ITIL® v3 Qualifications
There are significant changes both in the content of the new ITIL® v3 books released in May 2007 and qualifications based upon them. The new content is presented in 5 volumes representing the new Lifecycle stages:
- Service Strategy (SS)
Strategies, Policies and constraints: how to create and implement strategy, manage a service portfolio, perform financial management and determine return on investment. - Service Design (SD)
Policy, planning and implementation through: availability, capacity, continuity, service level management and outsourcing. - Service Transition (ST)
Introducing the 'Service Knowledge Management System', an enhancement of the Configuration Management Database. Includes: Managing change, asset and configuration management, release and deployment management. - Service Operations (SO)
Supporting operations day-to-day through: Service Desk and service request management, incident and problem management. Introduces the new operations management process. - Continual Service Improvement (CSI)
How to improve processes to deliver enhanced services.
ITIL® v3 Qualifications and Courses
The qualification framework has been significantly re-worked to accommodate the new Library structure. Some qualifications are already released with others following shortly within the following framework:
| V3 Foundation (& upgrade from v2) | |
| Intermediate Capability Stream 4 Modules of related processes |
Intermediate Lifecycle Stream 5 modules relating to the Lifecycle stages |
| Managing Across the Lifecycle | |
| ITIL Expert (aka Diploma)* | |
| ITIL Master (aka Advanced) | |
Foundation
The 3 day ITIL® v3: Service Management Foundation [ITILF] course delivers underpinning knowledge of ITIL® v3 and provides the ideal opportunity to sit the Foundation Certificate which is a pre-requisite of higher level courses.
Holders of an ITIL® v2 Foundation Certificate can upgrade to version 3 by attending our 1 day ITIL® Foundation Certificate Upgrade In IT Service Management (v2 - V3) [ITILFU] course that includes a shorter version (20 questions) of the Foundation exam.
Intermediate Capability Stream
This section is comparable with v2 Practitioner courses, focussing on related collections of processes along the following lines:
- ITIL® v3: Planning, Protection & Optimization [ITILPPO]
- ITIL® v3: Service Offerings & Agreements [ITILSOA]
- ITIL® v3: Release, Control & Validation [ITILRCV]
- ITIL® v3: Operational Support & Analysis [ITILOSA]
Each of these qualifications count as 4 credits towards the Expert certification.
Existing v2 Practitioner Certificates are effectively upgraded when the Foundation certificate is upgraded, v2 Practitioner certificates can then count as 2 credits each towards the Expert certification.
Intermediate Lifecycle Stream
This section is comparable with the existing Management Certificate and focusses directly on the 5 volumes, there will be a qualification and course for each:
- ITIL® v3: Service Strategy [ITILSS]
- ITIL® v3: Service Design [ITILSD]
- ITIL® v3: Service Transition [ITILST]
- ITIL® v3: Service Operations [ITILSO]
- ITIL® v3: Continual Service Improvement [ITILCSI]
Each of these qualifications count as 3 credits towards the Expert certification.
Holders of a v1 or v2 Managers Certificate may attend the ITIL® v3: Manager's Bridging [ITILMU] course and pass the included exam to immediately qualify for the new Expert qualification.
Additional Modules
While the ITIL qualification framework specifies a number of specific modules and qualifications it is also able to recognise additional relevant modules accredited by the appropriate bodies. While we await confirmation from these bodies on specifics we expect to be able to offer courses and examinations that are compatible with the framework and accrue credits towards the Expert Certification.
Managing across the Lifecycle
ITIL® v3: Managing Across the Lifecycle [ITILMAL] is a 5 day course with exam that focusses on the ancillary knowledge required to implement and manage the necessary skills associated with the use of the Lifecycle practices. This is a compulsory element for virtually all candidates for the Expert Certification, the exception being those doing a Manager’s Bridging route (see below).
ITIL® Service Management Expert Certification
In order to achieve this new high level qualification delegates need to achieve at least 22 credits from the qualifications listed above in a flexible manner:
- Capability Route: Foundation Foundation Certificate (direct or upgrade for 2 credits) with 16 Capability Stream credits, topped with “Managing Across the Lifecycle” for the remaining 5 credits.
- Management Route: Foundation Certificate (direct or upgrade for 2 credits) with the 5 individual Management Stream components achieving 17 credits, topped with “Managing Across the Lifecycle” for the remaining 5 credits.
- V2 Management Certificate Upgrade route: Holders of a v1 or v2 Managers Certificate are regarded as having 17 credits which must be topped up with a 5 day “ITIL® v3: Manager’s Bridging course” [ITILMU] for the remaining 5 credits.
- Flexible route: Foundation Certificate (direct or upgrade for 2 credits) with at least 15 credits from either stream or v2 Practitioner Certificates, topped with “Managing Across the Lifecycle” for the remaining 5 credits.
Advanced Qualification
Details to be announced.




