News story

ITIL® evolves with the “ITIL Practitioner” qualification from AXELOS

Learning NewsAXELOS Global Best Practice

The most significant evolution in the ITIL best practice framework since the launch of AXELOS - the new ITIL® Practitioner qualification - was announced late last week on 13 March at the ITSM Leadership Congress in Singapore.

ITIL Practitioner is being developed to help organizations and individuals increase the value they obtain from using ITIL by offering additional practical guidance to adopt and adapt the framework to support the business. It will be the next step after ITIL Foundation for professionals who have already learned the basics of IT Service Management (ITSM) and the business value of well-designed and delivered services. It will help guide them through the practical side of successfully applying the theory in the workplace.

Addressing the demand from ITSM practitioners and organizations of all sizes worldwide, the first ITIL Practitioner exam will be available globally by the end of 2015 and will equip ITSM professionals with added practical guidance to enhance leveraging ITIL in line with their organizations’ business goals.

Peter Hepworth, AXELOS CEO, said: “ITIL is the most widely adopted service management framework used by thousands of organizations worldwide, with over two million ITIL certifications awarded, including 300,000 in 2014.

“ITIL offers many benefits to organizations, including supporting business outcomes, managing risks in line with business needs, showing value for money and supporting continual improvement*. The launch of ITIL Practitioner will deliver even greater benefits for individuals and organizations.

“In addition, last year when we surveyed ITSM professionals from around the world, the top response was for ITSM to be treated as a profession. Having this additional, higher qualification level within the ITIL framework is an important step towards that goal.”

ITIL Practitioner will focus on:

  • Giving practical guidance on how individuals can leverage Continual Service Improvement (CSI), a fundamental lifecycle stage in ITIL, to maximize the benefits of its adoption and adaption
  • Aiming to improve the capability of individuals throughout the business, to adopt and adapt ITIL in their day to day roles for maximum business benefits
  • Making use of further evolved technological capabilities - such as automation, real-time reporting and Cloud computing - to increase the quality of service design and the efficiency of service delivery
  • Leveraging other philosophies, frameworks, good practices and methodologies - including e.g. Lean, DevOps, Agile and SIAM - to further enhance the value of ITSM.

Kaimar Karu, Head of ITSM at AXELOS, explained: “ITIL is the overarching framework that brings together all the good practice in ITSM, globally. Traditionally, ITIL has focused on the ‘what’ and the ‘why’, leaving it to the practitioners to apply the guidance in their specific organizational context and find the best ways for the ‘how’ of adopt and adapt. As good practices appear, evolve and grow, the need for more practical guidance on the ‘how’ has increased significantly.

“The numerous case studies demonstrating how ITIL’s guidance has helped organizations to succeed, our own experiences and that of practitioners worldwide have highlighted several key challenges for a successful improvement journey. ITIL Practitioner is being developed collaboratively with seasoned professionals worldwide to addresses these challenges.”

ITIL Practitioner will sit alongside the existing qualification levels of Foundation, Intermediate, Expert and Master. It is a further example of how AXELOS is helping ITIL certified professionals remain relevant and up-to-date throughout their career. Later this year, the organization will launch a new professional development scheme which will enable individuals to stay current in their knowledge and protect the investment they have made in adopting and adapting AXELOS Global Best Practice.

All the latest news on ITIL Practitioner can be found on our website. To take part in the discussion on ITIL Practitioner, join our new Official ITIL Group from AXELOS on Linkedin.

*The Key Benefits of ITIL (2014): https://www.axelos.com/Corporate/media/Files/Key%20Benefits/ITIL_Value_Proposition.pdf
**The Importance of ITIL - A Global View (2014): https://www.axelos.com/best-practice-solutions/itil/itil-research