When Exams are held and duration

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What is ITIL Foundation Bridge

Today I came to know about “ITIL FoundationBridge”. Looks exciting to me.  It is a program is designed to take the holder of any previous version of an ITIL Foundation certificate and ‘upgrade’ it to the most recent version. Currently I am ITIL certified for V2.0 (Foundation Certificate). Now V2.0 certified users can take the one day course of bridge. Take up the exam, score good marks and they can be ITIL certified for V3.0 (Foundation Certificate).  Oh!! This is interesting.

ITIL FoundationBridge program is a one day course for the holder of any previous version of an ITIL Foundation certificate.

When Exams are held:

ITILFoundationBridge exam is typically held at the end of the one day course and is comprised of 20 multiple choice questions. The passing mark for the exam is 65% (13 correct answers from the 20 questions).

The IT Infrastructure Library, ITIL, in simple terms is a series of documents that are used to aid the implementation of a framework for IT Service Management (ITSM). This framework defines how Service Management is applied within specific organisations. The ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) consists of 5 volumes: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement. Although the UK Government originally created the ITIL, it has rapidly been adopted across the world as the standard for best practice in the provision of information technology services. As IT services become more closely aligned and integrated with the business, ITIL assists in establishing a business management approach and discipline to IT Service Management, stressing the complementary aspects of running IT like a business. Service Management is a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services. The core of Service Management is transforming resources into valuable services.

The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is the world’s most comprehensive and respected source of information about IT processes. Recently  the introduction of new ITIL v3, provides a framework for service provision for both business and IT. It has been adopted by many organizations around the world, and leading consulting and educational bodies, including HP, offer ITIL training and certification programs for IT professionals. In fact, it has become clear that if your organization has not yet moved to implement ITIL best practices relevant to everyday service management operations, you’re likely to be at a distinct disadvantage as you confront key questions facing virtually every IT organization:

·  Are you equipped to consistently meet your service-level agreements?
·  Are processes in place to ensure continuous business-IT alignment?
·  Does the business agree that your organization is delivering significant value?
·  How do you cost-justify needed IT investments?
·  How can you spend less on routine IT service maintenance – and use the savings for IT service innovation?
· Which service-related investments are likely to bring the highest payback?

Addressing these key questions, Service Management helps IT organizations align with the business and become more agile and adaptable to dynamic market conditions. But customer needs and priorities change. New governance models emerge. Technology advances. New standards are issued. New regulations are promulgated.

Take away:
Even the best management models need periodic revamping, and ITIL is no exception. ITIL, the world’s most widely used, best practice approach to Service Management. The touchstone for best practice, is currently being updated by an international group of expert contributors.

ITIL HISTORY and Versions
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) defines the organisational structure and skill requirements of an information technology organisation and a set of standard operational management procedures and practices to allow the organisation to manage an IT operation and associated infrastructure. The operational procedures and practices are supplier independent and apply to all aspects within the IT Infrastructure.ITIL was originally created by the CCTA under the auspices of the British government, and ITIL is a registered trademark of the UK Government’s Office of Government Commerce (usually known as the OGC).The ‘library’ itself continues to evolve, with version three, known as ITIL v3, being the current release.

This comprises five distinct volumes:
1) ITIL Service Strategy;
2) ITIL Service Design;
3) ITIL Service Transition;
4) ITIL Service Operation; and
5) ITIL Continual Service Improvement
Within these sets are the specific descriptions and definitions of the various ITIL practices and disciplines. The contents of two most commonly used sets within the previous release, Service Support and Service Delivery are broadly still present and are as follows:
1) Incident Management;
2) Problem Management;
3) Configuration Management;
4) Change Management;
5) Release Management;
6) Service Desk; Service Level Management;
7) IT Financial Management;
Capacity Management;
9) Availability Management;
10) IT Service Continuity Management;
11) IT Security Management.  

ITIL VERSION 2
Version 2 of ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) consisted of 7 sets: Service Support; Service Delivery; Planning to Implement Service Management; ICT Infrastructure Management; Applications Management; Security Management; The Business Perspective. However, the main focus was generally divided into two main areas, known as ITIL Service Delivery and ITIL Service Support.

Service Delivery:
Service Delivery is the management of the IT services themselves, and involves a number of management practices to ensure that IT services are provided as agreed between the Service Provider and the Customer.
In includes 5 disciplines:
1) Service Level Management,
2) Capacity Management,
3) Continuity Management,
4) Availability Management, and
5) IT Financial Management

Service Support:
Service Support is the practice of those disciplines that enable IT Services to be provided effectively.
The 6 Service Support disciplines are:
1) Configuration Management,
2) Incident Management,
3) Problem Management,
4) Change Management,
5) Service/Help Desk and
6) Release Management. ITIL VERSION 3
The release of the new version of ITIL brought with it an important change of emphasis, from an operationally focused set of processes to a mature service management set of practice guidance.
It also brought a rationalization in the number of volumes included in the set, which now comprises the following:
·   Service Strategy
·    Service Design
·  Service Transition
·  Service Operation
·   Continual Service Improvement

Certification
There are three levels of certification for ITIL: Foundation Certificate, Practitioners Certificate and Managers Certificate.  More information can be obtained from ITSM or HP ITSM Website 

Challenges in implementing the Automation Process for IT Support and Delivery

IT management has evolved itself into lot of drastic changes in the past 5+ years.  There are various factors affecting this trend. In today’s scenario, there are three major challenges that force IT management to think about automating infrastructure operations.

1) Complexity. In terms of the servers, storage devices, applications running under different geographic locations has made the IT management a more challenging. Lot of complexity involved in managing the hardware/software components.  IT has to accommodate servers, has to support whole new technologies like web 2.0, twiki, messaging and still IT has to able to maintain the bandwidth speed.
Document Complexity – This means that the IT staff hasn’t had the time to completely document all its processes for all of these varied systems and pieces of equipment.  Lot of difficulty in finding out the design flows for the complex system specially whne when the system/component breaks out. Complexity also means that when something seems to break, it may be some time before the root cause is identified and the problem is fixed.

Takeaway:
–>Accurate assessment of infrastructure to gauge complexity.
–>Make sure your staff has everything in hand what it takes to deploy newer automation tools/techniques.
–>Implement ITIL  – best practices in Industry

2) Money/Budget.
Required budget for the right kind of tools and technology is a key factor in measuring the IT functionality. IT needs budget even to buy the part of CPU.
If IT is directly linked to your company’s bottom line, shift as much of your budget as possible into cost-saving tools and away from everyday maintenance activities. That’s the best way to win friends in your enterprise. Of course, you also need to take on the challenge of showing you are a competent financial manager–that you can get a good return on your investment. Depending on your site, IT automation may provide a quick and positive return on your investment.
If you have SLAs (Service Level Agreements)  for the all network or servers, operating systems, for the software applications, IT automation tools can help to prevent situations where financial penalties will be assessed against you.

Takeaway:
–>IT automation may be a good way to enable a shift of resources, away from maintenance and to providing new resources for users.
–>Proportionate balance between the Budget, latest tools and resources.

3) Expectations.
It’s also important to manage the expectations both within and beyond the IT department. The expectations for IT departments have always  been higher. Users expect IT to control spam and viruses, provide 24/7 uptime, and very fast recovery at the time of breakdown. From the user’s persprctive they are all always right and have the lot of expectation from IT department.
Management perspective of looking at IT is much more. It is one or two levels higher than the user expectation. This is the very right attitude and enables IT department to move ahead. These factors may include SOX compliance, security measure at all levels, data integrity and authorization.

Takeaway:
–>Incorporate automation tools to help you meet business and user expectations.
–>Provide the hands on time for the analysis of the root cause.
–>Implementation of various internal programs like feedback and open discussion.
–>IT has to keep an eye on the latest technology.
–>Combine technology with the user expectation to meet business requirement.
–>Clearly defined process for internal and external department requirements.