10 Frequently Asked ITIL Questions and Their Answers

The IT industry is shifting tremendously with the advent and adoption of technologies such as AI-backed algorithms that deliver solutions in real-time, and machine-learning capability in everyone’s palm. With the tech-boom however; comes the issue of professionals facing trouble keeping quality service delivery consistent.

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (what ITIL was previously known as), assists IT professionals overcome quality service delivery and related issues. This has, in turn, given rise to a growing demand for IT professionals with ITIL certification.

In case you are one of the aforementioned potential ITIL foundation certified pros, it can be beneficial for you to get a leg up on the competition by being prepared for your ITIL interview. To that end, in this article, we will highlight the 10 most important and commonly asked ITIL interview questions, as well as their ideal answers.

1) Define ITIL Service Management

Service management, from the ITIL perspective, is a set of specific organizational abilities related to providing value in service-form. The practice of turning resources into services is the essence of service management.

2) Why do Companies Need to Implement ITIL

According to the ITIL manifesto, if an organization is to improve their service quality, the IT department needs to organize their activities around a set of standardized process, and make sure to perform the activities on a regular basis. Through ITIL implementation, companies can improve their general service quality, increase efficiency and productivity, as well as save costs on the bottom line.

Additionally, standardizing processes helps to reduce the occurrence and risk of process-threatening errors. And, in case the ITI-based processes are automated, companies can increase their efficiency and productivity even further.

3) Is ITIL the Sole IT Practice Companies Can Benefit From

Not necessarily. There are various best-practice frameworks that companies can adopt for various ends. For example, companies can utilize PMI principles or PRINCE2 for more effective project management. They can use COBIT for audit and governance-related issues. Similarly, for software maintenance and quality-centric issues, companies can look at application services library and/or the capability maturity model.

All of these frameworks; however, are used for specific IT aspects. ITIL is a broader framework, with a more general application. Being broader in scope, it provides an overall advantage to companies towards improving their end-user experience.

4) Which ITIL Process Makes Organizations Aware of Emerging and Changing Technology

Capacity Management; which ensures that organizations are kept up to speed regarding up and coming technology, as well as changes and upgrades to the existing technology they possess. It is a discipline that verifies and checks whether IT infrastructures are delivered at the right opportunity, at the correct volume, and the best price, for optimal efficiency.

To put this into effect, organizations need to accumulate input from several business areas to determine exactly what services will be and are required, as well as which infrastructure is needed to support the aforementioned services, and the level of contingency needed.

5) What are the Primary Service Management roles

Within ITIL, a Role is a set of inter-connected behaviors or actions that are performed by the team, or a group of concerned individuals. The two primary Roles are:

  • Business Relationship Manager (BRM): BRMs are responsible for establishing strong business relationships with their customers by understanding the business of the customer and their outcomes.
  • Product Manager (PM): PMs are responsible for developing and then managing the services across the entirety of the life-cycle.

6) What is SLA

SLA, or Service Level Agreement, is a contract between the customers of an organization and the organization itself. The customers can be external, or even internal. The service level agreement informs the user what they can expect with regards to IT technology uptime and response time.

There are 3 types of service level agreements:

  • Customer Service Level Agreement:  This is an agreement that exists between service providers and their external customers.
  • Internal Service Level Agreement: This is the agreement that exists between the service provider and internal customers.
  • Vendor Service Level Agreement: This is an agreement made between the vendor and you.

7) Define Change Management

Change management consists of several individuals who highlight and approve changes that are to be implemented on to the system. It helps the involved parties review the potential changes and check whether the changes have the potential to cause any negative effect ts on the overall system.

To make the change management effective, there are a few informational assets that need to be included. The requestor needs to include the identity of the primary implementer, the affected hardware, any changes to software, as well as whether there are organizations that may be affected by the changes, as soon as they are deployed.

8) Define ‘IT Policy’

An IT policy is responsible for managing how storage and communication function. For example, a particular IT policy could be the ideal sizes of email attachments. These sizes can be restricted to ensure that users who take excessive space within the server storage are avoided.

9)What is the Difference Between Customers and End-Users

The end user is the individual who will receive the service or product directly, whereas the customer may not have the ability to differentiate or choose between different suppliers and products. One way to understand the difference is to imagine a person who buys a certain product or service for someone else to use. The individual who bought the product is the customer, while the person who gets to utilize the product or service is the end-user.

In case the person who has bought the product is the one to use it as well, they will be defined as both a customer and an end-user.

10) What Type of Testing is Implemented on Software and Hardware

Stress testing is implemented to check concurrent slowness and connections. Security testing is self-explanatory. Usability tests the quality of the user interface, as well as its usability. And lastly, compatibility testing checks the browser’s software and operating system.