ITILFND Exin ITIL – Foundation (v4) Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

A SWOT (also known as SLOT) analysis is a powerful strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses/Limitations, Opportunities and Threats to a project or business

http://steppingstonesforbusiness.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/FS116-SWOT-Analysis-for-Continuous-Improvement.pdf

Organizations maximize co-creation of value with their customers by facilitating the outcomes they want to achieve. The four dimensions of service management have shown that a holistic approach is the best way for an organization to:

Achieve its goals in delivering quality and cost effective services

Meet the needs of its customers

Satisfy the requirements of its stakeholders

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-value-system/

The purpose of the improve value chain activity is to ensure continual improvement of products, services, and practices across all value chain activities and the four dimensions of service management.

https://wiki.process-symphony.com.au/framework/lifecycle/service-value-systemitil-4/#:~:text=The%20purpose%20of%20the%20improve,four%20dimensions%20of%20service%20management .

In order to be aligned to customer outcomes and expectations, SLM requires focus and effort to engage and listen to the requirements, issues, concerns, and daily needs of customers:

Engagement is needed to understand and confirm the actual ongoing needs and requirements of customers, not simply what is interpreted by the service provider or has been agreed several years before. ITIL4 refers to value as being co-created, since it needs the input and validation of customers.

Listening is important as a relationship-building and trust-building activity, to show customers that they are valued and understood. This helps to move the provider away from always being in ‘solution mode’ and to build new, more constructive partnerships. Each customer is unique, and the service provider must not have a one-size-fits-all approach.

The activities of engaging and listening provide a great opportunity to build improved relationships and to focus on what really needs to be delivered. They also give service delivery staff an experience-based understanding of the day-to-day work that is done with their technology, enabling them to deliver a more business-focused service. When the customer is engaged and listened to, they feel valued and their perception of the service and service management activities improves.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-level-management/

IT asset is any financially valuable component that can contribute to the delivery of an IT product or service. The scope of IT asset management typically includes all software, hardware, networking, cloud services, and client devices

https://wiki.process-symphony.com.au/framework/lifecycle/process/it-asset-management-itil-4/#:~:text=IT%20asset%20is%20any%20financially,cloud%20services%2C%20and%20client%20devices .

Customer: A person who defines the requirements for a service and takes responsibility for the outcomes of service consumption;

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-key-concepts-service-management/

https://assyst.ifs.com/blog/the-7-guiding-principles-of-itil-4-0

Don't over-engineer solutions. Think about what you can do now.

Like focus on value, this principle is heavily focused on the prevention of waste. Waste correlates with complexity. Higher complexity means there are more opportunities for waste to creep into a system.

Focus on delivering the desired outcome, not building the most elegant and elaborate solution. Use the minimum number of steps to deliver that outcome, ensuring you are not over-processing (delivering quality above and beyond what is required).

It is important to understand the difference in these terms not just for clarity, but because outputs are much easier to measure than outcomes.

Outputs are nearly always quantitative, with data available to show whether these have been delivered. Outputs are easy to report on and to validate. There is no grey area.

Outcomes are more challenging to verify because they are both qualitative and quantitative. Whether your outcomes have been achieved will rely, to a great extent, on the perception of the people who receive the service. Perceptions are not easy to measure or report on, but it is essential you find a way to do so.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/outcomes-vs-outputs/

Value Streams & Processes

The value streams and processes dimension is concerned with how the various parts of the organization work in an integrated and coordinated way to enable value creation through products and services. This dimension defines the activities, workflows, controls and procedures needed to achieve agreed objectives. What matters in service management is that an organization establishes an operating model that that effectively organizes the key activities needed to manage products and services.

Value streams

A value stream is defined as a series of steps an organization undertakes to create and deliver products and services to consumers.

Structuring the organization’s service and product portfolios around value streams allows it to have a clear picture of what it delivers and how, and to make continual improvements to its services. By mapping its value streams, an organization can identify what is critical, what introduces waste and what can be improved upon.

Processes

A process is defined as a set of interrelated or interacting activities that transform inputs into outputs.

Processes define the sequence of actions and their dependencies, as well as describe what is done to accomplish an objective. Processes are underpinned by policies and can be broken down further through procedures which outline what is done, when, and by whom.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-four-dimensions-service-management/

Effective incident management often requires a high level of collaboration within and between teams as this can facilitate information-sharing and learning, as well as helping to solve the incident more efficiently and effectively. There may also be a need for good collaboration tools so that people working on an incident can work together effectively. One technique that takes advantage of collaboration is termed swarming. This brings many different stakeholders together to work on the issue. Management of incidents may require frequent interaction with third party suppliers, and routine management of this aspect of supplier contracts is often part of the incident management practice.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-incident-management/

The purpose of the release management practice is to make new and changed services and features available for use.

Release: A version of a service or other configuration item, or a collection of configuration items, that is made available for use.

https://wiki.process-symphony.com.au/framework/lifecycle/process/release-management-itil-4/

Individual metrics without a specified service context are unhelpful. They should relate to defined outcomes and not simply operational metrics. This can be achieved with balanced bundles of metrics, such as customer satisfaction and key business outcomes.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-level-management/#:~:text=Service%20Level%20Agreements%20(SLAs) &text=Individual%20metrics%20without%20a%20specified,satisfaction%20and%20key%20business%20outcomes.

You need to use all of your resources as effectively and efficiently as you can. This means that you should automate wherever you can, and use people only for tasks that can’t be automated. It also means that you need to think carefully about what you can automate and about the circumstances where only a person will do; and about simplifying those processes you do decide to automate to eliminate wasteful or inefficient steps.

You should always optimize the work BEFORE you automate it, as automating something that is inefficient or ineffective may just result in you doing the wrong thing faster!

https://www.sysaid.com/blog/itil/the-7-guiding-principles-of-itil-4-practical-advice-to-help-you-make-decisions

Sponsor: A person who authorizes budget for service consumption; e.g., the Finance Manager

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-key-concepts-service-management/#:~:text=Sponsor%3A%20A%20person%20who%20authorizes,%3B%20e.g.%2C%20the%20Finance%20Manager .

There are many ways in which practices and services can be optimized. Regardless of the specific techniques, the path to optimization follows these high-level steps:

Understand and agree the context in which the proposed optimization exists

Assess the current state of the proposed optimization

Agree what the future state and priorities of the organization should be, focusing on simplification and value

Ensure the optimization has the appropriate level of stakeholder engagement and commitment

Execute the improvements in an iterative way

Continually monitor the impact of optimization

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-guiding-principles/

Emergency changes. These are changes that must be implemented as soon as possible; for example, to resolve an incident or implement a security patch. Emergency changes are not typically included in a change schedule, and the process for assessment and authorization is expedited to ensure they can be implemented quickly. As far as possible, emergency changes should be subject to the same testing, assessment, and authorization as normal changes, but it may be acceptable to defer some documentation until after the change has been implemented, and sometimes it will be necessary to implement the change with less testing due to time constraints. There may also be a separate change authority for emergency changes, typically including a small number of senior managers who understand the business risks involved.”

https://itsm.tools/why-what-change-management/#:~:text=Emergency%20changes. &text=Emergency%20changes%20are%20not%20typically,they%20can%20be%20implemented%20quickly.

An SLA is defined as a documented agreement between a service provider and a customer that identifies both services required and the expected level of service.

SLAs are used to measure the performance of services from the customer’s point of view, and it is important that they are agreed in the wider business context.

Some of the key requirements for successful SLAs include:

They must be related to a defined ‘service’ in the service catalogue. Individual metrics without a specified service context are unhelpful.

They should relate to defined outcomes and not simply operational metrics. This can be achieved with balanced bundles of metrics, such as customer satisfaction and key business outcomes.

They should reflect an ‘agreement’: an engagement and discussion between the service provider and the service consumer. It is important to involve all stakeholders, including partners, sponsors, users, and customers.

They must be simply written and easy to understand and use for all parties.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-level-management/#:~:text=Service%20Level%20Agreements%20(SLAs) &text=Some%20of%20the%20key%20requirements,and%20not%20simply%20operational%20metrics.

ITIL® has defined four dimensions that collectively are critical to the effective and efficient delivery of value to customers and other stakeholders in the form of products and services. These dimensions are:

Organizations and People

Information and Technology

Partners and Suppliers

Value Streams and Processes

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-four-dimensions-service-management/