An 8 question challenge

As one of the ones on the "inner circle" I am often asked to participate in upcoming ITIL exams, as a Pilot Tester.

The good news is that I get asked and I am one of the first to ever see these new exams. The bad news is that I never get to see my result and I still have to take the test myself, when the actual exams are finally released.

Over the last 4 weeks I have taken 5 of the upcoming ITIL Service Lifecycle and Service Capability exams. The expected format of the exams is well publicized. Eight (8) complex multiple choice exams, to be answered in 90 minutes.

You may be thinking ONLY 8 ! and 90 MINUTES !... I'm here to tell you not to get lulled into a sense of security. Some of the questions are - I wouldn't use the work complex - I'd use the terms of LONG, TIRING TO READ, TRICKY TO UNDERSTAND and SUBJECTIVE.

The answers have different points. So it isn't even a case of one RIGHT and three WRONG. There are grades of RIGHT and WRONG. This is what makes the format hard for me to like.

If you get three of four experienced managers together and ask them to write an answer to an issue you will get COMPLETELY different answers. This is a result of experience, knowledge and even how you felt at the time.

Then you have an independant person say what is the most right answer etc.. Just doesn't sit well with me. I have my views and opinions and because they may differ to the people who write the questions and answers I could fail the exam.

There is no doubt that it is an enormous challenge, but I wonder if the examination panel would be better suited opting for simply MORE simple multiple choice questions and avoid the issues that are simply inevitable with the complex format.

Front Runners for ITIL v3 Certification

The United States still leads the way in terms of numbers of ITIL exams taken AND the percentage of those exams that are ITIL v3.

It would seem that the Service Management professional community in the US has thrown their (considerable) weight behind ITIL v3 certification.

Canada and Australia, as well as the UK are seeing a greater percentage of ITIL v3 exams taken than ITIL v2.

However, one interesting result is that while Japan is second behind the USA for number of ITIL exams taken, it is in last place for the number of those exams that are ITIL v3.

ISO 20000 set to take over ITIL ?

It is a question; not a statement.

However, it is a question that should get some of the fine brains that are ITIL entrenched talking. There has been a fair degree of dissatisfaction with the changes to the certification scheme that have been introduced with ITIL v3.

Perhaps this is what has prompted Exin to develop an entire track of certification based on ISO 20000. The first course and exam (ISO 20000 Foundation) is now filtering into the marketplace.

To give an indication of the seriousness that Exin is putting into ISO 20000 it is undertaken the relatively expensive step of listing the exam at Prometric test centres. Self study options are also available for the ISO 20000 Foundation, another indicator that the entire community is starting to look at this ITIL alternative.

What is confusing for some....

I read a short blog entry earlier today. The writer, who I now respect a little bit less than I did before, was clearing up something that they had been confused about.

The ITIL v3 certification scheme does not require you to earn all points at the middle layer (service capability and service lifecycle) from the one category of courses.

That is you can mix and match which courses you take from either of the two main areas. There will be some guidelines but essentially it is up to you on how you select which programs you follow.