ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle Stream: - WordPress.com

ITIL® Intermediate Lifecycle Stream: CONTINUAL SERVICE IMPROVEMENT (CSI) CERTIFICATE

Sample Paper 1, version 6.1 Gradient Style, Complex Multiple Choice

QUESTION BOOKLET Gradient Style Multiple Choice 90 minute paper 8 questions, Closed Book Instructions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

All 8 questions should be attempted. You should refer to the accompanying Scenario Booklet to answer each question. All answers are to be marked on the answer grid provided. You have 90 minutes to complete this paper. You must achieve 28 or more out of a possible 40 marks (70%) to pass this examination.

© The Official ITIL Accreditor 2012. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of the Cabinet Office. ITIL® is a registered trade mark of the Cabinet Office. ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle CSISample1 QUESTION BOOKLET v6.1. This document must not be reproduced without express permission from The Accreditor. Page 1 of 10 Version 6.1 (Live) Owner – The Official ITIL Accreditor

Question One Refer to Scenario One Which one of the following statements about the SWOT analysis BEST reveals its usefulness in identifying the current gaps in the ability of IT to support the corporate objectives?

A.

B.

C.

D.

•

The SWOT analysis indicates that IT is committed to better integration with the business by considering: o The implementation of knowledge management o Better monitoring and reporting tools

•

The training and coaching of staff which will go a long way towards business and IT alignment.

•

The SWOT analysis does not reveal useful information in its current state as it was conducted before a desired end-state for IT was defined and agreed

•

IT opportunities have been confused with IT strategies

•

The SWOT analysis should be repeated once the IT objectives have been aligned with the new business strategy.

•

The SWOT analysis is not helpful because it does not describe an end-state for IT

•

There are no actions defined in the SWOT analysis

•

The SWOT analysis should be repeated in two months time once the business strategies have been accepted.

•

The SWOT analysis indicates that, with significant investment in an integrated service management and monitoring toolset, IT could address its weaknesses

•

The training and coaching of staff will go a long way towards business and IT alignment.

© The Official ITIL Accreditor 2012. ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle CSISample1 QUESTION BOOKLET v6.1. This document must not be reproduced without express permission from The Accreditor. Page 2 of 10 Version 6.1 (Live) Owner – The Official ITIL Accreditor

Question Two Refer to Scenario One Which one of the following sets of critical success factors will BEST demonstrate that the company’s management is committed to continual service improvement (CSI) and will help overcome the weaknesses identified? A.

B.

C.

D.

•

Appointing a CSI manager and having people dedicated to the improvement effort

•

Adopting the service lifecycle approach throughout IT

•

Visible management participation in the CSI launch

•

Establishing a CSI register to list all possible improvement opportunities

•

Defining clear criteria for the prioritization of improvement projects as listed in the CSI register

•

Appropriate resource allocation for the CSI improvement projects throughout the service lifecycle

•

Adapting service management processes to suit the IT vision

•

Embedding CSI into everyone’s job description

•

Prioritizing improvement initiatives and placing them appropriately within the service lifecycle

•

Demonstrating management commitment through ongoing, visible participation in CSI activities

•

Providing sufficient and ongoing funding for CSI activities

•

Adopting the service lifecycle approach throughout IT


Question Three Refer to Scenario Two Which one of the following options gives the MOST suitable next steps for CSI activities? A.

B.

C.

D.

•

Review the IT operations function

•

Audit the team for compliance against procedures to ascertain if the evidence of them not performing routine operational activities on time is true. If it is, take actions to correct this

•

Review the component measurement activities of the technical and application management functions to identify if the data can be used more widely

•

Discount the service quality information. As there is no accurate information on the service delivery, the issues with the service are only the perception of the business

•

The lack of information needs to be rectified so there should be a concentrated effort to identify and procure the appropriate monitoring tools to deliver accurate information requirements

•

When the monitoring tools are in place, the resulting information can be analysed to identify why the critical service is failing

•

Identify if the service actually meets business needs. It is highly likely that the reason the business is unhappy with the service is that it does not meet their requirements as service strategy is not effective

•

Looking into the deficiencies in the service lifecycle would be a good starting point for CSI to find out what is wrong and to avoid a similar situation in any future services

•

By monitoring the outputs of the service lifecycle stages any issues can be identified and improvements implemented

•

As the service is critical it should be selected as a good starting point for the implementation of CSI activities to help gain credibility

•

Although accurate service information is not available, some evidence of what might be causing the failure may be obtained by enlisting the assistance of problem management and change management to look at incident and change trends

•

The technical and application teams may also be able to help by consolidating all of the component information and using the CMS to identify which components are used to deliver the service; it may then be possible to identify any unreliable components


Question Four Refer to Scenario Three Which one of the following options is the BEST approach for you, as the change manager, to make improvements to the change management process in this organization?

A.

B.

C.

D.

•

The starting point is to understand the needs of the business and IT in relation to the change management process. Gather stakeholder feedback on the process while gathering the information

•

Carry out an unbiased snapshot of how the process is currently performing and show any non-conformance

•

Understand and agree on the priorities for improvement, for example a gap analysis will identify improvement opportunities which should be classified and prioritized for implementation in a manageable timeframe

•

Detail the plan to achieve a more effective change management process. For example, identify an acceptable rate of emergency change.

•

The starting point is to understand the needs of the business and IT in relation to the change management process. You can also gauge the customer’s and IT’s perception of the process while gathering the information

•

Compare the information to the current process documentation and prioritize the differences

•

Understand and agree on the priorities to improve the change management process. For example, looking at Table 1, people may not have the same understanding of the change categorizations so include business impact and urgency to help set priority

•

Educate people on the reasons for compliance with the process and implement some quick wins.

•

Apply the continual service improvement approach and understand “Where are we now?”

•

Prioritize improvements to the change management process. The level of emergency changes needs to be reduced to 5% from its current position of 20% as these changes increase the risk to the organization

•

Clearly define what constitutes an emergency change and publish it within the process documentation

•

Once any improvements have been made, measure the level of emergency changes to see if the objectives have been met. Once they have been met then further improvement can be considered.

•

As you are new in the post, it would not be a good idea to rush immediately into improvements

•

The level of emergency changes will settle, as it has been coming down over the last five periods

•

The tool used to log changes has been built in-house and is probably not sufficient for a change management process that will be aligned to ITIL best practice. Look for a replacement so that you are working with quality data

•

Simply changing the tool will not guarantee its use, so talk with everyone to ensure that they will record every change.


Question Five Refer to Scenario Four Which one of the following are the MOST suitable actions to avoid the issues identified? A.

B.

C.

D.

•

In conjunction with the business, produce a reporting policy which will clarify the target audiences, the report contents and reporting schedules, and ensure it is presented in an understandable format

•

Content will include historical performance, exceptions, and estimates of future performance

•

Consideration should be given to: o Inviting the process owner to future service review meetings in addition to the service owner. o Automating the reporting activities to reduce the people resource requirement

•

In conjunction with the business, produce a reporting policy to generate a service-focused reporting framework. Individual reports can then be tailored to show adherence to the relevant service levels

•

Content will include historical performance, exceptions, actions needed and estimates of future performance

•

Consideration should be given to: o The type of media used for the delivery of the reports, to ensure it is suitable for the audience o Ensuring the appropriate language is used to aid business understanding

•

In conjunction with the business, produce a reporting policy to generate a business-focused reporting framework. Individual reports can then be tailored to meet the individual needs of the different audiences

•

Content will include historical performance, exceptions, actions needed for rectification and future avoidance of similar issues

•

Consideration should be given to: o Moving the data processing activities to the functional areas which have the relevant skills o Introducing internal review meetings prior to the customer review meetings in order to discuss the content of the reports and identify improvement opportunities

•

In conjunction with the business, produce a reporting policy which will clarify the target audiences, the report contents and reporting schedules, and the technology, process and service metrics to be reported

•

Content will include historical performance, future performance and what was done to rectify any exceptions that occurred

•

Consideration should be given to: o Adding detailed explanations to all of the IT terms used in the reports to avoid future business misunderstanding o Reviewing the availability management process to identify why availability levels have been allowed to drop


Question Six Refer to Scenario Five You recognise that not all of the suggested ideas are appropriate. You understand that all of Kotter’s eight steps are important but believe some steps should be emphasised in this situation. Which one of the following options would be the BEST approach to take to address the situation described in the scenario? A.

B.

C.

D.

•

Use the Kotter “Eight-step approach to transforming your organization” o Creating a sense of urgency can help motivate staff and convince the sceptics to change o Consolidating and institutionalizing the organizational change can assist in avoiding regression and demonstrate success

•

Ensure the Deming cycle is a key tool utilized in the activities. The ‘check’ and ‘act’ stages of the cycle will assist in ensuring quality is maintained

•

Use the Kotter “Eight-step approach to transforming your organization” o Forming a guiding coalition will create a group with sufficient power to lead the change initiative to success o Implementing quick wins will show the sceptics that this initiative is not difficult and therefore will succeed

•

Use the CSI “Seven-step improvement process” as the basis of implementing a quality framework around the improvement initiative. This will ensure that improvements are continually reviewed in order to meet business requirements

•

Use the Kotter “Eight-step approach to transforming your organization” o Forming a guiding coalition will create a group with sufficient power to make the sceptics change their mind o Empowering others to act on the vision will boost the confidence of staff, including the sceptics

•

Ensure suitable rewards are given to the staff members involved in these improvements. This will ensure that other staff members can see the rewards for good work and will then help maintain the level of quality

•

Use the Kotter “Eight-step approach to transforming your organization” o Creating a vision will deliver a statement which should clarify direction and motivate people o Communicating the vision will create the necessary energy and commitment for the success of the project

•

Working towards ISO/IEC 20000 accreditation will mean that the organization is moving towards the required level of quality, and the regular audits that are required by this accreditation will ensure regression does not take place


Question Seven Refer to Scenario Six Having reviewed the CSI register entry you decide to consult with some of the stakeholders to clarify points and gather further information prior to deciding whether to accept the improvement request. Which one of the following options is the BEST set of stakeholders to consult? A.

B.

C.

D.

•

The originator - to discuss: o The KPI and justifications are not business-focused o The service desk manager is not the correct person to be assigned the action

•

Problem process owner – to ask them to own the improvement

•

Incident process manager – to discuss issues with the incident management process so that incidents can be escalated without service level breaches

•

The originator - to discuss: o The KPI and justifications are not business-focused o The service desk manager is not the correct person to be assigned the action

•

Service owner – to obtain more evidence and find out why this issue has not been identified at service review meetings

•

Problem process manager – to discuss the relevance of raising a further improvement. If KE information is poor then the problem process may need improvement

•

The originator - to discuss: o A large-sized improvement with a short timescale is more likely to be an urgent priority than a high o Allocate the incident process manager as the person to action the request instead of the service desk manager

•

Service level manager – to ensure the targets in the SLA referring to incident resolution are fit for purpose

•

Availability management process owner - to consider why the service is failing so often

•

The originator to: o Point out that the KPI is not a KPI but a metric o Identify the baseline from which we wish to improve

•

Head of application support - to ask why analysts are being allowed to raise improvements

•

Service desk manager – to identify if there are sufficient resources available to complete the improvement within requested timescales


Question Eight Refer to Scenario Seven Which of the following options BEST aligns the correct roles with the responsibilities? A. Responsibility

Service owner

Process manager

1 3

✓

✓

Process owner

✓ ✓

4

CSI manager

✓ ✓

✓

6

✓ ✓

7 8

B. Responsibility

Service owner

1

Process manager

Process owner

✓

✓ ✓

3 5

✓

6

✓

7 9

CSI manager

✓

✓

Question continues overleaf


Question continued C. Responsibility 2 3

Service owner

✓ ✓

Process manager

✓ ✓

Process owner

✓ ✓

4

CSI manager

✓ ✓ ✓

✓ ✓ ✓

1 8 9

D. Responsibility 2 3

Service owner

✓ ✓

Process manager

✓ ✓

Process owner

✓ ✓

4 6 8 9

✓ ✓

CSI manager

✓ ✓ ✓

✓ ✓




SCENARIO BOOKLET This booklet contains the scenarios upon which the 8 examination questions will be based. All questions are contained within the Question Booklet and each question will clearly state the scenario to which the question relates. In order to answer each of the 8 questions, you will need to read the related scenario carefully. On the basis of the information provided in the scenario, you will be required to select which of the four answer options provided (A, B, C or D) you believe to be the optimum answer. You may choose ONE answer only, and the Gradient Scoring system works as follows: • • • •

If you select the CORRECT answer, you will be awarded 5 marks for the question If you select the SECOND BEST answer, you will be awarded 3 marks for the question If you select the THIRD BEST answer, you will be awarded 1 mark for the question If you select the DISTRACTER (the incorrect answer), you will receive no marks for the question.

In order to pass this examination, you must achieve a total of 28 marks or more out of a maximum of 40 marks (70%).

© The Official ITIL Accreditor 2012. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of the Cabinet Office. ITIL® is a registered trade mark of the Cabinet Office. ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle CSISample1 SCENARIO BOOKLET v6.1. This document must not be reproduced without express permission from The Accreditor. Page 1 of 8 Version 6.1 (Live) Owner – The Official ITIL Accreditor

Scenario One A medium-sized company specializing in educational products was started seven years ago and has a great reputation. The company is now looking for further expansion. The company currently has one manufacturing plant which employs 200 people and which has recently experienced difficulty keeping production in line with demand. The company now aims to expand both locally and abroad, and so has recently announced the following business strategies: •

Streamline business operations to reduce the bottlenecks impeding the launch of new products

•

Concentrate on increasing the market share of key products by eliminating the manufacturing of products that are not selling well

•

Improve production capacity and capabilities by moving to new production sites in different territories.

The chief information officer (CIO) is now considering the IT department’s strategic response to these requirements. One consideration is to increase the awareness and acceptance of a continual service improvement (CSI) approach among IT staff. The CIO believes that the CSI programme will lead to closer integration between IT and the business. You have recently taken over as the CSI manager and have been given the task of considering the goals and objectives for CSI. You have been given the results of a SWOT analysis that was conducted by IT staff a few months before the business strategies were agreed and published, and before your appointment. The results of the SWOT analysis are shown below: STRENGTHS

WEAKNESSES

•

IT management demonstrates commitment to CSI

•

The IT department is predominantly reactive in its CSI initiatives

•

A CSI manager is in place

•

•

People in the company have the right attitude, values and commitment

The IT department has somewhat stagnant processes which have not been reviewed for improvement for some time

•

IT processes are based on ITIL and at maturity level three

•

A lack of monitoring and reporting tools means that service management data is insufficient to provide insight into CSI opportunities

•

The ITIL processes are poorly integrated

OPPORTUNITIES

THREATS

•

Invest in an integrated IT service management tool to remove IT bottlenecks

•

Competition is already in existence

•

•

New regulatory requirements will require additional effort

Implement a new reporting mechanism and tools for knowledge management in order to streamline IT operations

•

•

New technology resulting from business expansion plans will need to be supported

Institute knowledge transfer and coaching for staff to make them more productive

•

Lack of trained staff creates bottlenecks in support activities

•

Lack of use of formal knowledge management

© The Official ITIL Accreditor 2012. ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle CSISample1 SCENARIO BOOKLET v6.1. This document must not be reproduced without express permission from The Accreditor. Page 2 of 8 Version 6.1 (Live) Owner – The Official ITIL Accreditor

Scenario Two During an internal review meeting the service owner of a critical service reported that the business regularly complains at service review meetings about the deterioration in the quality of the service. Within the IT organization service management is at a mixed level of maturity. The change, incident, problem, service asset and configuration, and supplier management processes are between maturity levels three and four. The remaining processes are generally between maturity levels two and three, with availability management only at level two. Evidence shows that most elements of the service lifecycle are in place but are not formally recognized. The most obvious missing element is the lack of strategic thinking taking place from a service perspective. Service reporting is carried out but, owing to of the immaturity of some parts of the process, the results are not considered accurate. Component measurement is carried out by the technical and application teams but the results are only used within their own teams. There is also evidence that IT operations is not carrying out routine maintenance tasks on time. You are the newly appointed CSI manager and, as yet, little has been done on the introduction of CSI into the organization. You have a policy which has been signed off by senior management, a vision statement that you are communicating, and you are now starting to formulate a plan of action. You want your plan to include some quick wins to show the effectiveness of CSI and win over some sceptics from IT and the business.


Scenario Three You have just started a new job as a change manager. You are committed to ensuring that the change management process is aligned to the business needs of your company. Initial investigations show that the only documentation available within the company is a change management process flowchart showing how the process is currently carried out. Currently, no reports on process performance are produced. Changes are logged into a tool that has been designed and implemented in-house. Although the database structure is sound and the information is useful, you suspect that more changes are made than are actually recorded. You extract some data for analysis that raises some concerns about emergency changes (see table 1 below). Your initial observation is that there are a high percentage of emergency changes compared with what you have experienced in other companies. Emergency changes are, by their nature, risky and error-prone. Table 1 – Extract from the change management database Change Priority:

Low

Medium

High

Emergency

Total

Emergency %

Period_1

11

25

25

21

82

25.69

Period_2

15

34

24

23

96

23.95

Period_3

9

39

28

18

94

19.14

Period_4

12

33

21

17

83

20.48

Period_5

16

27

19

9

71

12.67

You believe that improving the change management process is important in order to address the concerns you have after reviewing this information.


Scenario Four Your company’s IT organization is proud of their achievements in delivering IT services. A single report covering all services is issued regularly but, despite this, the business customers are not fully aware of what is achieved. Regular service reviews are carried out with the customers, however these meetings are becoming more and more confrontational. At a recent meeting one of the internal customers was very annoyed at results published in the service level agreement (SLA) report that showed availability levels had dropped from an average of 99% to an actual 98% for this period. The SLA target for availability is 98% and the report showed a change from green to amber on the SLA monitoring report. The customer demanded to know what this actually means and what action the IT organization will to take to resolve the issue. Unfortunately the service owner was not prepared for the question and did not provide an adequate answer. The customer took his complaint to the chief information officer (CIO) and asked for action to be taken. During the meeting the customer suggested that the current report, though comprehensive, is difficult to understand. This opinion is shared by other internal customers who receive the same report. Within the IT organization there is enough suitable data to generate the report but the activity is very resource-intensive. The generation of the report is undertaken within the service level management (SLM) team where there is little capacity to take on more work due to the high level of data processing activities undertaken.


Scenario Five A major overhaul of the problem management process of a multi-national company is about to take place. A series of workshops is planned to identify a suitable solution. Currently there are several “problem groups” working in different company regions – all with differing levels of success. The process overhaul will create a large amount of organizational change. In the past similar initiatives have been successful in delivering the required improvements but subsequently the old ways of working have returned and the level of quality has regressed. This has caused concern for both the business and IT management, and a sceptical outlook on future improvements from most of the IT staff. Recent attempts at arranging meetings have met with resistance, resulting in staff not accepting meeting invitations or not turning up when required. As the problem manager and process owner you wish to avoid this situation and are looking for ideas and techniques that will help. Your first meeting was with the CSI manager who gave you some ideas derived from the ITIL best practice guidance. These include; • • • • •

Kotter’s “Eight-step approach to transforming your organization” The Deming cycle The seven-step improvement process ISO/IEC 20000 accreditation Reward schemes.


Scenario Six As CSI manager you are reviewing and prioritizing new entries in the CSI register. The next entry to be considered is shown below: Opportunity number: Date raised: Size: Timescale: Description:

Priority KPI Justification Raised by To be actioned by Date required by

21 Large Short A high number of service level breaches have occurred on the email service because incidents have not been resolved within agreed timescales. Investigation has shown that the information in the known error database is of poor quality and unusable. This means that all email incidents are currently escalated to second line as they cannot be resolved at first line by the service desk. High 75% decrease in email incidents escalated to second line Increase in cost of resolving incidents because second line resource is more expensive than first line Application support analyst Service desk manager


Scenario Seven As the CSI manager for an organization you have been asked to deliver an awareness campaign to describe clearly who should do what from a CSI and related activities perspective. This initiative has been started owing to organizational changes that have been made to align the IT department with good practice guidelines as described in the ITIL framework. Your initial session is to a group of service owners, process owners and process managers who want to know what they may be accountable and responsible for, and what other interactions they may have with CSI. They are also interested in your role and where your accountabilities lie in order to try to avoid the duplication of effort that has occurred frequently in the past. The group has given you the following list: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Managing resources assigned to the process. Identifying improvement opportunities for inclusion in the CSI register. Reviewing and prioritizing improvement opportunities. Building an improvement plan. Reviewing the analysed data. Monitoring and reporting on process performance. Producing trends and providing feedback on trends. Making improvements to processes and process implementation. Ensuring the process is fit for purpose.




ANSWERS AND RATIONALES

© The Official ITIL Accreditor 2012. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of the Cabinet Office. ITIL® is a registered trade mark of the Cabinet Office. ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle CSISample1 ANSWERSandRATIONALES v6.1. This document must not be reproduced without express permission from The Accreditor. Page 1 of 17 Version 6.1 (Live) Owner – The Official ITIL Accreditor

Answer Key:

Question

Correct: 5 Marks

2nd Best: 3 Marks

3rd Best: 1 Mark

Distracter: 0 Marks

1

B

C

D

A

2

D

A

B

C

Two

3

D

A

C

B

Three

4

A

B

C

D

Four

5

A

B

C

D

Five

6

A

B

C

D

Six

7

B

A

C

D

Seven

8

D

C

A

B

Scenario

One

© The Official ITIL Accreditor 2012. ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle CSISample1 ANSWERSandRATIONALES v6.1. This document must not be reproduced without express permission from The Accreditor. Page 2 of 17 Version 6.1 (Live) Owner – The Official ITIL Accreditor

QUESTION

One

Question Rationale

SWOT analysis is an important tool used in CSI. It is important for someone involved in CSI to ensure that the corporate goals are kept in mind at all times. The question looks at the results of a SWOT analysis that was carried out before the business strategy was set and asks about its usefulness. A SWOT analysis is a technique that can be used to help an organization set its strategy. By assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, an organization can decide what strategies and tactics should be adopted to further their business objectives and address the factors identified by the SWOT analysis. It is important that the overall objectives of the organization are set first so that the SWOT is appropriately focused. In this case the correct sequence is: 1. Set the business objectives and strategy 2. IT department aligns IT objectives with the business objectives 3. IT department performs a SWOT of IT service provision 4. IT department sets the IT service strategy The answer requires the candidate to have knowledge of what each of the elements of a SWOT analysis is looking at (see section 5.5.9.2) and also the common pitfalls of carrying out a SWOT analysis (see section 5.5.9.4). B This is the correct answer. The SWOT analysis contains errors. It was also conducted before the recent strategy was set. Bullet 1 – Correct. The SWOT analysis was conducted before the business strategy was set and hence before the IT objectives were aligned with the business strategy. This goes against the principle of knowing the required end state before you carry out the SWOT analysis. Bullet 2 – Correct. The opportunities box in the SWOT analysis contains strategic activities - this is incorrect. It should contain statements of external factors that could be exploited by IT as opportunities. Bullet 3 – Correct. The next step would be to repeat the SWOT analysis after the IT objectives have been aligned with the new business strategy. This answer is partially correct. C Bullet 1 – Partially correct. The SWOT is not useful in its current state. However this is not because it does not describe an end-state for IT, but because it was performed before that end-state was identified. Bullet 2 – Partially correct. A SWOT analysis provides information about the current situation; it should not include actions or activities. The actions are usually defined after the SWOT is performed. The answer statement is true, however it would be incorrect to expect to find actions defined in the SWOT analysis. Bullet 3 – Partially correct. The SWOT should be repeated but there is no reason to wait for two months. D This is only marginally correct. It misses the point of the limited usefulness of an SWOT analysis. Investing in IT technology at this time will only be a temporary solution that may address some weaknesses but will certainly not support the corporate objectives in the end. A This answer is incorrect. It misses the point of the limited usefulness of a SWOT analysis. Also, with the exception of the CIO, there are no indications that IT is committed to better integration with the business. Their opportunities are all IT wishes and reflect the fact that they have a reactive and tool-focused mentality. ITIL SL: CSI04 Continual service improvement methods and techniques

MOST CORRECT (5)

SECOND BEST (3)

THIRD BEST (1)

DISTRACTER (0)

Syllabus Unit / Module supported Blooms Taxonomy Testing Level

Scenario

One

Level 4 Analysis - The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences. Application – This question requires the delegate to compare the results of the SWOT analysis against corporate objectives and come up with a gap analysis. The candidate will be able to describe the importance of properly defining metrics and


Subjects covered Book Section Refs Difficulty

measurements, demonstrate setting targets, and describe, use and interpret metrics, scorecards and reports, including balanced scorecard and SWOT analysis. Categories Covered: • Metrics – SWOT analysis. CSI 5.5.9 – Continual service improvement methods and techniques – Metrics – SWOT analysis Easy


QUESTION

Two

Question Rationale

Critical success factors need to be selected for the goals identified. This question tests the understanding of appropriate grouping of CSFs around management commitment. Bullet 1 – Correct. Stagnant processes and a reactive approach to CSI D suggest that commitment to CSI is not at the level it should be. It may have had some commitment in the past but this does not seem to be ongoing Bullet 2 – Correct. The lack of monitoring and reporting tools will limit the maturity of CSI. Funding needs to be gained to rectify these issues and hence allow better identification of CSI opportunities. This will also help introduce more proactive CSI. Bullet 3 – Correct. Adopting the service lifecycle approach will definitely help to integrate the processes and may also assist in increasing maturity where one process may be holding back the maturity of another Bullet 1 - Incorrect. The CSI manager is already in place. A Bullet 2 - Correct. See bullet 3 explanation above. Bullet 3 - Partially correct. This would only demonstrate an initial commitment to CSI: for sustainability there would need to be an indication of visible, ongoing management participation. Bullet 1 - Incorrect. A CSI register is very important for helping to log, prioritize B and track improvement initiatives. However it is not critical to the success of CSI. Bullet 2 - Correct. This is a CSI critical success factor but management commitment is a more important CSF Bullet 3 - Incorrect. This statement treats CSI more like a project, rather than a long term commitment This answer is weak as it is too internally-focused and does not show longC term commitment. Bullet 1 - Incorrect. Adapting ITSM processes to suit the IT vision is not a CSF. It is also too internally-focused. Bullet 2 - Incorrect. Making CSI part of everyone’s job description is not a critical success factor. CSI needs dedicated people, not a piece of everybody. Bullet 3 - Incorrect. This does not reflect management commitment and is not a true CSF of CSI. ITIL SL: CSI08 Challenges, critical success factors and risks

MOST CORRECT (5)

SECOND BEST (3)

THIRD BEST (1)

DISTRACTER (0)



Scenario

One

Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Application – Although the inspiration for this question is the list of CSFs found in section 9.2 in the CSI book, the delegate does not have to remember the list from memory to be able to answer this question. The question can be answered by looking at the facts presented in the scenario and logically selecting the appropriate answer. Categories Covered: • Critical success factors for continual service improvement CSI 9.2 – Challenges, risks and critical success factors – Critical success factors Easy


QUESTION

Three

Question Rationale

This question is primarily based on implementing CSI and follows the information given in section 8.1, critical considerations and 8.2, Where do I start? The question also requires the delegate to have a working knowledge of process maturity levels in order that they only rely on information from suitably mature processes. The three approaches to implementing CSI (service, lifecycle, and functional group) are provided in the answer and the delegate has to work out which one is most suitable in this case. Service approach D • The service is critical – so this should be a major pointer for immediate action to be taken • Using the problem and change processes is a good idea as they are at an acceptable level of maturity and will have good information that can be relied upon • The technical teams also have information that will be useful. It is only used internally at the moment but a mature CMS can assist in identifying which components are used in which service and help identify any issues in the components used to deliver this service. Functional approach A • IT operations will increase the risk of poor service delivery by not following procedures. It is something that needs to be investigated and may produce some quick wins in terms of service improvement. However, there may also be no impact on the service in question • It is certainly one of the first things that should be carried out but not before the actions noted in the previous answer. Lifecycle approach C • It is unlikely that the lack of strategic thinking is causing the issues in the service. The service quality is deteriorating; if requirements were not being met then satisfaction would never have been high • This is also a longer-term activity and not therefore a suitable starting point where quick wins are required. Non-specific approach B • It is not acceptable to suggest that the issue is discounted until further information is available. There is reliable information around and this should be used • Again the service seems to be deteriorating and the delay this answer will cause to investigation will be unacceptable to the business, as it is a critical service • There is no evidence in the scenario that tools are the issue with the accuracy of the information available; it may be due to the lack of mature processes, especially availability management. This needs to be further investigated before tools are considered. ITIL SL: CSI07 Implementing continual service improvement ITIL SL: CSI04 How problem management supports the activities of CSI Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options.

MOST CORRECT (5)

SECOND BEST (3)

THIRD BEST (1)

DISTRACTER (0)


Scenario

Two

Level 4 Analysis - The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences.

Subjects covered

Analysis – This question requires the delegate to analyse the information in the case study and make a decision on the best way forward based on this analysis. Categories Covered: • Implementing continual service improvement • How other processes support CSI


Book Section Refs Difficulty

CSI 8.1 – Critical considerations for implementing CSI CSI 8.2 – Implementing continual service improvement – Where do I start Moderate


QUESTION

Four

Question Rationale

The question is looking for a logical and sensible approach to using the continual service improvement (CSI) approach. Candidates will need to know the order of the model and what each stage is for. In the rationale the step numbers of the approach are used to shorten the text. The steps have been numbered as follows: Step 1 – What is the vision? Step 2 – Where are we now? Step 3 – Where do we want to be? Step 4 – How do we get there? Step 5 – Did we get there? Step 6 – How do we keep the momentum going? Bullet 1 – Steps 1 and 2. The first sentence is about aligning the process to the A business needs and helps to set a vision of what the future position should be – step1. The second sentence collects data on the customer’s perception and hence feeds step 2. Bullet 2 – Step 2. The unbiased snapshot will also be useful information for step 2. Bullet 3 –Step 3 – A gap analysis will detail what should be done and can then be prioritized for implementation in a manageable timeframe. Bullet 4 – Step 4. Detailing the plan involves actionable elements to improve the process. The example is to set a target for emergency changes. The example provided is based on the change manager’s experience which suggests that the current levels are too high. Bullet 1 – as bullet 1 above. B Bullet 2 – Step 2. In the scenario it states that the only documentation is the process flowchart. You also have suspicions that some changes are not being recorded. The information gained would not be a true reflection of the current position. Bullet 3 – Step 3. If perceptions differ then some people may be incorrectly prioritizing changes as emergency when, in reality, they are not. However this option misses the detail of agreeing on what’s to be done in a manageable time frame, as in option A. Bullet 4 – Step 4. Perhaps a fair action that needs to be carried out in order to get to where we want to be. However, step 4 is about detailing a plan based on what is understood and agreed and this does not necessarily take many of the other steps into consideration. Bullet 1 – Step 2. Incorrect as a first step as it misses out any consideration of C forming a vision to work to. Bullet 2 – Step 3. Makes an assumption that the target for emergency changes should be below 5% of the total changes. There is no evidence to support this. Bullet 3 – Step 4. There may be changes that are incorrectly prioritized as staff may not understand the rules about the types of changes that can be deemed emergency. It may also be that no rules have been set. Either way the detail plan needs to be based on what’s understood and agreed in step three, which hasn’t been made clear here. Bullet 4 – Steps 5 and 6. Correct, it is a good idea to see that improvements have had the desired impact and then look to see how to improve further. Bullet 1 – Incorrect. If evidence of the need for improvement can be identified D and the improvement justified and approved there is no reason to wait before proceeding. Bullet 2 – Incorrect. There is a downward trend over the periods shown but it cannot be assumed that this will continue. This is especially true of the last drop as it is significant and may not be a true reflection of the trend. Bullet 3 – Incorrect. Implementation of technology/tools before a process is in a suitable condition and the requirements are known is not the recommended approach. Bullet 4 – Partially correct. Awareness of the issues related to unrecorded changes being implemented needs to be made, however this should be a formal campaign rather than just talking to people.

MOST CORRECT (5)

SECOND BEST (3)

THIRD BEST (1)

DISTRACTER (0)

Scenario

Three




ITIL SL: CSI01 Introduction to continual service improvement Level 2 Comprehending - Understand or grasp the meaning of what is being communicated and make use of the idea. Tasks include illustrating, inferring, summarizing and interpreting. This question requires the delegate to use their knowledge of the CSI approach and explain the correct approach. Categories Covered: • CSI approach CSI 3.1 – Continual service improvement principles – CSI approach Moderate


QUESTION

Five

Scenario

Four

Question Rationale

This question is based on the need for suitable and targeted reporting for both IT and the customers. It is based around the need for reporting policies but also checks understanding of: • Role of the service / process owner • The value of internal review meetings • Data analysis – not enough information is given to assume there is an availability issue • Processing data fits better with technical and process teams functions rather than in the SLM team Within the scenario there are several issues that can be identified: • Business does not understand the report produced • There is only one report for all audiences • Service owner does not seem suitably prepared for the meeting • Data processing is all in the SLM team • Little or no spare capacity in the SLM team

MOST CORRECT (5)

SECOND BEST (3)

THIRD BEST (1)

DISTRACTER (0)

Syllabus Unit Module supported

/

Availability is within targets and, although the drop should be investigated by availability management to avoid breaching the target, it looks like this is more of an excuse to get the reporting situation resolved. This answer proposes a policy that allows individual reports to be created for C each customer if required. Bullet 1 - The reporting policy is correctly business-focused and will help ensure that reports are aligned to individual customer needs. Bullet 2 - The contents of the reports will include historical information and will provide the customer with details of any actions that will be taken to improve service quality. Bullet 3 - This answer recognizes that the IT areas with the skills for data processing are not the ones currently carrying it out. The final point suggests that the service owner’s lack of preparedness could be improved by introducing internal review meetings. This answer proposes a policy that allows individual reports to be created for B each customer if required, but it is flawed in other areas. Bullet 1 - Partially correct. This answer suggests that the reporting policy should be service-focused rather than business-focused. Bullet 2 - Partially correct. The future view given in the answer is towards estimating future service performance rather than looking at avoidance of issues, though it does include the tracking of actions needed. Bullet 3 - Correct. These are both acceptable considerations. Bullet 1 - Incorrect. Suggests that the policy will retain the single report A approach instead of producing reports tailored to individual business area need. Bullet 2 - Incorrect. The future view given in the answer is towards estimating future service performance rather than looking at avoidance of issues. Bullet 3 - Partially correct. The process owner should not be invited to service review meetings. The service owner is the right person but obviously was not fully conversant with the content of the report (Incorrect). Automation would be advantageous to relieve some of the manual activity (Correct). Bullet 1 - Incorrect. Suggests that the policy will retain the single report D approach instead of producing reports tailored to individual business area need. Further, it is very unusual to include technology metrics in a businessfocused report and it is not recommended. Bullet 2 - Incorrect. The future view given in the answer is towards estimating future service performance rather than looking at avoidance of issues. Bullet 3 - Incorrect. IT terms should not be used in a business-focused report. There is insufficient evidence to suggest that the availability management process is ineffective. ITIL SL: CSI04 Continual service improvement methods and techniques


Blooms Taxonomy Testing Level

Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Level 4 Analysis – The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences.

Subjects covered

Book Section Refs

Difficulty

Application – This question requires the delegate to use their knowledge of reporting policies, and to process and analyse the situation in order to make a recommendation for action based on the details of the case study. Categories Covered: • Reporting policies • Roles associated with CSI and their responsibilities CSI 5.7 – Continual service improvement methods and techniques – Service reporting CSI 5.7.1 – Continual service improvement methods and techniques – Service reporting – Reporting policy and rules Hard


QUESTION

Six

Scenario

Five

Question Rationale

This question looks at a situation where organizational change has failed in the past. It focuses on the use of Kotter’s eight steps to avoid the situation in the future and is testing an understanding of each of the steps. It also refers to other techniques to support the organizational change and requires knowledge of the following to be considered to determine if they can supplement Kotter in this situation: • The Deming cycle • ISO/IEC20000 • The CSI seven-step improvement process

MOST CORRECT (5)

The issues in the case study are: • Falling back into old ways of working • Sceptical view on future initiatives from business and IT • Lack of motivation of staff Three of Kotter’s eight steps are mentioned in this answer. A • Creating a sense of urgency will motivate people and demonstrate that the old ways of working are no longer acceptable • Consolidating and institutionalizing the change will mean that the old ways of working are no longer acceptable The first will help win over the sceptics; the remainder should avoid regression and may also help with the sceptics. The Deming cycle is a very useful tool in this type of situation as the check and act stages can assist in monitoring and measure the process against policies and objectives, reporting results and taking actions to maintain quality.

SECOND BEST (3)

THIRD BEST (1)

DISTRACTER (0)

B

C

D

Two of Kotter’s eight steps are mentioned in this answer, however the answer is not as strong as A. • Forming the guiding coalition will be necessary; you as the problem manager will not be able to achieve success on your own. The coalition will be a powerful tool to help overcome resistance but not as powerful as the tools described in answer A. • Implementing quick wins is a good way to convince some of the sceptics of the benefits, however it is not as comprehensive as institutionalizing the change described in A. This is unlikely to address the issue of staff falling back to their old ways. The CSI seven-step process will be a useful tool in this situation due to its overlap with the Deming model. However, given the choice of the seven-step process and the Deming cycle, it is the Deming cycle that provides an overall approach, whereas the seven-step process is designed around the Deming cycle and is more focused on measurement. Two of Kotter’s eight steps are mentioned in this answer but one will not directly address the issues described in the scenario. • Forming the guiding coalition will be necessary; you as the problem manager will not be able to achieve success on your own. The coalition will be a powerful tool to help overcome resistance but not as powerful as the tools described in answer A. • The statement on empowerment is not true. It may have no effect on the sceptics until they understand exactly why the improvement is necessary. Giving rewards can create the opposite results to what was expected. By rewarding staff they may feel the objectives have been achieved and that can be a trigger for regression. Further, in an organization that has a poor culture, rewarding some staff can de-motivate others. • Two of Kotter’s eight steps are mentioned in this answer but neither will directly address the issues described in the scenario. Creating a vision will clarify direction and motivate people but may not be enough to motivate


•


the sceptics. Communicating the vision will motivate people who have bought into the concept but again may have little or no impact on the sceptics.

Working towards ISO/IEC 20000 is nonsensical in this case. Compared with the issues in the organization, aiming to achieve an internal standard might appear a remote target. ISO/IEC 20000 could be looked upon as a suitable standard to work towards in some situations but this is wider than the scope of the improvement in question. ISO/IEC 20000 requires all processes to be within scope – not just problem management. It is also a huge commitment to avoid regression. ISO/IEC 20000 does not fix issues. ITIL SL: CSI03 Continual service improvement principles ITIL SL: CSI07 Implementing continual service improvement Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Level 4 Analysis - The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences.

Subjects covered

Book Section Refs

Difficulty

Application – This question requires the delegate to have understood the use of Kotter’s steps and the Deming cycle within CSI and to analyse the situation in order to make a recommendation for action based on the details of the scenario. Categories Covered: • Kotter’s “Eight steps to transforming your organization” • Deming cycle • ISO/IEC 20000 CSI 8.4 – Implementing continual service improvement – CSI and organizational change CSI 3.8 – Continual service improvement principles – The Deming cycle Appendix A6 – ISO/IEC 20000 Hard


QUESTION

Seven

Question Rationale

This question is about information in a CSI register. It is a practical question involving looking at entries to test if they are correct. It does, however, require knowledge of other processes to test the validity of entries and also of generic roles. The points to discuss with the originator are valid. The ITIL guidance suggests B good business justifications are given for making improvements; the service desk manager is not the right person to own this improvement, it should be owned by problem management. A key point for this answer being the best is that it looks to the service owner to provide more evidence and find out why this has not been identified through the normal route of service review meetings. Without this evidence it may turn out that this improvement is the result of an internal IT dispute rather than a genuine business need. The problem manager gets involved because, if there is poor KE information, it points to an issue that the entries in the KEDB are not being correctly policed, which is another improvement that needs to be made. The first part of this answer is the same as B above and correct. A The second part suggests passing ownership to problem management, which is correct. The third part suggests there may be a further improvement opportunity within the incident process that can be recognized. Again this is a good point but is not as good as the points raised in answer B because they are taking the improvement on face value and not looking for more evidence. The discussions with the originator are poor. The first is re-prioritizing the C improvement; as we have not been given the criteria for the different levels of priority we cannot assume this is correct. The re-allocation of the improvement is not correct. Incident management may be working correctly; it seems to be the KEDB that is at fault. The SLM element is questioning targets. It may be wise to review them as part of any improvement but it is not necessary prior to acceptance. The improvement is around the handling of the incidents not the availability of the service so the third bullet is not relevant. The KPI is actually a KPI. It is not business-focussed and therefore not a good D KPI. The baseline statement is something that will be required but not this early in the activity. Anyone should be able to identify improvements, but this is not a relevant question at this time. Organizations may, however, define clear procedures for identifying, agreeing and submitting improvements in the same way they do with changes. Talking to the SDM at this point is accepting everything at face value and just getting on with the improvement, which is not acceptable. ITIL SL: CSI02 CSI principles

MOST CORRECT (5)

SECOND BEST (3)

THIRD BEST (1)

DISTRACTER (0)

Syllabus Unit / Module supported Bloom’s Taxonomy Testing Level

Subjects covered

Book Section Refs

Scenario

Six

Level 4 Analysis - The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom, in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences. Application – This question requires the delegate to analyse a situation and make a correct judgement on how to proceed. It relies on the consideration that the situation is a little suspicious and further evidence would be required before proceeding. Categories Covered: • How the CSI register supports the principles of CSI • How CSI is influenced by: o Service level management o Problem management o Knowledge management (KEDB) CSI 3.4 – Continual service improvement principle - CSI register


Difficulty

CSI Appendix B – CSI register contents Easy


QUESTION

Eight

Scenario

Question Rationale

The question requires the candidates to know and understand the roles associated with CSI. Responsibility 1. Managing resources assigned to the process. 2. Identifying improvement opportunities for inclusion in the CSI register. 3. Reviewing and prioritizing improvement opportunities. 4. Building an improvement plan.

Seven

Service owner

Process manager

✓

Process owner

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓ ✓ ✓

5. Reviewing analysed data. 6. Monitoring and reporting on process performance. 7. Producing trends and providing feedback on trends. 8. Making improvements to processes and process implementation. 9. Ensuring process is fit for purpose.

CSI manager

✓ ✓

✓ ✓

NOTE #7 Producing trends and providing feedback on trends in the responsibility of the reporting analyst which is not part of the grid or scenario.

MOST CORRECT (5)

D

SECOND BEST (3)

C

THIRD BEST (1)

A

DISTRACTER (0)

B

•

This is the most correct answer as it correctly assigns the correct role to each responsibility. The errors on this matrix are as follows: • Managing resources assigned to the process is the responsibility of the process manager; it has been incorrectly assigned to the process owner • Making improvements to processes and process implementation lies with both the process manager and process owner. It is only partially correct as it is assigned just to the process owner. The errors on this matrix are as follows: • Incorrectly assigns the responsibility for producing and providing feedback on trends to the process manager. This is a responsibility of a reporting analyst, which is not included in the scenario or the matrix • Incorrectly assigns monitoring and reporting on process performance to the process owner whereas this is a responsibility of the process manager • Managing resources assigned to the process is the responsibility of the process manager; it has been incorrectly assigned to the process owner • Partially correct; making improvements to processes and process implementation lies with both the process manager and process owner. It is only partially correctly as it is assigned just to the process manager. The errors on this matrix are as follows: • Incorrectly assigns managing resources assigned to the process to the process owner; this is the responsibility of the process manager • Incorrectly assigns identifying improvement opportunities to the CSI manager only; this is a shared responsibility across all roles listed • Incorrectly assigns monitoring and reporting on process performance to the process owner; this is the responsibility of the process manager • Incorrectly assigns producing and analysing trends to the CSI manager; this is the responsibility of a reporting analyst and is not included in the scenario


•



Incorrectly assigns ensuring the process is fit for purpose to the service owner as well as the process owner; this responsibility lies only with the process owner. ITIL SL: CSI05 Organizing for continual service improvement Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Application – The candidate must apply their knowledge of the roles associated with CSI. This includes the generic roles of service owner, process owner and process manager that are applicable across the whole lifecycle and those associated with CSI (CSI manager and reporting analyst). The activities carried out by these roles need to be translated into a RACI matrix as part of an organizational improvement initiative. Categories Covered: • CSI and generic roles and responsibilities CSI 6.3 Roles Moderate


ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle Stream: - WordPress.com

ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle Stream: - WordPress.com

Suggest Documents

Infrastructure Library (ITIL): Foundation, Capability, & Lifecycle ...

The ITIL Intermediate Qualification Continual Service Improvement ...

ITIL Intermediate Service Design.pdf - Google Drive

ITIL Intermediate Course: PPO Instructor Guide_r3.2.0

The ITIL Intermediate Qualification Service Operation Certificate ...

ITIL Intermediate Course: CSI Instructor Guide_r3.2.0

+VoiH~]] Download 'ITIL Intermediate Certification ... - WordPress.com

ITIL Intermediate Service Operation.pdf - Google Drive

ITIL Intermediate Service Transition.pdf - Google Drive

[PDF] Download ITIL Intermediate Certification ... - Google Sites

ITIL Intermediate Service Transition.pdf - Google Drive

IT Service Management ITIL® Intermediate: Capability ... - Qualiti7

Folder ITIL® Intermediate Capability - Operational Support and ...

ePub Download ITIL Intermediate Certification ... - Google Sites

ITIL-Service-Design-Lifecycle-Suite-ebook-PDF-47a75233d.pdf ...

Read PdF ITIL Lifecycle Suite, 2011 Edition - Google Sites

[PDF] Download ITIL Lifecycle Suite, 2011 Edition - Google Sites

The ITIL Managing Across the Lifecycle Certificate Syllabus v5.2

[PDF] Download ITIL Lifecycle Suite, 2011 Edition (5 ... - Google Sites

PDF Download ITIL Lifecycle Suite, 2011 Edition - Google Sites

Read Books ITIL Lifecycle Suite, 2011 Edition (5 ... - Google Sites

PDF Download ITIL Lifecycle Suite, 2011 Edition - Google Sites

Download The Introduction to the ITIL Service Lifecycle - Google Sites

eBook Download ITIL Lifecycle Suite, 2011 Edition (5 ... - Google Sites