ITIL Certification at a Glance - Everything About the ITIL Training

ITIL Certification - What is it?

ITIL 4 (IT Infrastructure Library) is a collection of Axelos in a series of publications that describe a possible implementation of IT service management (ITSM) and is therefore an internationally recognized IT management framework. The main goal is to improve the quality and predictability of an organization's services. The ITIL process helps companies manage and monitor their services more efficiently. In addition, costs are reduced and employee productivity is increased. The benefits of ITIL certifications are not just limited to companies. They are applicable across environments and industries. ITIL can help with:

• Continuous improvement of services
• Proof of compliance
• Avoid common pitfalls

What does an ITIL certification bring me?

An ITIL certification gives you a professional edge in the IT industry. Certification in this area focuses on the design, transition, operation, and improvement of a company's services. This means that you can learn more about the different aspects of a company's service delivery and improve the efficiency of your own company. You'll also learn how to measure performance and avoid bottlenecks. This certification is a great way to show that you've put the time and effort into becoming a certified IT professional.

ITIL 4 - IT Service Management

ITIL 4 is an adaptable framework used by service management organizations around the world. It optimizes digital technologies to create value together, drive business strategy and promote digital transformation. ITIL 4 provides common practices and languages to ensure your teams are aligned in their work.

ITIL certifications demonstrate that you are trained in service management best practices and can use processes, terminology and methodologies common to modern IT. ITIL certified professionals are in high demand: they have the skills to grow and transform the business.

What are the advantages of an ITIL certification?

The advantages of ITIL certifications are obvious:

• They improve the quality and predictability of your services.
• They improve individual and organizational productivity.
• They significantly improve customer satisfaction.
• And the benefits of ITIL certifications are universal, regardless of industry and environment.

For you, the ITIL certification is an investment in your future. It builds on previous experiences and allows you to continue learning as you progress. For many companies, the biggest benefits of ITIL are its versatility and scalability: companies can adopt as little or as much of ITIL as they want, and they can also combine it with practices that follow other popular frameworks, such as:,

• COBIT
• TOGAF
• Many more

Digital services are typically based on ongoing project management that focuses on the goals of the service while paying attention to the inevitable issues in the development, delivery and maintenance of the service. If you are an IT administrator looking to advance in your career, you should consider getting certified with the ITIL Framework.

As you progress through the different stages of the process, you'll learn how to implement IT policies and practices, manage change, and make IT services work for you. After completing the course, you will learn how to implement the framework in your organization. A good IT service management approach is knowing exactly how to integrate all of these ever-changing factors into your development process.

Business benefits of ITIL include:

• Helps IT organizations focus on solving business problems and not just IT problems.
• Reduces IT operational costs.
• Improves IT productivity and employee satisfaction.
• Establishes low-cost practices.
• Builds a stable environment that allows for growth, scaling and change.
• Supports the management of risks, disruptions and failures.
• Strengthen customer relationships by offering efficient services that meet their needs.

Benefits of ITIL certifications:

The benefits of your accreditation or certification are priceless. With an ITIL certification, you can:

• Build a solid foundation of product knowledge
• Accelerate your professional development
• Significantly increase your earning potential
• Increase your productivity significantly
• Increase your credibility
• Become a leading, solution-oriented professional

The benefits are not limited to the certified individual. Organizations also see far-reaching benefits from adopting ITIL, including:

• Align IT with business
• Providing quality services that better meet the needs of their customers
• Improving the quality of IT services provided by the company,
• Reduction of time, money and other resources spent throughout the service development lifecycle
• Increase in customer satisfaction
• Increase in employee morale

When these guidelines are followed, organizations can expect:

• A better, more tangible understanding of their customers, their needs, and their expectations
• Increased productivity
• Risk management that minimizes or prevents service disruptions
• A stable yet flexible development environment

Industry experts as well as ITIL-certified people often agree that certification is the responsibility of both the individual and the company. Many organizations today compete for work, and applying best practices across an organization can help them win more business and work. ITIL training is a lifelong process that can improve a company's productivity and services.

The benefits of ITIL training are worth the investment in certification. So what are you waiting for? Get certified today!

Principles of ITIL 4

ITIL gives the organization the autonomy to adapt to its persona and goals. At the same time, it recommends that companies regularly practice the following for value-based delivery:

• Focus on value
• Start where you are right now
• Make iterative progress with feedback
• Cooperation and promotion of visibility
• Think and work holistically
• Keep it simple and practical
• Optimize and automate

Why is ITIL so popular?

ITIL is preferred by employers because of the added value an ITIL certificate holder brings to an organization. Its universal acceptance in the job market makes it a popular choice for IT professionals. Its popularity stems from the benefits companies derive from the knowledge of ITIL.

With ITIL, an employer can systematize their IT service operations and add more professionalism. In this way, a company can achieve cost reduction, customer satisfaction, better turnaround time, improved productivity, better third-party delivery, better risk management, and troubleshooting, to name a few. With these obvious advantages, recruiting ITIL-certified teams offers an upgrade for any company.

How can ITIL help your business?

The ITIL framework contains best practices on how companies can optimize their ITSM for growth and change. ITIL is about adoption and adaptation, not the blanket application of a fixed set of activities.

How long does an ITIL project take?

ITIL is not a "project" but an ongoing journey to improve IT service management. Best practices need to be built into everything, and they need to evolve as the business evolves. With IT staff buy-in, changes can begin once staff is trained, and some results should be visible within weeks or months. However, process changes take time as ingrained bad practices are rooted out and modified (and staff turnover may occur), but many companies typically report significant savings after their first year.

ITIL 4 certification levels

How does the certification work? The ITIL certification is divided into four certification levels. A person can only pursue entry or intermediate certification, while a project manager or CIO can pursue expert or master status in ITIL.

Out of five levels, the first three are based on:

• Number of credits
• Passing exams

However, achieving the ultimate master's level does not rely on credits. Instead, it has its criteria.

Here are the ITIL 4 certification levels:

ITIL Foundation certification

The ITIL 4 Foundation certification introduces the ITIL Framework and allows candidates to view ITSM through an End-to-End operational model for the creation, delivery, and continuous improvement of technology-enabled products and services. The certification can help candidates who need a basic understanding of the ITIL framework, want to use ITIL to improve ITSM, or whose organization has adopted ITIL.

The ITIL 4 Foundation course introduces participants to the ITIL framework with a focus on:

• Key concepts of service management including value creation and service relationships
• The 4 dimensions of service management
• The ITIL Service Value System (SVS) including the mission statement and service value chain
• 7 key ITIL practices

After passing the exam, you will have the option to pursue two streams depending on your career goals: Managing Professional or Strategic Leader.

• ITIL 4 Specialist Create, Deliver & Support (CDS):

This module is designed to provide IT service management practitioners with the knowledge, skills, and techniques needed to create and manage successful IT service projects. The course focuses on service quality, performance, and improvement techniques.To gain a thorough understanding of the core materials of the course, candidates must have completed the ITIL Managing Professional module.

The ITIL 4 Specialist Create & Deliver & Support course integrates various activities, methods, and tools to improve the quality of service delivery. It also covers topics such as service design, which will help you define and create new service offerings as well as improve existing ones.

You will also learn about agile concepts, release management, and deployment management. This module enables IT practitioners to continue offering innovative yet reliable technology-enabled services to their customers in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

• ITIL 4 Specialist Drive Stakeholder Value (DSV):

This module is intended for practitioners responsible for managing customer experiences, journeys, and relationships. The core material is available in the ITIL 4 Managing Professional modules, which are also required.

This module provides the tools and knowledge needed to improve stakeholder satisfaction. This module builds on the concepts of the ITIL 4 Foundation and covers all aspects of service provider-stakeholder interactions.

The course helps practitioners develop co-creative approaches to customer satisfaction by focusing on value creation and demand shaping. In today's competitive marketplace, stakeholder satisfaction is critical to business success.

• ITIL 4 Specialist High-Velocity IT (HVIT):

This module focuses on the digital enterprise that places higher demands on IT. It examines how the operating model is applied to digital products. The course also covers the guiding principles of ITIL applicable to high-speed IT.

Participants will learn the concepts and terminology of the ITIL framework in a practical context. You will be guided through the curriculum and apply it to practical scenarios. You will learn how to align business and IT goals, embed adaptive systems in IT infrastructures, and optimize the speed and quality of IT services. This course is part of the ITIL Managing Professional (MP) stream.

• ITIL 4 Strategist Direct, Plan & Improve (DPI):

This module provides the practical skills needed to build a learning and improving IT organization. It teaches how to design and implement an improvement strategy based on the ITIL 4 Best Practice Service Value System. Additionally, this qualification tests a candidate's knowledge of IT and business processes and the ability to develop an effective IT strategy.

The DPI exam also includes a section on the impact of Agile and Lean methods. This module requires the completion of the ITIL Foundation certification. The ITIL 4 Strategist Direct & Plans & Improve course covers both strategic and practical elements of ITIL. Regardless of your experience level, you must have a solid understanding of the fundamentals to succeed in the ITIL 4 Strategist Direct & Plan & Improve DPI course.

ITIL 4 Strategic Leaders

The ITIL 4 Strategic Leader stream provides learners with an understanding of how IT influences and drives business strategy. Two modules are associated with this stream:

• ITIL 4 Strategist Direct, Plan & Improve (DPI):

This is the same course as mentioned in the ITIL Managing Professional stream.

• ITIL 4 Leader Digital & IT Strategy (DITS):

This module introduces a new perspective on the ITIL framework and elevates the discussion of ITIL concepts to the level of corporate strategy. The ITIL 4 Strategic Leader certification is the highest level of the ITI Framework and demonstrates your ability to influence business strategies through your knowledge of information technology alone.

The Leader Digital & IT Strategy module emphasizes the role of digital leaders in business strategy, including aligning IT services with broader business goals. It also teaches the principles and practices for identifying and developing digital leaders.

ITIL 4 extension modules

The ITIL 4 Extension Modules are designed to extend the main ITIL 4 framework and provide guidance to organizations and professionals to address and capitalize on the challenges and opportunities of new technologies and issues impacting their operations.

The ITIL 4 Extension Module consists of two modules, which are as follows:

1. ITIL 4 Specialist: Sustainability in Digital & IT:

The ITIL Specialist: Sustainability in Digital & IT module is intended for anyone who wants to understand the role of IT and digitally enabled services in the environment while exploring ways to positively impact it.

This is what you get with the course:

• Develop an understanding of how to use the ITIL guiding principles to add value by creating sustainable, digitally enabled products and services
• Address the challenges of VUCA effectively through sustainable strategies, sourcing, products, and practices.
• Get a practical foundation in the key principles of sustainability
• Conduct a full cost-benefit analysis to identify potential risks and opportunities with best practice guidance.

There are no prerequisites for participating in this module. The relevant key concepts from the ITIL 4 framework are covered as part of the module, making it accessible to anyone interested in acquiring critical skills in the field.

2. ITIL 4 Specialist: Acquisition and Management of Cloud Services:

The ITIL Specialist: Acquiring & Managing Cloud Services module is designed for anyone who needs vendor-neutral, user-centric guidance to develop a practical understanding of how cloud acquisition and technology can be integrated and supported into broader business strategies and functions.

This is what you get with the course:

• Analyze available solutions and potential benefits with a vendor-agnostic approach
• Effective identification, selection, and delivery of optimized cloud services
• Facilitate co-creation of value through successful procurement and integration of cloud services using the ITIL 4 framework.
• Introduce a customer-centric, end-to-end cloud procurement user journey.

ITIL master certification

The ITIL Master certification validates your expert ability to apply the principles, methods, and techniques of ITIL in the workplace.

To obtain the ITIL Master certification, you must be able to explain and justify how you selected and applied a set of knowledge, principles, methodologies, and techniques from the ITIL Framework and supporting management techniques to achieve the desired business outcomes in to achieve one or more practical tasks.

This certification does not have a fixed curriculum or training course. Instead, each candidate will have different experiences that are very personal. To be eligible for the ITIL Master certification, candidates must:

• Have already acquired ITIL certificates
• Have worked in ITSM with leadership, the management or senior management experience
• Ensure extensive practical experience with ITIL
• Demonstrate active participation in implementing the practices

ITIL-related jobs and careers

IT professionals who hold an ITIL certification have always been valued by large companies that have adopted the ITIL framework as their internal IT standard. What is beginning to change is the increasing adoption of ITIL. Many small and medium-sized businesses are also now realizing the value of having employees with ITIL certifications under their collective belts.

ITIL 4 is optimal for large and small companies

As IT becomes more important, SMBs are realizing the greatest benefits of retaining ITIL-trained staff. Although no company wants IT projects to fail, larger companies can usually absorb the loss of productivity, time, and money that comes with a failed IT service project. SMBs may not have the financial luxury to let an important IT project fail due to poor management and a lack of processes. Therefore, the value of an ITIL certification can be greater for enlightened companies that cannot afford IT project downtime.

The good news about ITIL training is that it's a valuable skill for almost every IT professional, from system administrators to chief information officers (CIOs). Many large companies have dedicated ITIL coaches or mentors who guide projects through the various steps of the ITIL framework. These ITIL gurus have a broad understanding of the IT landscape and can typically spot problems with a service design document or implementation plan in minutes.

ITIL certification also ideal for IT project managers

ITIL training is also a valuable qualification for IT project managers who find themselves in the IT service trenches daily. Most project managers are already familiar with the development lifecycle process, so the principles of ITIL come naturally to them. IT managers, architects, and engineers may never become ITIL masters, but even a basic knowledge of the ITIL framework can help to understand and support the ITIL process.

Axelos provides a career path diagram that maps IT service management job roles with skill levels. This chart is handy for certification candidates who are interested in specific jobs and need to understand how they fit into the ITIL service lifecycle.

If you are interested in a career in digital business strategy, the ITIL 4 certification may be right for you. The ITIL modules combine the principles and practices of ITIL with the principles and practices of corporate strategy, empowering the digital leader to make key strategic decisions and align digital strategy with larger goals.

Conclusion

More and more companies rely on ITIL certification as an ongoing process to optimize IT service management. The ITIL framework includes proven methodologies and practices to optimize digital technologies and successfully realize business strategy.

With the ITIL 4 (IT Infrastructure Library) certification, you will learn essential skills for business growth and transformation.

1. You will learn how to manage and monitor services more efficiently.
2. How you can improve the quality of services in companies.
3. You will gain knowledge in the area of service provision by companies.
4. And about how you can avoid bottlenecks and measure performance.

In doing so, you make a valuable contribution to radically reducing costs, increasing employee productivity, and increasing customer satisfaction.

At tecnovy we offer you various certification levels, which we recommend depending on your role in the company. Find the perfect IT training for you on our Academy page!

Interested in more info? You can see the comparison of ITIL to other frameworks here: IT certifications in comparison: ITIL vs. COBIT vs. TOGAF vs. AWS