WHY IS THE UPTAKE OF ITIL 4 FAILING TO MEET EXPECTATIONS?

There are some subtle signs that ITIL 4 is perhaps not achieving the level of uptake expected by Axelos, the owners of ITIL. Apart from the fact that we are all pretty clued-up on and comfortable with v3 (which has been around since 2007), we had been told in 2011 that whilst ITIL guidance would evolve, there would be no further versions or editions.

First, there are not a great deal of web searches specifically for ITIL 4. ITIL yes, as you’d expect, but not ITIL 4, despite all the hype. And by the way, despite the blurb put out by some organisations, it is NOT ITIL Version 4 or v4, it’s just ITIL 4 (that’s how Axelos avoided being accused of going back on the ‘No new version’ promise).

Second, there is only minimal demand for the ITIL 4 Foundation qualification. Sure, there are the usual early adopters, but apparently nothing like the level of demand anticipated by Axelos.

Third, PeopleCert, the ITIL exam body is already offering discounts to ITIL v3 qualified candidates to take ITIL 4 – unheard of, given the pressure on Axelos to deliver increasing revenues for the UK Government.

Having taught the ITIL 4 Foundation it’s not hard to see why the uptake is so slow. ITIL 4 is ‘Evolutional’, that is it builds on ITIL v3 (that’s one of the development guidelines). Therefore, the syllabus essentially only covers the new ITIL concepts introduced by 4 such as The Service Value System and Service Value Chains, the Four Dimensions model (aka the Four P’s of service design in v3), the Seven Guiding Principles and some of the ‘Practices.’

However, the opposite is true in terms of these practices. Whilst there are 34 practices within ITIL 4 (compared with 26 processes and 4 functions in v3) it might surprise you to know that only 15 of these practices are within the scope of the Foundation syllabus and there is not a single practice newly introduced in ITIL 4.  Therefore, practices that could be of great interest to people studying ITIL 4 for the first time such as Organisational Change Management, Risk Management, Workforce and Talent Management, Project Management, Business Analysis and Measurement and Reporting are conspicuous by their absence.

Perhaps the ITIL 4 Foundation course should more properly be called a Foundation Bridge course, because few people studying ITIL and service management for the first time are going to be able to take away anything of real value since the courseware is limited to the sparse syllabus areas.

Without a solid background in the service management principles introduced by ITIL over the last three decades, new delegates will struggle to relate these new concepts to the day-to-day reality of IT and business operations. This means that they can pass the exam and achieve certification but are unlikely to understand how they can contribute to service management and more importantly, business value, on returning to the coal face.

Part of the challenge for Axelos is based around its decision to launch ITIL 4 with only a Foundation book, rather than release the entire body of knowledge that is starting to emerge but won’t be completed for months yet. This makes it quite challenging to put the Foundation material into the context of ITIL 4 which has scrapped the service lifecycle concept on the basis that organisations are inappropriately structuring their teams around the lifecycle stages.

Nonetheless, since ITIL v3 will be retired in 2020, in common with other training providers Infrassistance has an ITIL 4 Foundation course. However, instead of spreading this rather thin material out over 2-3 days, we continue to offer our ‘ITIL In A Day’ course that remains the most effective and productive way of achieving ITIL certification by covering the entire syllabus, providing a mock exam and the real exam in just a single day.

However, to provide the value-add that organisations and their staff desire, we can also include an additional day to show people how to use the concepts back in the workplace. Therefore, within the two-day duration of most other courses, delegates not only achieve ITIL 4 certification but also learn how to apply this within their organisation. By way of an example, we recently helped a client identify 34 actionable improvements during a two-day Foundation course for their service desk staff.

Furthermore, because we use only consultant trainers, i.e. people actively engaged with clients on a consulting basis rather than career trainers, we can do so much more to establish the context of the ITIL framework within each organisation’s own improvement objectives.

Please do get in touch if you’d like more detail either on ITIL 4 through one of our complimentary executive briefing sessions, or our unique Foundation course.