ITIL Training

[mykalberta]

Just wondering if anyone has completed this (v3) and if anyone has any reviews of any training programs.

There seem to be alot out there with differing prices.

Thanks.

[Hack&Lube]

Do you have any background in it or have you started studying?

My training in ITIL consists of reading this book to get an idea of what the heck it is. No plans on writing the cert (yet).
http://books.google.ca/books?id=3zFv...L%20v3&f=false

[sclitheroe]

Foundations? If I had to do it again, I'd find a good book and self-study, then just write the exam. Speaking as an IT guy, I came from organizations that aligned along ITIL guidelines, so for me it was mostly about learning the terminology and "architecture" of ITIL (along with lots of "a ha" moments where I recognized how/why we did things the way we did). Some of the project manager types found the material more challenging, I guess because it was an entirely new concept, whereas I'd worked inside it for some time.

The exam itself is quite easy if you've got the concepts and terminology down.

[psicodude]

I did mine at Global Knowledge last summer with about a dozen other people from my work, and it was pretty good. The only part I didn't really care for was that the instructor was really just preparing us to pass the cert. exam, rather than really teaching us what ITIL was all about. She actually told us several times that we could skim over a section because they rarely included questions about it in the exam.

At the end of the day, however, everyone in the class passed easily, so mission accomplished I suppose. I think it was about $1200 per person for a 3 day course, including the exam at the end.

[TorqueDog]

I wrote and passed it, and I don't mean to scare you away, but it was very dry, boring stuff. If you're going into it, do as Scott says get the concepts and terminology down.

[Hack&Lube]

Yeah, ITIL is all conceptual and very dry. It has great application to project management but it's hard to stand back and see it all.

[cKy]

Originally Posted by psicodude

I did mine at Global Knowledge last summer with about a dozen other people from my work, and it was pretty good. The only part I didn't really care for was that the instructor was really just preparing us to pass the cert. exam, rather than really teaching us what ITIL was all about. She actually told us several times that we could skim over a section because they rarely included questions about it in the exam.

At the end of the day, however, everyone in the class passed easily, so mission accomplished I suppose. I think it was about $1200 per person for a 3 day course, including the exam at the end.

Out of curiosity, was the instructors name Farah Rumtulla? Or something like that?

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Yeah, ITIL is all conceptual and very dry. It has great application to project management but it's hard to stand back and see it all.

Extremely dry, but I still think it has value for anyone working in an organization that models themselves on ITIL - you'll understand much more how and why the organization tries to operate the way it does, as well as some of the goals they are trying to achieve on a high level (creation of service catalogs, configuration item databases, metrics, stuff like that) that you can help contribute to and align yourself with. Sounds like manager speak, but there were a number of times during the material that I said to myself "so that's what we're trying to do here" or "so that's why we do it that way"

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Extremely dry, but I still think it has value for anyone working in an organization that models themselves on ITIL - you'll understand much more how and why the organization tries to operate the way it does, as well as some of the goals they are trying to achieve on a high level (creation of service catalogs, configuration item databases, metrics, stuff like that) that you can help contribute to and align yourself with. Sounds like manager speak, but there were a number of times during the material that I said to myself "so that's what we're trying to do here" or "so that's why we do it that way"

That you actually experienced it in a work environment before touching the theory helps a tremendous amount, just like with all IT. You need to be able to put it into practical perspective which is extremely difficult if you've never been in that kind of environment and just do the bare reading, it comes off as all fluff that feels like it would be common sense. Similar to the Microsoft Solutions Framework.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

That you actually experienced it in a work environment before touching the theory helps a tremendous amount, just like with all IT. You need to be able to put it into practical perspective which is extremely difficult if you've never been in that kind of environment and just do the bare reading, it comes off as all fluff that feels like it would be common sense. Similar to the Microsoft Solutions Framework.

Absolutely, and that's also why I think the project management types in my class had more difficulty with the material (mostly the scope and amount of info) than the IT guys. The geeks were done the exam in about 40 minutes, and tended to get scores in the 90's, whereas many of the others took significantly longer and their overall scores were lower.

[psicodude]

Originally Posted by cKy

Out of curiosity, was the instructors name Farah Rumtulla? Or something like that?

Yup. She had a strong background of ITIL implementation projects in IT, but was an average instructor at best.