIL, what is an 'event'?

Any change of state that has significance for the management of a service or other configuration item (CI). Events are typically recognized through notifications created by an IT service, CI, or monitoring tool.

What are the three common types/classifications of events in monitoring and event management?

Informational events (require no action), warning events (something is approaching a threshold/something unusual), and exception events (a breach of a threshold or abnormal condition requiring action).

What is the difference between 'active monitoring' and 'passive monitoring'?

Active monitoring polls CIs/services to check their status. Passive monitoring waits for and detects events generated by the CIs/services themselves.

What is the relationship between monitoring and event management, and incident management?

Monitoring and event management detects events; significant exception events may trigger or be escalated to incident management (or problem management) for resolution. Not all events are incidents.

What is the purpose of the release management practice?

To make new and changed services and features available for use.

In ITIL, what is a 'release'?

A version of a service or other configuration item, or a collection of configuration items, that is made available for use.

How does release management differ from deployment management?

Deployment management moves new or changed components to live (or other) environments; release management makes services and features available for use. A deployment does not necessarily mean a release, and a release can occur separately from deployment.

What is the purpose of the deployment management practice?

To move new or changed hardware, software, documentation, processes, or any other component to live environments; it may also be involved in deploying components to other environments for testing or staging.

Name four common deployment management approaches.

1) Phased deployment, 2) Continuous delivery (continuous integration/continuous deployment), 3) Big bang deployment, and 4) Pull deployment.

What is the purpose of the service configuration management practice?

To ensure that accurate and reliable information about the configuration of services, and the configuration items (CIs) that support them, is available when and where it is needed.

In ITIL, what is a 'configuration item' (CI)?

Any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver an IT service. CIs include hardware, software, networks, buildings, people, documentation, suppliers, and more.

What is a CMDB and how does it relate to a CMS?

A configuration management database (CMDB) stores configuration records of CIs throughout their lifecycle. A configuration management system (CMS) is a set of tools, data, and information used to support service configuration management — it may comprise one or more CMDBs.

How do release management, deployment management and service configuration management work together?

Service configuration management provides accurate CI information; deployment management moves components into environments; release management controls when those changes are made available to users. Together they enable controlled delivery of new/changed services.

Which of these is a technical management practice: deployment management, release management, or service configuration management?

Deployment management is a technical management practice. Release management and service configuration management are service management practices.

Of information security management, supplier management, and service configuration management, which is a general management practice?

Both information security management and supplier management are general management practices; service configuration management is a service management practice.

Summarize the depth-of-knowledge split for the nine 'overview' practices on the ITIL Foundation exam.

For information security management, relationship management, supplier management, IT asset management, monitoring and event management, release management, service configuration management, and deployment management, only the purpose (recall) is required — not detailed key concepts. (Architecture and other practices are out of scope at Foundation.)