ITIL Foundation Service Management Foundations and Key Concepts Syllabus

Service Management Foundations and Key Concepts syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Service Management Foundations and Key Concepts in ITIL Foundation, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Introduction to ITIL 4 and Service Management

   3 topics

   • What ITIL is and the purpose of the ITIL 4 framework
     • Evolution from ITIL v3 to ITIL 4
     • ITIL as best-practice guidance, not a rigid standard
     • Adopt and adapt principle for organisational context
   • Defining service management as a professional discipline
     • Specialised organisational capabilities
     • Enabling value through services
   • The structure of the ITIL 4 framework
     • Service Value System (SVS)
     • Four dimensions model
2. 2

   Core Definitions of Service Management

   4 topics

   • Service and its components
     • Goods, access to resources, and service actions
     • Service offerings
   • Products as configurations of resources
     • Difference between products and services
   • Organisations, providers, consumers and other stakeholders
     • Service provider, service consumer, sponsor, customer, user
   • Utility and warranty
     • Fitness for purpose (utility)
     • Fitness for use (warranty)
3. 3

   Value and Value Co-creation

   4 topics

   • The concept of value
     • Perceived benefits, usefulness and importance
     • Subjectivity of value to the consumer
   • Value co-creation between provider and consumer
     • Active collaboration replacing one-way value delivery
   • Cost and risk in the value equation
     • Costs removed from and imposed on the consumer
     • Risks removed from and imposed on the consumer
   • Outputs versus outcomes
     • Tangible deliverables (outputs)
     • Results enabled for stakeholders (outcomes)
4. 4

   Service Relationships

   3 topics

   • The service relationship model
     • Service provision activities
     • Service consumption activities
   • Service relationship management
     • Ongoing collaboration over the lifecycle
   • Service offerings and agreements
     • How offerings underpin relationships

Service Management Foundations and Key Concepts flashcards for ITIL Foundation

25 of 59 cards from the Service Management Foundations and Key Concepts deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is ITIL?

   ITIL is a best-practice framework for IT service management (ITSM). It provides guidance on how organisations can use IT as a tool to enable business change, transformation and growth. ITIL stands for IT Infrastructure Library.

2. What is the purpose of the ITIL 4 framework?

   To provide organisations with comprehensive, practical and proven guidance for managing services in a modern digital economy, helping them co-create value and address the challenges of digital transformation, Agile, DevOps and Lean ways of working.

3. Define service management as a professional discipline.

   Service management is a set of specialised organisational capabilities for enabling value for customers in the form of services.

4. What are the 'specialised organisational capabilities' referred to in the definition of service management?

   They are the functions, processes, skills, knowledge, experience and management methods an organisation develops over time to deliver value through services; they require understanding the nature of value, the scope of stakeholders, and how value is co-created.

5. According to ITIL 4, what is required to develop the specialised capabilities of service management?

   An understanding of the nature of value, the scope and nature of the stakeholders involved, and how value creation is enabled through services.

6. What are the two key components (the major elements) of the ITIL 4 framework?

   The ITIL service value system (SVS) and the four dimensions model.

7. What does the ITIL service value system (SVS) describe?

   How all the components and activities of an organisation work together as a system to enable value creation. It includes the guiding principles, governance, the service value chain, practices, and continual improvement.

8. List the components of the ITIL service value system (SVS).

   1) Guiding principles, 2) Governance, 3) Service value chain, 4) Practices, and 5) Continual improvement. (Inputs are opportunity and demand; output is value.)

9. What is the input to, and the output from, the ITIL service value system?

   Input: opportunity and demand. Output: value.

10. Define a service in ITIL 4.

    A service is a means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve, without the customer having to manage specific costs and risks.

11. In the ITIL 4 definition of a service, what two things does the customer avoid having to manage?

    Specific costs and specific risks.

12. Define a product in ITIL 4.

    A product is a configuration of an organisation's resources designed to offer value for a consumer.

13. How are products and resources related in ITIL 4?

    Products are configurations of an organisation's resources (such as people, information, technology, value streams, processes, and suppliers/partners), created and managed by the service provider to offer value to consumers.

14. Can a single product be the basis for more than one service? Explain.

    Yes. Products are typically complex and not fully visible to the consumer. A single product can underpin several different services, and products are tailored to target groups of consumers through service offerings.

15. Define an organisation in ITIL 4.

    A person or a group of people that has its own functions with responsibilities, authorities and relationships to achieve its objectives.

16. In a service relationship, what are the two principal roles an organisation can take?

    Service provider and service consumer. An organisation can be a provider in one relationship and a consumer in another (and often both simultaneously).

17. Define a service provider.

    A role an organisation takes on when providing services to consumers.

18. Define a service consumer.

    A generic role used to refer to an organisation that consumes services. The consumer role is further divided into three specific roles: customer, user and sponsor.

19. Name and define the three specific roles within the service consumer.

    Customer: defines requirements for a service and takes responsibility for outcomes of its consumption. User: uses the service. Sponsor: authorises the budget for service consumption.

20. Which consumer role authorises the budget for service consumption?

    The sponsor.

21. Which consumer role defines requirements and is responsible for the outcomes of consuming a service?

    The customer.

22. Besides customer, user and sponsor, give examples of other stakeholders in service management.

    Individual employees of the provider, shareholders, suppliers and partners, government/regulatory bodies, social/community groups, and charities. Each may have different definitions of value.

23. Define utility.

    Utility is the functionality offered by a product or service to meet a particular need. It is what the service does and can be summarised as 'fit for purpose'.

24. Define warranty.

    Warranty is the assurance that a product or service will meet agreed requirements. It is how the service performs and can be summarised as 'fit for use'.

25. Contrast utility and warranty using the 'fit for' phrases.

    Utility = 'fit for purpose' (what the service does, removes constraints or supports performance). Warranty = 'fit for use' (how it performs, addressing availability, capacity, security and continuity).

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