ITIL® PRACTITIONER: DO WE NEED THIS QUALIFICATION?

AXELOS is about to release the ITIL Practitioner qualification.

The cynic in me is questioning whether we really need another ITIL qualification. Surely this is AXELOS working on its bottom line in the only way it can: by pushing more exams (and more books)?

Some of the language used seems to support this, with AXELOS pointing out the limited uptake of the ITIL Intermediate (exams, the number of which has been somewhat stagnant over the last few years) and positioning the Practitioner to be ‘bundled’ with the ITIL Foundation, their ‘bestseller’ (similar to the successful PRINCE2 Foundations + Practitioner combination).

And it really annoyed me when they announced that NO (accredited) training is required for this exam (thus opening the market to include all grey training organisations and exam-only offers) but that the accompanying publication is required (thus increasing book sales). Surely something that is positioned to be PRACTICAL, cannot be learned from a book (and proven by an exam) but will require actual practice?!

I am still not convinced the actual certification (and the lack of mandatory, accredited, quality training) is a good thing, but having done some further investigation into the syllabus and the (draft) publication, I am starting to get enthusiastic about the possibilities and the need for this practical qualification.

The starting premise is sound: the ITIL Foundation is mainly a theoretic course, about the ITIL concepts, definitions and processes; and whilst the Intermediates address the capabilities required to manage or perform the various processes (in their respective Capability or Lifecycle module) it doesn’t explicitly address the more generic practical skills a Service Management professional needs.

So, in comes the Practitioner. Arguably between the Foundation and Intermediate courses, but also as a stand-alone option/qualification.

The architect team has done a great job identifying those practical capabilities needed and has structured them around the CSI approach (as everything in life could be considered an improvement of the existing situation). Within this approach they deal with Organisational Change Management, Communication and Metrics & Measurements, as well as provide 9 Guiding Principles applicable to just about anything you do.

The overall result (of the book) is a clear description of the required capabilities but also it provides guidance, and the approach for making a (service management) improvement.

As such the Practitioner could be seen as a syllabus around the much acclaimed publication ‘Planning to Implement Service Management’, described by many as the 6^th ITIL Core Publication. But as one of the Practitioner authors told me that where the ‘Planning to …' publication addresses large, full-scale ‘ITIL implementations’, the ITIL Practitioner focusses more on ‘everyday improvements’ that candidates/practitioners should be able to make right now (or at least after completing the qualification).

And the best thing … not only is the publication easy to digest, clear in structure and inclusive of many other ‘methodologies’ out there (SIAM, DevOps, Lean, Kanban, Scrum, Agile, Kotter, PCI, AIM, ADKAR, PROSCI, ABC of ICT, COBIT, CMMI, SFIA, Balanced Scorecard … they are all mentioned and included); but the publication actually provides templates and examples that can be easily applied!

This elevates the ITIL Practitioner out of the theory where people walk away with a lot of knowledge but no real concept of how to apply this (wood and trees anyone?). I myself often use the ‘excuse’ that ITIL is descriptive and that you can apply it in any way that is required and that it thus not prescribes you ‘how to do it’.

And whilst the Practitioner guidance is still not prescriptive, at least it shows a more defined way in which improvements can be made (with templates).

This is why I am getting exciting about the possibilities of this qualification: it provides really useful capabilities that will enhance the uptake and implementation of service management (ITIL or otherwise). Even the course syllabus is exciting that way as it is built around a 1:2 ratio of theory vs. practice and thus promises accredited providers to generate high quality and highly interactive courses, involving simulations, gamifications etc.

But … many ATOs would already have included practical elements in their (Intermediate) courses, in particular within the ITIL MALC course (which also includes elements of CSI, measurements, communication & organisational change). This leads to the question of whether this qualification ‘adds’ any value to the existing training courses and it may leave training providers with either duplicating elements across multiple courses or a significant redesign of most of their courses to ‘isolate’ the Practitioner elements (and somewhat devaluing those courses that loose those practical components).

And I haven’t even started on the exam (which, I should remind you, does NOT require you to do ANY training if you so desire), which is multiple choice and in my opinion does not validate whether a candidate has the practical capabilities sought.

The best quote I got from AXELOS was that in their opinion a candidate not undertaking accredited training is most likely to fail the exam and that this was how the market would self-regulate grey and inferior offerings. My counter-argument was that the whole structure of accredited training organisations provides the process to guarantee quality courses which will improve the acceptance and uptake of the material. ATOs pay to be accredited (, audited, measured …) and rather than being rewarded for investing in their relation with AXELOS, they now have to compete with organisations not hindered by accreditation (but that is perhaps a topic for another blog).

The Practitioner also doesn’t ‘fit’ comfortably in the ITIL Qualification structure. It does not deal with any specific ITIL theory (other than CSI), but it collects ‘enough’ points so that candidates can drop another Intermediate on their way to the Expert qualification (so, if I do the Practitioner, I don’t have to do Service Operations … or PPO …).

The prerequisites are the Foundation certification (only) but the material and difficulty of the exam, require a good understanding of organisational practices which are perhaps not found in all Foundations candidates (but more in those seeking the Expert qualification).

So, once again, AXELOS has left me somewhat ambivalent. I applaud their introduction of the ITIL Practitioner and recognising the capabilities required in the Service Management market; I am delighted with the content of the guidance, the clarity and the templates; and I am excited about the prospect of some really practical training products being developed.

But I am also sceptical about the exam and the market value it will provide; and I question the chosen approach of exam-only and the overlap between the Practitioner and the ‘other’ ITIL courses (Intermediates and MALC).

I sometimes lament ‘the good old days’ of the ITIL Service Manager. One course that covered all material, completed by two, 3-hour, written, essay exams that were torture. In fact the whole course was an experience that few people ‘enjoyed’ (or so I have been told ... multiple times). But those that came out on the other side had proven something, to themselves and to the world and you knew that the ITIL Service Manager ‘had what it takes’.

I would love the ITIL Practitioner to be that (and as such perhaps even be ‘exalted’ above the ITIL Expert qualification as providing proof of theory+practical capabilities) but without a defined, controlled, quality, practical training program I fear it will become just another certification ‘tick-in-the-box’.

Time will tell.

the ITIL Zealot

January 2016

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