Lifecycle exams - which one first and what order ?

[OvOcO5]

Good evening everyone,

Today I found out that I passed my ITIL foundation exam

The company I work for has purchased for me the OGC ITIL lifecycle publication Suite and I wish to take each course and exam respectivley.

My question is what lifecycle should I start off with and what order. I'd like to know through other peoples experiences what lifecycle they would suggest I go for first and why, to kick start my ITIL intermediate grade.

I'm also thinking of buying the OGC Key Element Guide to accompany the main books. Would anyone here recommend I do this too ?

Many thanks


Greg (aka Ovoco5)

[Diarmid]

Greg,

you could start with the ones most relevant to your current work and experience, or you could start with the ones that you think will enlighten you in dark areas of mystery or you could start with the ones in the areas you want to expand into.
_________________
"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718

[LizGallacher]

Do not forget the other Intermediate courses/exams - RCV,OSA,SOA and PPO. In my opinion they are more practical, and more enjoyable. The Lifecycle courses are the management aspects only, whereas the Capability ones are about the HOW? as well.
The Key guides are OK, good for Foundation or Managers bridge, but for the Intermediate, you will need the relevant book (and to have scanned/read it before the course!)
_________________
Liz Gallacher,
ITIL EXPERT
Accredited ITIL and ISO/IEC20000 Trainer and Consultant - Freelance

[aucade]

@LizGallacher

I`m sorry if I might seem anal, but ITIL does not say HOW you should do something, they only recommend WHAT should be taken into account. That was the general problem with the expression "Best Practices". People thought they did`nt have to think and adapt to the companies requirements and culture. The term "Good Practices" is fittng. Meaning that I take the "Good Practices" and adapt them to my companies "Best Practices".

[LizGallacher]

I am sorry to argue, but whether it should or shouldn't ITIL V3 DOES tell people how to do things. Look at the Process flows in the books. One of my main criticisms of V3 is that it is far too prescriptive. So the Lifecycle course syllabi address management issues (why you should have availability management for example) , whilst the capability syllabi look at how you do it. The syllabus explicitly addresses "activities".
Also, I think the promotion of Good over Best Practice is spurious. People did NOT think that they didn't have to think and adapt to the companies requirements and culture! The opposite was true - by Best practice we knew that that was what the best, most succesful, flagship organisations did - so we adopted and adapted to fit our own organisation.
The term "Good Practices" is far too weak - and undemanding. Almost anything other than incompetence can be described as "Good Practice" and it actually means that striving to be better is not part of ITIL any more, despite having a whole book supposedly dedicated to just that.
_________________
Liz Gallacher,
ITIL EXPERT
Accredited ITIL and ISO/IEC20000 Trainer and Consultant - Freelance

[OvOcO5]

It's good to have a framework to work from though isn't it ? - and to at least have exposure to what is the right(ish) things to do.

The stream I'm taking is the life cycle one. My books came through yesterday.

My first impression was how expensive they were for what are quite small books. Thank heavens my company paid for them! - I'm sure though I will get good use from all five issues.

Talking of which, what is the best from the five to start off from and why ?

Thanks


Greg aka Ovoco5

[aucade]

@OvOcO5

Out of personal experience I`d start at the hub. The beginnig of all services "Service Strategy" then go on with Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and CSI. Since I did the opposite I found during the courses that there where always references to the above lifecycle stages which confused me more than helped putting the puzzle together.

[OvOcO5]

Hi Aucade,

That does sound "very" logical - so I'll start there.

Could you let me know what materials you used to take your service cycle exams.

Thanks

Greg

[aucade]

Hi Greg,

I used all 5 core publications because each intermediate lifecycle course is based on the specific book in that lifecycle stage. For the managing across the lifecycle course I used the core books "Service Strategy" and "CSI", the "Official Introduction to the ITIL Service Lifecycle" from the OGC and "Frameworks for IT Management" from the ITSM Library.

Steve

[OvOcO5]

Did you use any mock exams materials?

I'm interested in getting a feel for what question/scenario's/format the questions will be in.

Thanks


Greg

[aucade]

Yes I had 2 example exams from the APMG for every course I attended. I`d reccommend to use them only as practice but don`t expect them to be like the real exams.

Steve

[OvOcO5]

With experience from the foundation exam I found the mocks were nothing like the real thing. But it did help me get into the mindset.


Once I've read the book, I'd like to try a mock or two. Are the APMG mocks availble on PDF ?


Greg

[aucade]

My trainer had them in pdf from the APMG, but we course attendants only got them in print.