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Question 161:
What is a service?
A) A set of organizational capabilities for enabling value to customers
B) A means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve
C) A documented agreement between service provider and customer
D) A description of one or more services designed for target consumers
Answer: B) A means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve
Explanation:
A service is defined as a means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve, without the customer having to manage specific costs and risks. This definition emphasizes that services exist to enable customers to achieve outcomes and that value is created through the interaction between provider and consumer. It also highlights that value is not delivered to customers but co-created with them through the use and consumption of services.
Services enable customers to achieve outcomes without having to manage all associated costs and risks themselves. The service provider manages resources, capabilities, costs, and risks on behalf of customers, allowing customers to focus on achieving their objectives. This value co-creation occurs through the use of services. Customers contribute through activities such as providing requirements, participating in feedback, or performing certain user-side actions that allow the service to function effectively.
Option A is incorrect because a set of organizational capabilities for enabling value is the definition of service management, not a service. Service management enables the provision of services. Option C is incorrect because a documented agreement is a service level agreement or contract, not a service. Option D is incorrect because a description of services designed for target consumers is a service offering, not the service itself.
Understanding this definition helps organizations focus on enabling customer outcomes rather than just delivering technical functionality. It shifts perspective from provider-centric views to understanding what customers are trying to achieve and how services enable those achievements. This outcome focus is central to value creation.
A key aspect of this definition is the transfer of costs and risks. Customers do not want to manage things like system maintenance, capacity planning, cybersecurity, infrastructure upgrades, or service continuity by themselves. By consuming a service, they rely on the provider to manage these complexities. This enables customers to achieve desired business outcomes more efficiently and with reduced risk exposure.
Another important element is the recognition that services are more than just technology. A service includes people, processes, information, and technology working together. It is not a product or a tool, but a holistic means of enabling outcomes. This is why ITIL emphasizes the four dimensions of service management and the service value system—services must be designed and managed holistically to genuinely support co-creation of value.
Question 162:
Which practice determines whether new or changed services are fit for use and fit for purpose?
A) Service validation and testing
B) Service design
C) Service level management
D) Change enablement
Answer: A) Service validation and testing
Explanation:
The service validation and testing practice determines whether new or changed services are fit for use and fit for purpose before they are deployed to the live environment. This practice ensures services meet requirements, function correctly, and are ready for operational use through comprehensive testing and validation activities.
Service validation and testing includes various types of testing such as functional testing to verify fit for purpose, performance testing, security testing, and operational readiness testing to verify fit for use. The practice provides assurance that services will work as intended and can be effectively operated and supported.
Option B is incorrect because service design creates services intended to be fit for use and purpose, but service validation and testing verifies and confirms this through actual testing. Option C is incorrect because service level management sets targets for service levels but does not determine whether services meet those targets through testing. Option D is incorrect because change enablement authorizes changes but does not conduct testing to verify fitness.
Effective validation and testing requires clear acceptance criteria, appropriate test environments, skilled testers, and sufficient time for thorough testing. Testing should be planned early and should cover all critical scenarios. The practice balances thorough validation with the need to deliver services in reasonable timeframes.
Question 163:
What is the definition of value?
A) The financial cost of a service
B) The perceived benefits, usefulness, and importance of something
C) The functionality provided by a service
D) The availability of a service
Answer: B) The perceived benefits, usefulness, and importance of something
Explanation:
Value is defined as the perceived benefits, usefulness, and importance of something. This definition emphasizes that value is subjective and determined by stakeholder perception rather than by any objective measure. What is valuable to one stakeholder may not be valuable to another, and perceptions of value can change over time. Because value depends on context, expectations, and desired outcomes, it must be continuously evaluated rather than assumed.
Value is created when services enable stakeholders to achieve outcomes they desire. Different stakeholders may value different aspects of services. Customers may value outcomes enabled, users may value experience and ease of use, and sponsors may value return on investment. Understanding what stakeholders value is essential for creating value. ITIL emphasizes that value is co-created through the interaction between the service provider and the service consumer, meaning both parties must contribute for value to be realized.
Option A is incorrect because the financial cost is what is paid for a service, not the value received. Value should exceed cost for services to be worthwhile. Option C is incorrect because functionality is utility, which is one component that contributes to value but is not value itself. Option D is incorrect because availability is one aspect of warranty that contributes to value but does not define value.
Recognizing that value is perceived means organizations must actively work to understand what stakeholders value and must communicate about value effectively. Demonstrating value requires showing how services enable desired outcomes, not just listing features or technical specifications. Value should be the focus of all service management activities.
Value perception can also shift based on user experience, service reliability, communication quality, and even emotional factors such as trust or confidence in the service provider. A service may technically meet all specifications yet still fail to deliver value if users perceive it as difficult to use or unreliable. Conversely, services that deliver strong experience and build trust often create higher perceived value even with similar functionality.
Question 164:
Which practice includes activities to identify what services users need?
A) Service catalogue management
B) Business analysis
C) Service design
D) Relationship management
Answer: B) Business analysis
Explanation:
The business analysis practice includes activities to analyze a business or organizational element to identify and define stakeholder needs and to recommend solutions that deliver value. Understanding what services users need is a fundamental business analysis activity because it forms the foundation for service design, development, and improvement. Without accurate, validated understanding of needs, organizations risk delivering services that do not solve real problems or fail to create value.
Business analysis uses various techniques to elicit and document requirements, understand the current state, identify gaps, analyze underlying problems and opportunities, and recommend viable solutions. Techniques may include interviews, workshops, process mapping, observation, data analysis, user journeys, and prototyping. The practice ensures that services are based on actual needs rather than assumptions or technical preferences. It acts as the critical bridge between business stakeholders, who understand the goals and constraints, and technical teams, who design and implement solutions.
Option A is incorrect because service catalogue management maintains information about available services rather than identifying what services are needed. The catalogue documents what already exists, based on needs previously identified by practices such as business analysis. Option C is incorrect because while service design creates or modifies services to meet needs, business analysis is the practice that determines what those needs actually are. Option D is incorrect because relationship management focuses on maintaining productive stakeholder relationships, but does not analyze business needs or document requirements in the structured way that business analysis does.
Effective business analysis requires strong analytical and critical-thinking skills, the ability to ask the right questions, and the capability to work closely with stakeholders to understand their contexts, priorities, constraints, and desired outcomes. Analysts must differentiate between what stakeholders say they want and what they actually need to achieve their objectives. This often involves challenging assumptions, reframing problems, and identifying root causes rather than simply accepting initial requests at face value.
The practice should involve all relevant stakeholders, use appropriate analysis techniques for the situation, and validate that all identified needs and proposed solutions align with business goals. Business analysis also continues throughout the lifecycle of services, ensuring that services remain aligned with evolving stakeholder needs and organizational strategy. High-quality business analysis prevents costly mistakes, improves service quality, and ensures that changes result in meaningful value creation.
Question 165:
What is the purpose of the service desk practice?
A) To ensure services meet agreed availability levels
B) To capture demand for incident resolution and service requests
C) To reduce the likelihood of incidents
D) To ensure accurate configuration information
Answer: B) To capture demand for incident resolution and service requests
Explanation:
The purpose of the service desk practice is to capture demand for incident resolution and service requests. The service desk provides a clear single point of contact between the service provider and users, ensuring that all user needs and contacts are captured, properly classified, and routed to appropriate handlers for resolution or fulfillment.
The service desk receives various types of user contacts including incident reports, service requests, questions, feedback, and complaints. It ensures these are logged, categorized, prioritized, and handled appropriately. The service desk coordinates responses and keeps users informed about progress, providing a consistent, professional user interface to service management.
Option A is incorrect because ensuring services meet agreed availability levels is the purpose of availability management. The service desk may receive reports about availability issues but does not ensure availability. Option C is incorrect because reducing the likelihood of incidents is the purpose of problem management. The service desk handles incidents but does not prevent them. Option D is incorrect because ensuring accurate configuration information is the purpose of configuration management.
An effective service desk improves user satisfaction by providing accessible, responsive support through appropriate channels. It should be staffed with people who have good communication skills, appropriate technical knowledge, and customer service orientation. The service desk plays a crucial role in user experience and provides valuable feedback about service quality.
Question 166:
Which guiding principle emphasizes the need to understand how the parts of something work together?
A) Think and work holistically
B) Collaborate and promote visibility
C) Keep it simple and practical
D) Focus on value
Answer: A) Think and work holistically
Explanation:
The think and work holistically guiding principle emphasizes the importance of understanding how all parts of an organization, its practices, and its services interact as a unified system. Rather than focusing on individual components in isolation, this principle encourages a systems-thinking approach — recognizing that value is created through the combined and coordinated efforts of multiple elements across the organization. Optimizing one component without regard for the rest can actually reduce overall performance, which is why holistic thinking is essential.
Thinking holistically involves examining how different elements influence one another, identifying cross-functional dependencies, understanding how information flows through systems, and considering how changes in one area may impact others. It requires viewing services not merely as technical outputs, but as integrated value streams that span the four dimensions of service management: organizations and people, information and technology, partners and suppliers, and value streams and processes.
Working holistically means ensuring that activities are coordinated, aligned, and interconnected. It discourages siloed decision-making and fragmented workflows. Instead, it promotes end-to-end visibility, collaboration across teams, and integrated planning so that the entire system works smoothly to create value.
Option B is incorrect because collaborate and promote visibility focuses on including the right people and making work transparent, which supports holistic thinking but does not directly address understanding systems as interconnected wholes.
Option C is incorrect because keep it simple and practical is about reducing unnecessary complexity, not about understanding systemic relationships.
Option D is incorrect because focus on value ensures activities center on creating value but does not describe the systems-based approach that holistic thinking requires.
Applying this principle means stepping back from isolated tasks to assess the broader landscape in which work occurs. It requires understanding upstream and downstream impacts, aligning efforts across practices, and ensuring decisions incorporate all four dimensions. It also means recognizing that value is co-created through collaboration and integration, not through optimizing individual silos. Holistic thinking reduces unintended consequences, prevents local optimization that harms the whole, and supports better long-term outcomes for both the organization and its stakeholders.
Question 167:
What is the purpose of the problem management practice?
A) To restore normal service operation as quickly as possible
B) To reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents
C) To capture demand for incident resolution
D) To ensure services achieve agreed performance levels
Answer: B) To reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents
Explanation:
The purpose of the problem management practice is to reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents, and managing workarounds and known errors. Problem management takes both a proactive and reactive approach to understanding and addressing the root causes that lead to incidents, ensuring services remain reliable and that recurring issues are minimized.
Reactive problem management focuses on analyzing incidents after they occur to identify the underlying causes. By understanding these root causes, organizations can implement permanent solutions or workarounds that prevent recurrence or reduce impact. Proactive problem management, on the other hand, involves identifying potential issues before they cause incidents, through trend analysis, risk assessments, or reviewing historical incident data. This forward-looking approach allows organizations to anticipate problems and implement measures to mitigate them.
Problem management maintains comprehensive knowledge about problems, known errors, and workarounds in the known error database. This repository enables faster incident resolution, as support teams can reference previously identified solutions rather than repeatedly troubleshooting the same issues. It also supports continual improvement by informing service design, change management, and capacity planning with insights gained from recurring problems.
Option A is incorrect because restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible is the purpose of incident management. Problem management focuses on prevention and root cause analysis rather than immediate restoration. Option C is incorrect because capturing demand for incident resolution is the responsibility of the service desk practice. Option D is incorrect because ensuring services achieve agreed performance levels falls under capacity and performance management or service level management, not problem management.
Effective problem management requires analytical and investigative skills to identify root causes, as well as collaboration with multiple teams to gather relevant data. The practice should balance the effort invested in problem analysis against the potential value of preventing future incidents, recognizing that not all problems justify extensive investigation. Timely identification of recurring issues, appropriate prioritization, and clear documentation of known errors are essential to maximize efficiency and service quality.
Additionally, problem management should integrate with other service management practices such as change enablement, release management, and continual improvement. By coordinating with these practices, permanent fixes can be implemented efficiently, and lessons learned can inform improvements to services and processes. Over time, effective problem management contributes to higher service availability, lower incident volumes, improved user satisfaction, and reduced operational costs.
Question 168:
Which value chain activity ensures that stakeholder expectations regarding quality, costs, and time to market are met?
A) Design and transition
B) Obtain/build
C) Deliver and support
D) Engage
Answer: A) Design and transition
Explanation:
The design and transition value chain activity ensures that products and services continually meet stakeholder expectations for quality, costs, and time to market. This activity encompasses both the design of new or changed services and the transition of these services into operational use, ensuring services are fit for purpose and fit for use.
Design and transition includes understanding requirements, designing service architectures and solutions, planning transitions, testing and validating services, and ensuring services are ready for deployment and operation. The activity balances multiple objectives including functionality, performance, cost, quality, security, and delivery speed.
Option B is incorrect because obtain/build focuses on ensuring service components are available when needed rather than ensuring services meet expectations for quality, costs, and time to market. Option C is incorrect because deliver and support focuses on operational delivery of existing services rather than designing and transitioning services. Option D is incorrect because engage focuses on understanding stakeholder needs and maintaining relationships rather than ensuring design meets expectations.
Effective design and transition requires understanding stakeholder expectations clearly, involving relevant stakeholders in design decisions, considering all four dimensions, and validating that solutions meet requirements before transitioning to operational status. The activity should use appropriate design methods and should ensure smooth transitions that minimize disruption.
Question 169:
What is a known error database used for?
A) Recording all incidents that occur
B) Storing information about problems and workarounds
C) Tracking all changes to services
D) Cataloguing all available services
Answer: B) Storing information about problems and workarounds
Explanation:
A known error database is used for storing information about problems for which root causes have been identified, including details about symptoms, causes, and workarounds that can be applied when related incidents occur. The known error database is maintained by problem management and is a key knowledge management tool.
The database contains records of known errors including descriptions of the problem, analysis of causes, documented workarounds, and status of permanent solutions. This information enables incident management to resolve incidents more quickly by applying documented workarounds rather than investigating from scratch each time similar incidents occur.
Option A is incorrect because recording all incidents is the function of an incident database or incident management system, not the known error database. Known errors are problems, not individual incidents. Option C is incorrect because tracking all changes to services is the function of a change log or change management system. Option D is incorrect because cataloguing all available services is the function of the service catalogue.
The known error database should be easily accessible to those who need it, particularly incident management staff. Records should be clear and detailed enough to enable effective use of workarounds. The database should be kept current with updates as problems are investigated further or permanent solutions are implemented.
Question 170:
Which dimension of service management considers the skills and competencies required?
A) Organizations and people
B) Information and technology
C) Partners and suppliers
D) Value streams and processes
Answer: A) Organizations and people
Explanation:
The organizations and people dimension of service management considers the skills, competencies, roles, and responsibilities required for effective service management and service delivery. This dimension ensures the organization has or can access the human capabilities needed to support its strategy and operating model.
This dimension addresses what skills and competencies are needed, how people develop and maintain those capabilities, what roles and responsibilities exist, how people are organized, and what culture and behaviors support effective service management. Understanding and developing appropriate capabilities is essential for service success.
Option B is incorrect because the information and technology dimension focuses on information, knowledge, and technologies that support services rather than human skills and competencies. Option C is incorrect because the partners and suppliers dimension focuses on external organizational relationships rather than internal skills. Option D is incorrect because the value streams and processes dimension focuses on workflows and how activities are organized rather than the skills needed to perform them.
Addressing skills and competencies requires assessing current capabilities, identifying gaps, and developing plans to address those gaps through training, recruitment, reorganization, or external resources. The dimension recognizes that different strategies and service types require different capabilities and that capabilities must evolve as services and technologies change.
Question 171:
What is the purpose of the change enablement practice?
A) To ensure changes are recorded and documented
B) To maximize the number of successful service and product changes by ensuring risks are assessed and changes are authorized
C) To deploy changes to live environments
D) To test changes before implementation
Answer: B) To maximize the number of successful service and product changes by ensuring risks are assessed and changes are authorized
Explanation:
The purpose of the change enablement practice is to maximize the number of successful service and product changes by ensuring that risks have been properly assessed, authorizing changes to proceed, and managing a change schedule. This practice balances the need for beneficial change with the need to protect services and users from negative effects.
Change enablement assesses potential impacts and risks of changes, determines appropriate authorization levels, schedules changes to minimize conflicts and disruption, and tracks changes through implementation. The practice enables organizations to implement changes efficiently while maintaining necessary control and oversight to prevent service disruptions.
Option A is incorrect because while recording and documenting changes is important, it is not the primary purpose. The purpose is about maximizing successful changes through proper assessment and authorization. Option C is incorrect because deploying changes to live environments is the purpose of deployment management, which executes after change authorization. Option D is incorrect because testing changes before implementation is the purpose of service validation and testing. Change enablement uses test results but does not perform testing.
The practice recognizes that different changes require different approaches. Standard changes can be pre-authorized for efficiency. Normal changes require individual assessment and authorization. Emergency changes use expedited procedures when urgent. This risk-based approach enables appropriate control without unnecessary bureaucracy.
Question 172:
Which practice ensures that the right people have access to the right resources?
A) Information security management
B) Workforce and talent management
C) Access management
D) Relationship management
Answer: A) Information security management
Explanation:
Information security management ensures that the right people have access to the right resources by implementing and managing access controls as part of overall information security. Access management is a key component of information security that ensures authorized users can access services while preventing unauthorized access.
Information security management establishes policies and controls for access management, defines who should have access to what resources, implements authentication and authorization mechanisms, and monitors access to detect inappropriate use. Access control is fundamental to protecting information confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Option B is incorrect because workforce and talent management focuses on ensuring the organization has people with appropriate skills and capabilities rather than managing access to resources. Option C is incorrect because while access management may seem correct, it is actually a component within information security management rather than a separate ITIL 4 practice. Option D is incorrect because relationship management focuses on maintaining stakeholder relationships rather than controlling access.
Effective access management balances security needs with usability. Access controls should be appropriate to risk levels, should follow principles of least privilege, and should be regularly reviewed. The practice should ensure access is promptly granted when authorized and revoked when no longer needed.
Question 173:
What is the definition of an incident?
A) A cause or potential cause of one or more service disruptions
B) An unplanned interruption to a service or reduction in the quality of a service
C) A change of state that has significance for management of a service
D) A request from a user for information or advice
Answer: B) An unplanned interruption to a service or reduction in the quality of a service
Explanation:
An incident is defined as an unplanned interruption to a service or a reduction in the quality of a service. Incidents are disruptions that negatively impact service delivery and require a response to restore normal service operation. They represent deviations from expected service performance that affect users, business operations, or both. The primary goal of incident management is to restore service as quickly as possible to minimize business impact and disruption.
Incidents can vary in severity and scope. They may range from complete service outages affecting all users of a service to degraded performance impacting a subset of users, or even issues experienced by individual users. What qualifies as an incident depends on the agreed service levels and what constitutes normal service operation for that service. For example, a temporary slowdown in processing may be considered a minor incident for one service but a major incident for another, depending on business expectations and contractual agreements.
Incidents are often detected through multiple channels, including automated monitoring systems, user reports to the service desk, or alerts from other service management practices. Prompt identification, logging, and categorization are essential to ensure timely and effective handling. By responding efficiently, organizations can reduce downtime, limit operational impact, and maintain user confidence.
Option A is incorrect because a cause or potential cause of one or more service disruptions is the definition of a problem, not an incident. Problems focus on underlying causes, while incidents are the actual disruptions experienced by users. Option C is incorrect because a change of state that has significance is the definition of an event. While events may indicate that an incident is occurring or about to occur, they are not incidents themselves. Option D is incorrect because a request from a user for information, advice, or access to a service is classified as a service request, not an incident.
Understanding the distinction between incidents, problems, events, and service requests is crucial for effective service management. Properly identifying incidents ensures that they are handled through incident management processes rather than being misrouted to problem management or other practices. Efficient incident management includes categorization, prioritization, investigation, and resolution, often using workarounds to restore service rapidly while longer-term solutions are developed for underlying problems.
By clearly defining what constitutes an incident, organizations can establish consistent handling procedures, set realistic response targets, and improve overall service reliability. Effective incident management not only restores services quickly but also provides valuable data to inform problem management, continual improvement, and risk management, thereby supporting broader organizational objectives.
Question 174:
Which practice includes defining what should be monitored and measured?
A) Monitoring and event management
B) Measurement and reporting
C) Service level management
D) All of the above
Answer: D) All of the above
Explanation:
Defining what should be monitored and measured is relevant to multiple practices. Monitoring and event management defines what technical metrics should be monitored to detect events and assess service health. Measurement and reporting defines what organizational metrics should be measured to support decision-making. Service level management defines what service levels should be measured to assess performance against targets.
Each practice considers what to monitor and measure from its perspective. Monitoring and event management focuses on operational metrics. Measurement and reporting considers strategic and tactical metrics across the organization. Service level management focuses on metrics that reflect service performance from customer perspectives. Together these provide comprehensive monitoring and measurement.
Options A, B, and C would each be incomplete because they identify single practices when actually multiple practices are involved in determining what should be monitored and measured. Recognizing that this is a shared concern helps ensure comprehensive approaches rather than fragmented measurement strategies.
Effective organizations coordinate their monitoring and measurement approaches to avoid duplication, ensure comprehensive coverage, and align measurements with what stakeholders need to know. Measurements should be purposeful, supporting specific decisions or objectives rather than measuring things simply because they can be measured.
Question 175:
What is the purpose of the continual improvement practice?
A) To resolve incidents quickly
B) To align practices and services with changing business needs through ongoing improvement
C) To manage changes to services
D) To test services before deployment
Answer: B) To align practices and services with changing business needs through ongoing improvement
Explanation:
The purpose of the continual improvement practice is to align the organization’s practices and services with changing business needs through the ongoing identification and improvement of services, service components, practices, or any element involved in the management of products and services. Continual improvement ensures the organization evolves and adapts.
This practice provides methods and approaches for identifying improvement opportunities, assessing and prioritizing improvements, implementing changes, and measuring results. Continual improvement should be embedded throughout the organization rather than being isolated to specific teams. Everyone should look for opportunities to improve how work is done.
Option A is incorrect because resolving incidents quickly is the purpose of incident management, not continual improvement. Continual improvement may improve how incidents are handled but incident resolution is not its purpose. Option C is incorrect because managing changes to services is the purpose of change enablement. Improvements often result in changes but improvement and change management are distinct practices. Option D is incorrect because testing services before deployment is the purpose of service validation and testing.
Effective continual improvement requires leadership support, allocation of resources for improvement activities, systematic approaches to identifying and implementing improvements, and measurement of improvement results. The practice should maintain an improvement register to track opportunities and ensure improvements align with organizational strategy and objectives.
Question 176:
Which value chain activity includes understanding user and stakeholder requirements?
A) Engage
B) Plan
C) Design and transition
D) All value chain activities
Answer: A) Engage
Explanation:
The engage value chain activity includes understanding user and stakeholder requirements as part of providing a good understanding of stakeholder needs, transparency, and continual engagement. Engage ensures there is ongoing dialogue between the organization and its stakeholders to understand what they need and expect.
Engage includes activities such as gathering requirements, understanding stakeholder expectations, communicating about services, building relationships, and maintaining transparency. Understanding requirements is fundamental to engagement because it enables the organization to provide services that meet actual stakeholder needs rather than assumed needs.
Option B is incorrect because while plan uses requirement information for planning, the active engagement to understand requirements occurs primarily through the engage activity. Option C is incorrect because design and transition uses requirement information to design services but does not primarily focus on understanding and gathering requirements. Option D is incorrect because while requirements may be considered by all activities, the primary responsibility for understanding stakeholder requirements sits with engage.
Effective engagement requires regular interaction with stakeholders through appropriate channels, active listening to understand needs, clear communication about what can and cannot be provided, and building relationships that enable honest dialogue. Understanding requirements is an ongoing activity as needs evolve over time.
Question 177:
What is a change authority?
A) A person who requests changes
B) A person or group that authorizes changes
C) A person who implements changes
D) A person who tests changes
Answer: B) A person or group that authorizes changes
Explanation:
A change authority is a person or group responsible for authorizing changes. Different types and risk levels of changes may have different change authorities. The change authority reviews change assessments, considers risks and benefits, and makes authorization decisions about whether changes should proceed to implementation.
Change authorities may operate at different levels depending on change scope and risk. Low-risk standard changes may be pre-authorized by a change authority. Medium-risk normal changes might be authorized by a change manager or local change authority. High-risk changes might require authorization from a change advisory board or senior management.
Option A is incorrect because a person who requests changes is a change requester or initiator, not a change authority. Anyone may request changes. Option C is incorrect because a person who implements changes is part of the implementation team but not the change authority. Implementation occurs after authorization. Option D is incorrect because a person who tests changes is part of the testing team, which validates changes before the change authority makes authorization decisions.
Organizations should clearly define change authorities for different types and risk levels of changes. Authority levels should be appropriate to risk with higher-risk changes requiring more senior authorization. The change authority role ensures changes are properly reviewed before implementation while enabling efficient decisions.
Question 178:
Which practice focuses on observing services to identify trends?
A) Monitoring and event management
B) Problem management
C) Continual improvement
D) Service level management
Answer: B) Problem management
Explanation:
The problem management practice focuses on analyzing trends in monitoring data and incident records to identify underlying problems that may not be apparent from individual incidents. Trend analysis is a key problem management technique for proactively identifying issues before they cause major disruptions or for recognizing patterns in seemingly unrelated incidents.
Problem management examines trends such as increasing frequency of certain incident types, clusters of incidents affecting particular services or components, or patterns in when or how incidents occur. This analysis reveals underlying problems that should be investigated and addressed to prevent future incidents.
Option A is incorrect because while monitoring and event management observes services and detects current states, the specific activity of analyzing trends to identify problems sits primarily with problem management. Monitoring provides the data that problem management analyzes. Option C is incorrect because continual improvement uses trend information but problem management specifically focuses on incident and service trends. Option D is incorrect because service level management monitors performance against targets rather than analyzing trends to identify underlying problems.
Effective trend analysis requires good quality data, appropriate analytical tools, and skilled analysts who can recognize significant patterns. Analysis should occur regularly and findings should lead to problem records being created for investigation. Trend analysis enables proactive problem identification rather than waiting for major incidents.
Question 179:
What is the purpose of the service catalogue management practice?
A) To provide a single source of consistent information on all services and service offerings
B) To set service level targets for all services
C) To manage the lifecycle of all services
D) To ensure services meet agreed performance levels
Answer: A) To provide a single source of consistent information on all services and service offerings
Explanation:
The purpose of the service catalogue management practice is to provide a single source of consistent information on all services and service offerings, and to ensure that it is available to the relevant audience. The service catalogue makes it easy for stakeholders to understand what services are available and how to access them.
Service catalogue management maintains current, accurate information about services including what they provide, who they are for, how to access them, and what commitments the service provider makes. The catalogue may have different views for different audiences such as customer-facing business catalogues and technical service catalogues for internal use.
Option B is incorrect because setting service level targets is the purpose of service level management, not service catalogue management. The catalogue may reference service levels but does not set them. Option C is incorrect because managing the lifecycle of all services involves multiple practices throughout the service value chain rather than being the specific purpose of catalogue management. Option D is incorrect because ensuring services meet agreed performance levels is the purpose of service level management and delivery practices.
An effective service catalogue is easily accessible, clearly written in language appropriate for its audience, kept current as services change, and integrated with request and ordering processes. It serves as a reference for understanding service options and supports informed decision-making about service use.
Question 180:
Which guiding principle recommends using maximum automation while keeping human judgment where needed?
A) Optimize and automate
B) Keep it simple and practical
C) Think and work holistically
D) Progress iteratively with feedback
Answer: A) Optimize and automate
Explanation:
The optimize and automate guiding principle recommends maximizing the value of work carried out by human and technical resources. This includes using technology and automation where appropriate while recognizing that human intervention remains valuable for complex decisions, exception handling, and situations requiring judgment and creativity.
This principle encourages organizations to first optimize processes by eliminating waste and unnecessary complexity, and then to automate appropriate activities. Automation should focus on repetitive, high-volume, or error-prone activities where it adds value. However, automation should not replace human judgment where critical thinking, empathy, or creativity are needed.
Option B is incorrect because while keep it simple and practical advocates for eliminating unnecessary complexity, it does not specifically address automation. Option C is incorrect because think and work holistically is about considering all four dimensions and their interactions. Option D is incorrect because progress iteratively with feedback is about working in manageable sections with feedback loops.
Applying this principle means critically assessing which activities should be automated versus which benefit from human involvement. Automation should serve organizational objectives rather than being pursued for its own sake. The principle recognizes that optimal solutions often combine automated efficiency with human judgment and creativity.
