ITIL Management Practices for ITIL 4 Foundation

Sample Practice Questions

1. Question 1

   How are target resolution times used in the 'incident management' practice?
   1. A. They are agreed, documented, and communicated to help set user expectations
   2. B. They are established, reviewed, and reported to ensure that customers are happy with the service
   3. C. They are initiated, approved, and managed to ensure that predictable responses are achieved
   4. D. They are scheduled, assessed and authorized to reduce the risk of service failures
   Explanation

   The correct answer is: A. They are agreed, documented, and communicated to help set user expectations.

   In the incident management practice — whose purpose is to minimize the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible — target resolution times are agreed with users, documented in agreements and procedures, and communicated to set clear, predictable expectations about how long restoration will take for each priority of incident. Established, reviewed, and reported to ensure customers are happy describes how service level management handles service level targets, not specifically incident resolution times. Initiated, approved, and managed to ensure predictable responses sounds like the change-enablement vocabulary around change models and authorizations, not incident handling. Scheduled, assessed, and authorized to reduce the risk of service failures is the language of change enablement, which manages the change schedule and risk assessment of changes. Agreed, documented, and communicated to set user expectations is the Foundation-level statement of how incident management uses target resolution times.

2. Question 2

   Why should some service requests be fulfilled with no additional approvals?
   1. A. To ensure that spending is properly accounted for
   2. B. To ensure that information security requirements are met
   3. C. To streamline the fulfilment workflow
   4. D. To set user expectations for fulfilment times
   Explanation

   The correct answer is: C. To streamline the fulfilment workflow.

   ITIL 4 says that service request management should handle pre-defined, user-initiated requests in an effective and user-friendly manner, and a core technique for that is removing unnecessary approvals from low-risk, well-understood requests so the workflow is streamlined and users receive predictable, fast fulfilment. Ensuring spending is properly accounted for would call for additional financial controls, not fewer approvals; budget tracking is a separate concern handled through standard offerings. Ensuring information security requirements are met would also tend to add controls, not remove them; security obligations are baked into the standard service definitions up front rather than being imposed per request. Setting user expectations for fulfilment times is achieved through agreed targets and communications, not through removing approvals. The point of removing approvals from low-risk requests is to streamline the workflow so the provider can deliver agreed quality consistently and quickly.

3. Question 3

   Which statement about managing incidents is CORRECT ?
   1. A. Low impact incidents should be resolved efficiently, making logging unnecessary
   2. B. The 'incident management' practice should use a single process regardless of the impact of the incident
   3. C. Low impact incidents should be resolved efficiently so the resource required is reduced
   4. D. Incidents with the lowest impact should be resolved first
   Explanation

   The correct answer is: C. Low impact incidents should be resolved efficiently so the resource required is reduced.

   The incident management practice has the purpose of minimizing the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible, and ITIL 4 makes clear that low-impact incidents should be resolved efficiently so the resource required is reduced, leaving capacity to address higher-impact incidents. Saying that low-impact incidents do not need logging is incorrect, because every incident should be logged so that trends and patterns can be analyzed and so reporting remains accurate. The claim that a single process should be used regardless of impact is wrong, since ITIL 4 explicitly says incidents should be managed using procedures appropriate to their type and impact. Resolving the lowest-impact incidents first inverts prioritization, which should be driven by business impact so that the most damaging incidents are resolved first. The defining Foundation-level fact is that low-impact incidents are handled efficiently to free up resources for higher-impact work.

4. Question 4

   Which practice involves the management of vulnerabilities that were not identified before the service went live?
   1. A. Service request management
   2. B. Problem management
   3. C. Change control
   4. D. Service level management
   Explanation

   The correct answer is: B. Problem management.

   ITIL 4 explicitly states that the problem management practice — whose purpose is to reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents and managing workarounds and known errors — is responsible for managing vulnerabilities that were not identified before a service went live, because such vulnerabilities are potential causes of incidents that must be analyzed, documented as known errors, and mitigated through workarounds or permanent fixes. Service request management handles pre-defined, user-initiated requests in a user-friendly manner; it has no role in latent vulnerability analysis. Change control (change enablement) authorizes and schedules changes; it may approve the eventual fix but does not identify or analyze the vulnerability itself. Service level management sets clear business-based targets for service performance and reviews achievement; latent vulnerabilities affect performance but their analysis sits with problem management. Hidden post-go-live vulnerabilities are Foundation-level problem-management territory.

5. Question 5

   Which ITIL practice recommends performing service reviews to ensure that services continue to meet the needs of the organization?
   1. A. Service desk
   2. B. Service request management
   3. C. Service level management
   4. D. Service configuration management
   Explanation

   The correct answer is: C. Service level management.

   Service level management has the purpose of setting clear business-based targets for service performance and ensures delivery is properly assessed and managed against those targets, which is achieved partly through periodic service reviews that confirm services continue to meet the needs of the organization. The service desk acts as the entry point for users and captures demand for incident resolution and requests, but it does not conduct strategic service reviews. Service request management supports the agreed quality of a service by handling pre-defined user-initiated requests, which is operational fulfilment rather than review. Service configuration management ensures that accurate and reliable information about the configuration of services and CIs is available when and where needed, which supports many practices but is not the reviewing practice. The defining Foundation-level fact is that ongoing service reviews to validate fit against customer needs belong to service level management.

Other ITIL 4 Foundation domains

• ITIL Guiding Principles (43 questions)
• ITIL Service Value Chain (22 questions)
• ITIL Service Value System (18 questions)
• Service Management Key Concepts (50 questions)
• The Four Dimensions of Service Management (18 questions)