Which types of incidents do NOT usually require on individual review upon resolution?
A
Explanation:
In ITIL 4, incidents are categorized based on their impact and urgency, and the way they are managed
depends on their classification. Let’s break down the various types of incidents mentioned in the
question:
Recurring Incidents
(Answer A):
These are incidents that have been identified and occur frequently, often with well-documented
resolutions (e.g., through a known error or workaround). Due to their recurring nature and the
availability of established solutions, these incidents typically do not require an individual review
upon resolution. Instead, they may be reviewed in bulk periodically or handled through predefined
processes. According to the ITIL Service Operation practice, recurring incidents are often managed
through Problem Management, where known errors or workarounds can be applied without
requiring a detailed review every time. This makes recurring incidents the correct answer.
Major Incidents (Answer B):
Major incidents are high-impact, urgent incidents that require immediate attention and often involve
significant resources. ITIL 4 specifies that major incidents should always undergo an individual review
to assess the incident's cause, resolution time, and how the incident was handled to avoid future
recurrences. This is part of the Post-Incident Review process outlined in the Incident Management
practice, ensuring lessons are learned and improvements are made.
New Types of Incidents (Answer C):
New types of incidents are unfamiliar and do not have a predefined resolution or known error in
place. These incidents typically require careful investigation and review upon resolution to ensure
they were handled appropriately and to determine if any preventive measures need to be taken. ITIL
4 promotes continuous learning from such incidents to improve Knowledge Management and
prevent future occurrences.
Incidents Not Resolved in Time (Answer D):
Incidents that are not resolved within the agreed time frame (Service Level Agreement breaches) are
typically reviewed to understand why the service level was not met. Such incidents are important for
Service Level Management to ensure that corrective actions are taken and similar delays do not
occur in the future.
ITIL 4 Reference:
Incident Management Practice: ITIL emphasizes efficient handling of incidents to restore service
operation quickly. Recurring incidents often have a known error and are resolved using documented
procedures, hence not requiring detailed individual review each time.
Problem Management Practice: This deals with analyzing recurring incidents, identifying their root
cause, and either resolving them permanently or establishing a workaround.
Service Level Management Practice: Incidents breaching the SLA (Answer D) are usually reviewed to
improve performance and ensure compliance in future instances.
What is the FIRST step in the incident handling and resolution process that helps identify the team
responsible for the failed Cis and/or services?
B
Explanation:
The first step in the Incident Management process after detecting an incident is the Incident
classification step. ITIL 4 defines Incident classification as the step where the incident is categorized
based on certain criteria, such as the type of failure, affected configuration items (CIs), services,
urgency, and impact. This categorization helps direct the incident to the appropriate support team
responsible for handling incidents involving the specific CI or service.
Incident Detection (Answer D): This is the step where an incident is identified or reported, either by
monitoring systems or through users. However, this step does not identify the responsible team; it
only alerts the organization that an incident has occurred.
Incident Classification (Answer B): After detection, the next step is classification, where the incident
is categorized, and based on this categorization, the team responsible for the failed CI or service is
identified. For instance, if the incident relates to a network outage, it is classified accordingly and
assigned to the network management team. This is the first step where responsibility for resolving
the incident starts to take shape.
Incident Diagnosis (Answer A): Once the responsible team is identified, the incident diagnosis phase
begins, where the team investigates the root cause of the incident. This phase cannot start until the
incident is classified and assigned to the correct team.
Incident Resolution (Answer C): This step involves the actual resolution of the incident but comes
later in the process, after the classification, diagnosis, and other steps have been completed.
ITIL 4 Reference:
Incident Management Practice: The classification step is essential to ensure that incidents are
properly categorized, and that they are assigned to the correct team based on the service or CI
involved.
Service Operation: ITIL emphasizes the importance of classification for efficient and effective incident
handling to reduce the time to resolution.
The service management team is analysis different practices, products, and service to map relevant
value streams for further improvements. They are currently looking at the incident management
value stream.
Which of the following statement is CORRECT?
C
Explanation:
ITIL 4 defines Incident Management as a key practice that works across various parts of the Service
Value Chain. While Incident Management has its own value stream focused on restoring normal
service operations as quickly as possible, it can also be involved in other value streams to handle
incidents that may arise during activities like Service Fulfillment, Service Request Management, or
even during the delivery of new services.
Incident Management in Multiple Value Streams (Answer C - Correct): Incident Management can be
involved in other value streams where its role is to manage disruptions that may occur during
different stages of service delivery or other operations. For example, during Change Management,
incidents may occur as a result of changes made to the infrastructure, and Incident Management
would need to step in to manage those disruptions.
Incident Management in All Value Streams (Answer A): While incident management is crucial, it is
not necessarily involved in all value streams. Value streams that do not involve service disruptions or
incidents, such as strategic planning or purely administrative value streams, may not require the
involvement of incident management.
Restoration of Normal Service (Answer B): While Incident Management focuses on restoring normal
service as soon as possible, other value streams like Change Enablement and Service Request
Management can also trigger service restoration activities under different circumstances. Therefore,
it is incorrect to say that only the Incident Management value stream can trigger restoration.
Incident Management in Fulfillment Workflow (Answer D): While Service Request Fulfillment often
deals with requests such as password resets or access requests, which are not necessarily incidents,
there may be occasions where Incident Management overlaps with the fulfillment process (e.g., if a
service request leads to an incident). However, it is not mandatory that Incident Management be
involved in every fulfillment workflow.
ITIL 4 Reference:
Service Value Chain: Incident Management activities are often part of various stages across the value
chain, particularly in Engage, Deliver and Support, and Improve stages.
Incident Management Practice: Incident Management ensures service disruptions are managed
efficiently and effectively, making it a practice that can be invoked during various service value
streams when required.
An organization is having Issues with their incident management practice, it wants to address the
aspect of collective responsibility and improve the time it takes to restore normal service, as well as
knowledge-sharing between teams and individuals.
Which of the following statements a CORRECT?
C
Explanation:
In ITIL 4, the Incident Management practice emphasizes the need for collaboration, efficient
response, and leveraging expertise to resolve incidents quickly and minimize their impact. The
correct approach to addressing issues like collective responsibility and improving knowledge-sharing
is to ensure that experienced individuals are involved in the process.
Engaging Experienced People (Answer C - Correct): ITIL promotes collaboration and knowledge-
sharing within and between teams. Engaging experienced people ensures that incidents are handled
by those with the requisite skills and knowledge, which improves both the speed of resolution and
the learning opportunities for others involved. This is in line with the Collaborate and Promote
Visibility guiding principle, where cross-team collaboration is encouraged to enhance service
restoration and continual improvement.
Hero Mentality and Failing Together (Answer B - Incorrect): While recognizing achievements is
important, ITIL advises against promoting a "hero culture" where individuals are solely credited for
resolving incidents. Instead, it encourages collective responsibility and learning from both successes
and failures. The focus should be on continuous learning and improvement, rather than celebrating
individual success in a team-oriented environment.
Seeing an Incident Through to Resolution (Answer A - Incorrect): Even in teams where responsibility
is shared, ITIL recommends that there should be clear ownership of incidents to ensure
accountability. It’s crucial that one person or a defined team tracks the incident from start to finish,
even if multiple people contribute to the resolution.
Bouncing Incidents Between Teams (Answer D - Incorrect): ITIL discourages the practice of bouncing
incidents between teams, as this can lead to delays, confusion, and poor resolution times. Instead,
clear responsibility and communication are key to effective incident resolution.
ITIL 4 Reference:
Incident Management Practice: Focuses on ensuring efficient and quick restoration of service by
involving the right people and sharing knowledge across teams.
Collaborate and Promote Visibility Guiding Principle: Encourages involving experienced individuals
and sharing knowledge to improve outcomes.
How is service configuration management system used for incident handling and resolution?
B
Explanation:
The Service Configuration Management System (CMS), or Configuration Management Database
(CMDB), is a critical tool in ITIL 4 that provides detailed information about the configuration items
(CIs) in an organization and their relationships. In the context of Incident Management, this tool
plays a crucial role in Incident Classification.
Supporting Incident Classification (Answer B - Correct): The CMS provides valuable information about
the affected configuration items and their relationships with other services or components. This data
is essential in classifying incidents, determining their impact, and assigning them to the appropriate
support team. Accurate classification of incidents helps streamline the resolution process and
ensures that the incident is handled by the right people from the start.
Detecting Incidents (Answer A - Incorrect): While the CMS contains valuable information about CIs, it
is not typically used to detect incidents. Incident detection is usually handled by Monitoring and
Event Management tools.
Managing Modern Records (Answer C - Incorrect): The CMS is not primarily used for managing
records but for managing detailed data about the configuration items (CIs) and their
interdependencies.
Supporting User Feedback Collection (Answer D - Incorrect): The CMS is not designed to collect user
feedback. Feedback collection is more aligned with practices such as Service Desk or Service Level
Management.
ITIL 4 Reference:
Service Configuration Management Practice: ITIL 4 emphasizes the use of CMS in providing accurate
data on CIs to support the effective management of incidents, especially during classification.
Which of the following is a CORRECT statement about partners and suppliers in the incident
management practice?
C
Explanation:
In ITIL 4, third-party suppliers and partners are essential components of the Service Value System.
For effective Incident Management, it is critical that third-party suppliers align with the incident
management policies of their customers.
Adhering to Customer Policies (Answer C - Correct): ITIL stresses the importance of ensuring that
external partners and suppliers follow the incident management processes and policies established
by their customers. This ensures consistency in handling incidents and contributes to seamless
service restoration across the supply chain. The Supplier Management practice emphasizes the need
for agreements that include clear expectations for incident handling and adherence to customer
policies.
Designing Incident Management Processes to Copy Customer Processes (Answer D - Incorrect):
While third parties should align with customer policies, they do not need to design their incident
management processes as an exact copy of their customers’ processes. Instead, they should ensure
that their processes are compatible and work seamlessly with the customer’s incident management
framework.
Not Important to Ensure Adherence (Answer A - Incorrect): It is crucial to ensure that third parties
adhere to the organization’s incident management policies. Failing to do so can result in inconsistent
incident handling, delays in resolution, and misalignment in service levels.
Incident Information Exchange (Answer B - Incorrect): Integrating third parties into incident
information exchange workflows is essential for effective collaboration. Information sharing is crucial
for timely and effective incident resolution.
ITIL 4 Reference:
Supplier Management Practice: Ensures that suppliers meet their contractual obligations and follow
the agreed-upon incident management processes, enabling seamless handling of incidents.
Incident Management Practice: Third-party involvement in incident management is often critical,
especially when they provide key services or components that are part of the service offering.
An organization is in the process of improving its incident management practices. It wants to make
sure it does not overcomplicate the practices.
Which of the following suggestions is the BEST for the organization to achieve that objective?
A
Explanation:
In ITIL 4, incident management focuses on restoring normal service operations as quickly as possible
to minimize the business impact. The key to simplifying incident management is starting with critical
services, where the impact of downtime is most severe, and using a basic workflow that can be
expanded later.
Start with the most critical services: This approach is in line with ITIL’s “Focus on value” guiding
principle, where critical services deliver the highest value to the business. Addressing incidents
affecting these services ensures that the organization’s most important functions remain operational.
ITIL recommends prioritizing actions that have the highest value to the customer and stakeholders.
Implement a basic incident workflow: ITIL’s “Keep it simple and practical” principle stresses the
importance of avoiding unnecessary complexity in processes and practices. Implementing a basic
workflow allows the organization to manage incidents effectively without overcomplicating the
process. As the organization matures in its incident management practices, it can expand and refine
the workflow to handle more complex incidents.
By starting with critical services and using a basic workflow, the organization avoids overcomplicating
incident management while ensuring that its most important services are addressed promptly,
reducing the risk of significant disruptions.
Which incident management capability criteria must be fulfilled to achieve capability level 5?
C
Explanation:
To achieve capability level 5 in incident management, an organization must demonstrate a high level
of maturity, where processes are well-established, optimized, and continuously improved. ITIL 4
emphasizes continual improvement as a critical aspect of advanced maturity levels.
Capability Level 5 (Answer C - Correct): At this level, the focus is on continual improvement. The
organization regularly reviews the effectiveness of incident detection and takes proactive steps to
improve the process. This aligns with ITIL’s emphasis on continual improvement through feedback
loops and metrics, ensuring that the organization refines its incident management capabilities over
time.
Users Reporting Incidents Quickly (Answer A - Incorrect): While this is important for incident
management, it is more relevant to lower maturity levels (e.g., ensuring basic incident reporting
processes are in place). At capability level 5, the focus shifts to improving detection and processes
rather than just relying on user reports.
Immediate Detection (Answer B - Incorrect): Immediate detection is ideal but achieving it
consistently requires optimized tools and processes. However, this criterion does not fully capture
the continual improvement focus required at capability level 5.
Quick Resolution (Answer D - Incorrect): Quick resolution is important, but it is more related to
efficiency rather than the continual improvement needed at capability level 5.
ITIL 4 Reference:
Continual Improvement Practice: Emphasizes reviewing and improving processes like incident
detection and response over time.
Incident Management Practice: Incident detection and its effectiveness should be regularly reviewed
as part of continual improvement efforts.
It is important for a service provider to understand user’s feelings, emotions, and needs. Which
service capability supports this?
B
Explanation:
ITIL 4 recognizes the importance of understanding users' emotions, feelings, and needs to provide
better service and enhance the overall user experience. The capability that supports this
understanding is service empathy.
Service Empathy (Answer B - Correct): Service empathy refers to the ability of a service provider to
understand and address the emotions, needs, and experiences of the users. It involves putting
oneself in the user's position to provide more personalized and supportive service. ITIL 4 encourages
organizations to focus on the user experience (UX), ensuring that services are designed and delivered
with empathy toward the users' circumstances.
Assurance (Answer A - Incorrect): Assurance refers to ensuring users that services will meet their
needs reliably, but it does not focus on the emotional or empathetic aspect of service delivery.
Omnichannel Communication (Answer C - Incorrect): While omnichannel communication provides
multiple ways for users to interact with the service provider, it is not directly related to
understanding emotions and needs.
Moment of Truth (Answer D - Incorrect): Moment of truth refers to critical interactions between the
service provider and the customer that shape the customer's perception of the service. However, this
is more about the perception of service quality rather than empathy.
ITIL 4 Reference:
Service Empathy: Understanding and addressing user needs and feelings is crucial for improving the
user experience.
Focus on Value: A guiding principle in ITIL 4 that emphasizes delivering value, which includes
understanding user emotions and expectations.
Which is a practice success factor for the service desk practice?
A
Explanation:
The Service Desk practice in ITIL 4 plays a critical role in facilitating communication between the
service provider and users. One of its Practice Success Factors (PSFs) is ensuring effective and
efficient communication.
Effective, Efficient, and Convenient Communication (Answer A - Correct): A key success factor for the
Service Desk is its ability to provide smooth and efficient communication channels between the
service provider and its users. This involves ensuring that users can easily report issues, ask
questions, and receive timely responses. ITIL 4 encourages the continual improvement of these
communication channels to adapt to changing user needs and technological advancements.
Voice and Video Call Scalability (Answer B - Incorrect): While scalability of communication methods
is important, it is a technical challenge rather than a core success factor for the Service Desk.
Service Desk Staff Communication (Answer C - Incorrect): While internal communication within the
service desk is essential, the primary focus of the Service Desk is facilitating communication between
the service provider and its users.
Multichannel Communication (Answer D - Incorrect): Multichannel communication is a means of
providing options to users, but it is not a core success factor on its own. The success factor lies in
ensuring that communication—regardless of the channel—is effective and continually improving.
ITIL 4 Reference:
Service Desk Practice: A key success factor is providing effective communication between users and
the service provider.
Continual Improvement Practice: Emphasizes the importance of continually improving
communication methods to ensure they meet user needs.
How can partners and suppliers support the service desk practice?
B
Explanation:
The service desk practice in ITIL 4 is the single point of contact between the service provider and the
users, focusing on incident resolution and service request management. Partners and suppliers can
support this practice by providing trained resources to work in service desk teams. This aligns with
the “Partners and Suppliers” dimension of service management, which emphasizes that external
organizations can supply expertise, resources, or technology that help the service provider meet its
objectives.
ITIL encourages collaboration with external partners when the internal organization lacks the
necessary resources or expertise. Providing trained resources enhances the service desk's ability to
efficiently resolve incidents and handle requests, ensuring continuity and service quality.
Other options, such as providing change enablement tools or outsourcing IT services, do not directly
support the service desk in its role of handling incidents and requests.
Which of the following describes the purpose of the service desk practice desk practice?
A
Explanation:
The primary purpose of the service desk practice, according to ITIL 4, is to capture demand for
incident resolution and service requests. The service desk acts as the communication point for IT
users, ensuring that their issues and requests are recorded and handled. This function is critical for
maintaining service quality and efficiency, as it allows the organization to quickly respond to
incidents and ensure user needs are met.
Option B describes the purpose of incident management, not the service desk.
Option C refers to problem management, which focuses on identifying and reducing potential causes
of incidents.
Option D describes monitoring and event management, which involves systematically observing
services and components.
Which of the following automation tolls will help to integrate service desk with other practice in the
service provider’s value streams?
B
Explanation:
Workflow management tools help integrate the service desk with other practices in the service
provider's value streams by automating and managing the flow of tasks and information across
different ITIL practices. These tools ensure that incidents, service requests, and changes flow
seamlessly between the service desk and other functions such as incident management, problem
management, and change enablement.
Workflow management tools ensure that tasks are assigned, monitored, and completed efficiently,
promoting integration between service desk operations and other processes within the
organization's service value system.
Survey tools and reporting tools are used for gathering feedback and generating insights, but they
don't actively manage or integrate workflows between practices.
Work prioritization tools assist in task prioritization but don’t facilitate integration between different
practices in the value stream.
An organization is designing a value stream for restoring service to users.
At which step in value stream mapping should the user touchpoints be identified?
A
Explanation:
In value stream mapping, user touchpoints are identified when the scope of the value stream
analysis is being defined. This initial step is critical because it outlines the start and end points of the
value stream and helps identify all key interactions, including those where users engage with the
service.
Defining the scope ensures that all critical user interactions (touchpoints) are identified and included
in the analysis, which is essential for ensuring the value stream meets user needs efficiently.
Other steps like creating a 'to be' value stream map and reflecting on the value stream map come
later in the process and focus more on optimization and future state mapping.
Which of the following is an input to the ‘user query handling’ process?
C
Explanation:
In the 'user query handling' process, the input that initiates the process is recorded and categorized
user queries. Once queries from users are logged and properly categorized, they can be processed
according to the guidelines and procedures in place.
Categorized user queries are an essential input because they allow the system to triage and direct
them to the appropriate resources or resolutions.
Improvement initiatives and guidelines for triage are not direct inputs but rather supportive
components or outputs used for process enhancement and decision-making during query handling.