If you’re already certified in ITIL V3 Foundation, the following approaches help to become ITIL® V4 Master:

a) You need to earn 17 credits from the modules under ITIL® V3 scheme which makes you eligible to take the ITIL Managing Professional transition module in order to migrate to the ITIL® V4 scheme.

b) Once you achieve the ITIL® V4 Managing Professional designation then you should also pursue the ITIL® V4 Strategic Leader. You can opt for ITIL® V4 Master once you complete the modules under both the designations. AXELOS has introduced ITIL® V4 with a few new modules which you need to take up to become an ITIL® Master. Once you complete the ITIL® V4 Foundation, you need to complete the modules under both the designations in order to become an ITIL® V4 Master.The ITIL® V4 modules recommended by AXELOS to become an ITIL® V4 Master are as follows:

The ITIL® qualification scheme equips IT professionals with the knowledge of best practices for the efficient execution of IT services and the improvement of service delivery to businesses. Its training focuses not only on technology or processes but also on the capability of the personnel using the technology and deploying the services.

The ITIL® qualifications are designed to help customers get value from IT services and ensure that organizations manage their services better in order to grow. The guidelines follow an end-to-end approach and critically assess and find optimal solutions to manage the entire service life-cycle, from requirements identification to the design and creation of the solution or service.

The factors which you should look for while searching for the best ITIL® V4 Certification Training Institute are the same around the globe. There are a few prerequisites which you must consider while looking out for the best ITIL® V4 Certification Training Institute. They are:

• The Training Institute must have accreditation from PeopleCert, APMG, and PECB.
• The Training Institute must have AXELOS Accredited courseware that is being used by various partners, internationally.
• You must also ensure that the Training Institute has a high passing rate.
• The trainers and consultants must be accredited and experienced in the field.
• You should also ensure that you are provided with an exclusive Pre-Courseware to come up with more specific queries.
• Moreover, you should check if the training is hands-on and offers consulting exposure, role plays, live case studies. It should not be confined to theory and slides alone.
• Finally, you should feel assured that you’re getting value for your money that you have spent to get the ITIL® V3 2011 Certification.

The examination has certain parameters which the candidate must qualify in order to be eligible to receive the ITIL® foundation certification.

ITIL V4 has been anticipated to solve the problem which was highlighted in ITIL V3 - the inability to keep up with the new technological advancements in the IT industry. Some of the benefits of ITIL V4 framework compared to ITIL V3 framework are-

• It includes all the best things from ITIL
• It is flexible to work with other technologies and methods
• Provides a comprehensive approach for co-creating value for your customers
• Helps lay the course for the modern digital world

ITIL® V4 Framework comprises of two key components, namely, ITIL® service value system (SVS) and the four dimensions model. The benefits of the newly introduced ITIL® Framework are as follows:

1. The ITIL® SVS of the ITIL® Framework facilitates the integration and coordination of the components and activities which enables an organisation to create value through IT-enabled services.
2. ITIL® SVS further provides a strong, unified, and value-focused direction for the organisation.
3. An organisation can ensure its SVS remains balanced and effective by giving an appropriate focus on each of the dimensions under the four dimension model of the ITIL® Framework.

In order to become an ITIL® Foundation certified professional, one has to appear for the one hour online ITIL® Foundation certification examination that is held on the last day of the training.

The exam itself is a one-hour online examination comprising of 40 questions. You have to score 26 marks (65%) to attain the certification. You will be awarded 2 credits for the same.

The exam fee is one of the components of ITIL Certification cost. The exam fee varies according to the level of ITIL® V3 2011 Certification exam which can be clearly explained through the following chart:

s://www.peoplecert.org/browse-certifications/it-governance-and-service-management/ITIL-1

The Foundation exam covers Continuous Service Improvement, Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, and Service Operation.

There are two ways through which a candidate can take the exam. The first and most common way is to join an ITIL training course with an Accredited Training Organization. After the end of your training, you will take up the examination. The second option is to do self-study. Once you have covered all the units, you can schedule the exam. Either way, in order to achieve the ITIL® Foundation certificate, you have to clear the examination.

The ITIL examinations are administered by AXELOS and the governing bodies under them. They usually declare the exam fees by the end of the year. The syllabus and content keep getting upgraded and hence, the exam fee also keeps changing.

The new certification scheme that came into the picture after the ITIL® V4 was launched on 28th Feb 2019 which requires you to earn 17 credits to take the ITIL® V4 MP. The modules under ITIL® V3 Intermediate play a pivotal role for professionals who want to make a transition to the ITIL® V4 scheme. The professionals with a solid understanding of ITIL® V3 who move to ITIL® V4 will be able to help their organisation to evolve their service management.

ITIL® V3 Intermediate can be taken up by the professionals who want to make a transition to the ITIL® V4 scheme. The content of the ITIL® V3 Intermediate modules intends to benefit the end learners who are progressing on their ITIL® journey.

The principles, processes, and activities covered under the Service Lifecycle and Service Capability modules of ITIL® V3 Intermediate certification equips you with the essential knowledge that contributes toward a better understanding of the ITIL® V4 concepts that are reflected on the updated framework.

The knowledge that you acquire by taking up the ITIL® V3 Intermediate Certification benefits you in the following ways:

• Integrate the key concepts that exist in both the versions
• Understand the way these concepts interact, what remains core and what has evolved
• Continue supporting professionals with the challenges faced in their work environment.

The purpose of ITIL® V3 Practitioner certification is to offer practical guidance to the end learners on how to adopt and adapt the ITIL® framework in order to support your business objectives.The content of ITIL® V3 Practitioner also reflects in ITIL® V4 intending to help the IT professionals to adopt and adapt ITIL® guidance to their own specific needs and circumstances. Further, the guiding principles can/should be followed in every stage of service delivery.

The ITIL® V3 Practitioner covers three key areas which play a crucial role in the success of any improvement initiatives. They are as follows:

• Organisational Change Management
• Communication
• Measurement and Metrics.

The 9 Guiding Principles that are followed by ITIL® V3 Practitioner are as follows:

• Focus on value
• Design for Experience
• Start where you are
• Work holistically
• Progress iteratively
• Observe directly
• Be transparent
• Collaborate
• Keep it simple.

Yes, you require to hold an ITIL® V3 or ITIL® V4 Foundation Certification in order to take up ITIL® V3 Practitioner Certification.

ITIL® V3 Foundation is the basic or the Foundation that helps with the understanding of ITIL®. It is defined around a service life-cycle approach to ensure that the IT services provide the optimal business value. Axelos Ltd, the governing body of the ITIL® V3 Foundation certification defines it as the entry-level certification by which professionals can be accredited. This level offers a general awareness of the key elements, concepts, and terminology used in the ITIL® service life-cycle, including the links between life-cycle stages, the processes used and their contribution to IT service management practices while the higher levels go into greater depth for each of ITIL®’s five major modules.

ITIL® V3 lays out best practice guidelines for IT Service Management in a company, through a Lifecycle approach. The ITIL® service life-cycle is split into 5 stages: service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continual service improvement.

1. Service strategy basically develops a strategy that will fulfill business needs in an optimal manner.
2. Service design makes sure that new services are developed to meet user’s expectations.
3. Service transition involves designing, testing, and production of the service.
4. Service operation ensures the delivery of the service and also resolving service disruption.
5. Continual service improvement improves the effectiveness and efficiency of the service.

The major certification level changes in ITIL® V4 can be identified in three phases, namely, certification schemes, Exam format, and career path modules. The various differences between ITIL® V3 and ITIL® V4 are as follows:

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) framework is the set of industry best practices and guidelines that describe the most effective way of implementing processes across the IT system. The ITIL® processes which are 5 in number, are structured as activities that fulfill a particular objective and add value within the ITIL® framework.The ITIL® framework is globally recognized as a methodology that works in IT service management and beyond, as it aims to align IT services with the current and future needs of the organization, its business processes and customers.

ITIL® today translates to big opportunities. Organizations realize that implementing ITIL® techniques can help improve efficiencies by streamlining processes and facilitating communications between team members and stakeholders. This ensures maximum utilization of resources for project improvement.Organizations are therefore on the lookout for ITIL® qualified professionals and this in turn has increased the earning potential of such individuals by 17%, according to Indeed.com.

ITIL® Foundation Exam is an entry-level certification for embarking on a career in Information Technology Service Management (ITSM). Clearing the ITIL® Foundation Exam will equip one with the right tools to implement all the processes essential for an organization to comply with the ITIL® framework, which describes the most suitable way of performing processes within the IT cycle.The exam is based on the implementation of the ITIL® V3 Foundation level curriculum. By the AXELOS standard, the ITIL® Foundation exam usually takes this format:

1. Multiple choice examination questions
2. 40 questions
3. 26 marks required to pass (out of 40 available) - 65%
4. 60 minutes duration
5. Closed book.

ITIL® stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library. ITIL® encompasses a wide and complete set of tools and best practices that are best suited for developing and executing modern IT services.It comes with unbeatable benefits such as cost reduction resulting from increased competitive advantage, agility, growth, streamlining IT processes giving the positive result of increased business opportunity, improvement in the value of IT through goal alignment, IT operations and increased business strategies and last, improvement in all-around satisfaction from employees, customers to other users.

The new and updated ITIL® version is called ITIL® V4. The ITIL® V4 Foundation was released on 28th February-2019 and the publications associated with ITIL Strategist, ITIL Specialist, and ITIL Leader will be released along with respective modules in the second half of 2019.As the name suggests, it is going to play a pivotal role in supporting individuals and organisations to helm the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Its purpose is to provide comprehensive guidance to organisations for managing Information Technology in the modern service economy.

The purpose of ITIL® is to ensure all IT related services are effectively developed to meet the business objectives of organizations. The ITIL® framework details out a set of proven best practices for IT service management (ITSM), that serve to align IT services with the specific needs of the business.

1. ITIL® V1 - The Beginning: The first version of ITIL® was very technical in nature.
   
   Primary Focus of ITIL® V1: It included topics such as backup power supplies, cabling techniques, and office acoustics which spanned a collection of 40 volumes. It discussed processes involved in service support such as change management, help desk management, and software distribution and control. In the early 1990s, government agencies and large companies across the world began adopting the framework in order to help improve their IT services and delivery capabilities.
2. ITIL® V2 - The first major revision: the second version of ITIL® was published in 2001 and focused on the elimination of duplicate entries, improvement in the consistency of topics and inclusion of new IT concepts.
   
   Primary Focus of ITIL® V2: Some of the topics covered in ITIL® V2 was release management, problem management, incident management, security management, service continuity management, and financial management of IT assets.
3. ITIL® V3 - Introduction of the Service Lifestyle: The ITIL® version 3 or ITIL® V3 was published in the year 2007 which adopted a lifecycle approach to service management with greater emphasis on IT business integration.Primary Focus of ITIL® V3: ITIL® version 3 was another upgrade which consisted of 26 functions and processes and was grouped into 5 stages. It focused on service strategy, service transition, service design, service operation, and continual service improvement. This new version doubled the scope and introduced a few new perspectives and dimensions.
4. ITIL® 2011 update: The ITIL® V3 2011 was an update made to the 2007 edition of ITIL® V3.
   
   Primary Focus of ITIL® 2011 update: ITIL® V3 2011 primarily aimed at resolving the errors and inconsistencies in the text and diagrams across the suite. The rewrite, redesign, and use of larger fonts in the ITIL® 2011 books which were done in order to make ITIL® more approachable to the reader made the weight of the books grow by 57% and pages grow by 46%.
5. ITIL® V4
   
   Introduced ITIL Managing Professional (MP) & ITIL Strategic Leader(SL)
   
   ITIL® V4 is the latest version of the world’s most popular ITSM framework which was introduced by AXELOS on 28th, February 2019.
   
   Primary Focus of ITIL® V4: ITIL® V4 majorly consists of two designations, namely, ITIL® Management Professional (MP) and ITIL® Strategic Leader (SL). This new ITIL® version came up with community-driven updates and identifies Agile, DevOps, and Lean as key focus areas for integration with traditional ITIL best practices to address the criticisms of the previous ITIL® versions.

AXELOS has come up with a few new changes in the certification scheme under ITIL® V4. The ITIL® V4 certification scheme has been streamlined and provides clear paths for you to continue your ITIL journey.You can get a clear picture of the changes in the following table:

The five stages involved in ITIL® V3 service lifecycle to provide best practice guidance for IT Service Management are as follows:

• Service strategy
• Service design
• Service transition
• Service operation
• Continual service improvement

ITIL® Service Lifecycle modules:

• ITIL® Service Strategy
• ITIL® Service Design
• ITIL® Service Transition
• ITIL® Service Operation
• ITIL® Service Continual Improvement
  ITIL® Service Lifecycle modules:

1) ITIL® Service Strategy

The Service Strategy certification explores the guidelines used for designing, developing, and implementing service provider strategy.

It focuses on providing the techniques and knowledge that helps you understand the success and risk factors.

They also help you hone the skills involved in the development and progress of strategy in an organization.

The Service Strategy module is worth 3 credits.

2) ITIL® Service Design

ITIL® Service Design (SD) module is one of the certifications of the ITIL® Service Lifecycle work stream that focuses on designing the IT service.

It explores the processes, policies, architecture, and documentation of these services that meet the needs of the organization.

This module is important to understand the continued development and improvement of services in the IT lifecycle.

The Service Design module is worth 3 credits.

3) ITIL® Service Transition

The Service Transition (ST) module focuses on the processing and practicing of techniques used for building, testing, and implementing products and services.

It demonstrates the candidates how service transition can be applied to other IT Service lifecycle stages.

The module will teach you the planning and management of the initial operation for the new resources.

This module will help you earn 3 credits.

4) ITIL® Service Operation

The ITIL® Service Operation (SO) module focuses on the processes, principles, functions and operational activities that help in the successful management of the products and services.

It helps the professional coordinates and executes the activities that enable the operation of the products or services and ongoing management.

This module will help the IT teams and organization sustain the product and services.

The SO module can help you earn 3 credits.

5) ITIL® Continual Service Improvement

This certification focuses on the techniques from the ITIL® Lifecycle Continual Service Improvement stage.

It teaches the candidates how they can review the services and products following the strategy, transition, design, and operation stage of the IT Service Lifecycle.

It also includes guidelines on how technology can be used to support CSI activities and evaluate risks and critical success factors.

The CSI module is worth 3 credits.

The responsibilities and salaries of the ITIL® V3 2011 Service Strategy roles in India, US, and United Kingdom are as follows:

A service manager states the services to be rendered and also makes sure that the services rendered meet the company’s needs and are rendered in accordance with the requirement of the business. The service manager identifies the service team and also sets up activities and meetings.He or she will lead the team through the service life-cycle and also ensure adequate communication between client representatives, service delivery and support personnel, and ITS management. The service manager will work with the service team to ensure external service providers are managed properly, and tasks are assigned to technicians based on skills and availability.

Salary of a Project Manager having an ITIL® V3 certification or ITIL® V4 certification varies from country to country. We have covered them below:

• India: The national average salary for a Project Manager is INR 1,251,978 in India.
• US: The national average salary for a Project Manager is $132,453 in United States.
• UK: The national average salary for a Project Manager is £61,188 in United Kingdom.

The annual membership cost of the AXELOS is £59.(Link: https://www.peoplecert.org/browse-certifications/it-governance-and-service-management/ITIL-1)

The major benefits of subscribing to My AXELOS are as follows:

• Reliable resourcesMy AXELOS offers the most reliable resources. They provide everything from publications, methods to tools which are needed for a career boost. The best part is, one can get access to all these in just a few clicks.
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