Technology plays a vital role in enterprise operations and ultimately in our daily lives. At the rate that technology is evolving and innovations emerging, having a foundation for best practices is in order if we are to realize the full benefits of human inventions in the 21st century. ITIL, the acronym for Information Technology Infrastructure Library, establishes best practices for IT services and processes. ITIL is specifically focused on the alignment of IT services and business needs. Thus it is not enough for professionals charged with ITIL implementation to master its practices, often by undertaking an ITIL course. It is essential that they understand the impact that ITIL will have over time on overall business productivity and profitability.
Top 25 ITIL Interview Questions and Answers in 2021
An ITIL interview for aspiring project managers and professionals in various IT departments will typically test their knowledge, understanding, and application of ITIL concepts including its processes, frameworks, core pillars, life cycle phases, and overall benefits to an organization.
Here are common questions you should expect to be asked in an ITIL interview session. Bear in mind that ITIL Course in Abu Dhabi has evolved from the first version through to the latest Version 4.
What are ITIL service lifecycle stages?
ITIL life cycle phases were applicable in ITIL v3 but were upgraded to ITIL practices in V4. The five life cycle phases in ITIL v3 are:
- Service strategy. As the term suggests, it is a strategic stage in which processes are focused on the implementation and maintenance of ITIL service processes and approaches in line with the business objectives as well as customer needs.
- Service design. This stage involves the design and implementation of new services into the business environment or the improvement of existing services for user benefit.
- Service transition. Involves the deployment and implementation of IT services and ensures the coordination between the services and service operations for smooth, uninterrupted yet improved operations.
- Service operation. The goal of the service operation stage is to ensure that the IT services delivered meet user expectations and any problems/bugs arising are resolved for routine operations to normalize.
- Continual service improvement. Employs quality management processes to improve the performance and quality of service features while also ensuring that services will recover and continue in the event of an incident.
Which key business questions do ITIL Service Strategy help define?
ITIL service strategy helps answer the following key business questions
- Which IT services should we offer and to whom?
- Who are our customers?
- In what market space do we operate and how do we differentiate from the competitors?
- How do we create value for our customers?
- How do we build a case for strategic asset building?
What are the processes involved in the service design phase of the ITIL life cycle?
The processes involved in the design phase of the ITIL life cycle management are:
- Design coordination
- Service level management
- Service catalog management
- Availability management
- Capacity management
- Information security management
- IT service continuity management
- Supply management
How is the proposed change in the change management process determined?
The change manager is responsible for facilitating the deployment of changes with minimum to no disruptions or downtimes in operations. The change manager ensures that a standard operating procedure for initiating proposed changes are in place and that the life cycle stages of change management happen as planned.
What is the change management process from the time a change request is made?
- Identification and submission of change request
- Assessment and approval
- Categorization and prioritization
- Planning and testing
- Examining anticipated impact
- Documenting change proposal
- Execution
- Review
- Verification and closure
What are the 7 Rs of a change management system?
- Raised – Who raised the change
- Return – what are the potential benefits (ROI) that the change will deliver
- Reason – Why is the change being implemented?
- Risks – What are the potential risks during the change?
- Resources – What resources will be required to implement the change?
- Relationships – Is there any relationship between the current change and previous changes?
- Responsible – Who is responsible for the various roles in the change?
Explain PIR?
Short for post-implementation review (PIR) is the process of evaluation that happens after the implementation of a change or a project. The purpose of PIR is to assess whether the objectives of change implementation were met, how effectively the implementation project was run, how well the implemented change is solving the problem it was intended to address, and how the organization can maximize the benefits from the implementation.
Explain the processes of the service operation stage in the ITIL framework
The ITIL service operation stage involves the following processes.
- Request fulfillment. Managing service requests from IT service users. These are typically small low-risk requests such as minor changes or requests for information.
- Access management. Authorize user access to IT services while limiting unauthorized access by non-users.
- Event management. Monitoring and controlling IT services for any events and prioritizing the events to decide about the appropriate course of action.
- Incident management. Managing IT services incidents to lower their negative impact on operations and resume normal operations in the shortest time possible.
- Problem management. Handle life cycle problems as soon as they arise to prevent the occurrence of incidences and ultimately their negative impact on service operations. This is done through techniques like root cause analysis (RCA).
What is data leakage?
Data leakage is the unauthorized transmission of data physically or electronically from an organization to an external destination or recipient. Most data leakages occur from stolen or weak credentials usually through emails, web, mobile, or other data storage devices.
Define SLA. What are the different types of SLA?
SLA refers to service level agreement. It refers to a documented agreement between an IT service provider and IT services end-users regarding the expected level of services.
The three types of service level agreements are:
- Customer-based SLAs between an external customer and service provider
- Internal SLAs between the service provider(the organization) and an internal customer
- Multi-level SLAs split the SLA into different levels, each addressing different levels of customers/users for the same IT services.
Explain operational level agreement
Operational level agreement (OLA) refers to the agreement between an IT service provider and another part of the same organization for instance internal support department, development area e.t.c
Differentiate between SLA and OLA
Firstly, a service level agreement (SLA) is an agreement between a service provider and an external client and is focused on the service element in terms of availability and performance. SLAs will mostly deal with the resolution of tickets for the issues arising during the service operations.
while an operational level agreement (OLA) is an agreement that exists between a service provider and the internal departments of the same organization and is mainly focused on the maintenance of already available services. OLAs are more technical-oriented and deal with the support teams to which SLA tickets are allocated.
What is the purpose of the continuous service improvement (CSI) phase of the ITIL lifecycle management?
The purpose of the continuous service improvement (CSI) phase is to achieve incremental improvement in service quality, operational efficiency, and ultimately business continuity by employing a metrics-driven approach to identify opportunities for service improvement and measure the impact of improvement initiatives.
What are the seven steps of the continual service improvement (CSI) phase in ITIL lifecycle management
- Identify the improvement approach
- Define what needs to be measured
- Collect required data
- Process the data
- Analyze the data
- Present the information in the data and use the information
- Implement the improvements
Explain the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle
The Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) is a continuous cycle model for testing implemented improvement in the CSI phase of ITIL. It provides an opportunity for learning and knowledge about a product or a process through its implementation and continuous improvement and is effective for managing change.
Name the responsibilities of the ITIL service desk
- The service desk provides a single point of contact for all IT users.
- The service desk handles the entire incident management process including support, incident logging, investigation, categorization, resolution, and reporting.
- The service desk handles all IT service requests including logging, categorizing, fulfillment and execution, monitoring, closure, and evaluation.
What is the correlation between Availability Service Time, Downtime, and Availability?
Availability = Agreed service time (AST) – Downtime (DT) x 100% Agreed Service Time
What is the importance of SACM?
SACM stands for Service Asset and Configuration Management. The purpose of SACM is to ensure that the assets acquired by an organization to deliver IT services are properly utilized and controlled and that information about the state of the assets is available and accessible when needed.
What is a balanced scorecard (BSC)?
A balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management methodology adopted to check its health from four perspectives:
- Financial
- Internal processes
- Customers
- Learning and growth
What are the 4 Ps of ITIL service management?
The four P’s of ITIL service management are:
- People
- Processes
- Products
- Partners
Explain RACI Matrix
RACI, an acronym that stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed is a Matrix chart that displays all the tasks, responsibilities for each task, employee roles, as well as the decisions and milestones made throughout the project. This enables clarity of communication and streamlined workflows across teams in the organization.
What is CMDB and what type of information is stored in the CMDB?
CMDB in ITIL v4 stands for configuration management database. It is a repository for storing information about configuration items and their relationships within the organization’s IT infrastructure.
What are the benefits of ITIL to an organization?
Some important benefits of ITIL to the organization are:
- It aligns the organization’s business with IT
- Provides best practices and guidelines for effective IT services management
- Improves IT service delivery and ultimately increased customer satisfaction
- Provides the organization with the ability to manage risks and minimize IT service disruption or failure
- Lower costs through improved utilization of resources
What is a known error?
Refers to a problem that has been recorded whose root cause has been analyzed but not yet resolved.
Differentiate between ITIL v3 and ITIL v4 approaches
ITIL v3 approach focuses on processes through the 5 phases of the IT services life cycle. ITIL v4 focus is on best practices and thus focuses on delivering value through end-to-end service delivery. ITIL V3 is made up of 5 phases and a total of 26 processes while ITIL V4 is made up of 34 processes.
Conclusion
It is vital to have information about the company you have applied for a position in. in addition, you should also be in a position to answer personal behavioral interview questions truthfully as they speak loads about your skills, competencies, and potential.
We do hope that this compilation will be valuable to you as you prepare for an ITIL-based interview.
