Sample practice questions

A few real questions from this free bank, with full explanations. Use the practice tool above for the whole set.

1. 1. Key Concepts of Service Management

   In ITIL 4, how is a 'service' best defined?

   • a.A tangible product that a customer purchases and owns outright
   • b.A means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve, without the customer having to manage specific costs and risks
   • c.A single request logged and resolved by the service desk
   • d.A documented process that an IT team follows to complete tasks

   Answer: b

   Explanation: ITIL 4 defines a service 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. The provider takes on those costs and risks so the customer can focus on their desired outcomes. Value is co-created through active collaboration between provider and consumer.

2. 2. Key Concepts of Service Management

   According to ITIL 4, what is an 'outcome'?

   • a.A result for a stakeholder enabled by one or more outputs
   • b.A deliverable or tangible product produced by an activity
   • c.The money a consumer pays for using a service
   • d.A possible event that could cause harm or loss

   Answer: a

   Explanation: An outcome is a result for a stakeholder that is enabled by one or more outputs. An output is a tangible or intangible deliverable of an activity, whereas the outcome is what that output enables the stakeholder to achieve. For example, a photo-sharing app is an output, while cherished memories being preserved and shared is the outcome.

3. 3. The Four Dimensions of Service Management

   ITIL 4 defines four dimensions of service management. Which is the correct complete set?

   • a.People, process, products, partners
   • b.Organizations & people; information & technology; partners & suppliers; value streams & processes
   • c.Plan, do, check, act
   • d.Strategy, design, transition, operation

   Answer: b

   Explanation: The four dimensions of service management are: organizations and people; information and technology; partners and suppliers; and value streams and processes. All four must be considered to ensure a holistic approach to products and services. Neglecting any dimension can lead to services that fail to deliver expected value.

4. 4. The Four Dimensions of Service Management

   Which activity is part of the 'partners and suppliers' dimension of service management?

   • a.Defining the organization's supplier strategy and managing relationships with vendors and other organizations involved in service delivery
   • b.Documenting the workflows used to deliver a service
   • c.Selecting the applications and infrastructure that support a service
   • d.Establishing team roles, culture, and required competencies

   Answer: a

   Explanation: The partners and suppliers dimension encompasses an organization's relationships with other organizations that are involved in the design, development, deployment, delivery, support, and continual improvement of services. It includes supplier strategy and the degree of integration and formality in those relationships. Factors such as cost, expertise, and demand for resources influence how much an organization relies on partners and suppliers.

5. 5. The Guiding Principles

   An organization plans to redesign a service and wants to discard everything and rebuild from scratch. Which guiding principle warns against this?

   • a.Focus on value
   • b.Optimize and automate
   • c.Start where you are
   • d.Keep it simple and practical

   Answer: c

   Explanation: The 'start where you are' principle advises that organizations should not start over without first considering what is already available to be leveraged. Existing services, processes, and people may already provide significant value and should be assessed objectively before being discarded. Rebuilding from scratch wastes resources and risks losing valuable capabilities that already exist.

6. 6. Service Value System

   What is the purpose of the ITIL service value system (SVS)?

   • a.To list the technologies an organization must purchase
   • b.To describe how all the components and activities of an organization work together as a system to enable value creation
   • c.To define only the incident and problem management practices
   • d.To replace the four dimensions of service management

   Answer: b

   Explanation: The ITIL service value system describes how all the components and activities of an organization work together as a system to enable value creation. Its inputs are opportunity and demand, and its outcome is value. The SVS includes the guiding principles, governance, the service value chain, practices, and continual improvement.

7. 7. Service Value System

   Within the service value system, what are the two inputs, and what is the single output?

   • a.Inputs are opportunity and demand; the output is value
   • b.Inputs are cost and risk; the output is a service
   • c.Inputs are utility and warranty; the output is an outcome
   • d.Inputs are people and technology; the output is a process

   Answer: a

   Explanation: The service value system takes opportunity and demand as its inputs. Opportunity represents options or possibilities to add value for stakeholders, while demand is the need or desire for products and services from consumers. Through the operation of the SVS, these inputs are transformed into the output: value for the organization and its stakeholders.

8. 8. Service Value Chain

   The ITIL service value chain has six activities. Which is the correct complete set?

   • a.Strategy, design, transition, operation, improvement, governance
   • b.Plan; improve; engage; design & transition; obtain/build; deliver & support
   • c.Identify, define, build, test, release, operate
   • d.Focus, start, progress, collaborate, think, optimize

   Answer: b

   Explanation: The six service value chain activities are: plan; improve; engage; design and transition; obtain/build; and deliver and support. These interconnected activities can be combined in many sequences to form value streams. The service value chain is the central element of the service value system that converts demand into value through products and services.

9. 9. Service Value Chain

   Which service value chain activity is dedicated to ensuring continual improvement of products, services, and practices across all value chain activities and the four dimensions?

   • a.Design and transition
   • b.Obtain/build
   • c.Plan
   • d.Improve

   Answer: d

   Explanation: The 'improve' activity ensures continual improvement of products, services, and practices across all value chain activities and the four dimensions of service management. It draws on the continual improvement practice and model. Every value chain activity can feed information into 'improve' so the organization keeps getting better over time.

10. 10. ITIL Practices

    A recurring set of incidents shares an unknown underlying cause. Which practice is responsible for investigating and managing that cause, and how is the underlying cause classified?

    • a.Change enablement; the cause is called a change
    • b.Service request management; the cause is called a request
    • c.Problem management; the underlying cause is a problem, and a documented cause with a workaround is a known error
    • d.Incident management; the cause is called an incident record

    Answer: c

    Explanation: Problem management reduces the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents and managing workarounds and known errors. A problem is a cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents. Once a problem has been analyzed and a workaround or resolution is documented but not yet permanently resolved, it is recorded as a known error.