10 Reasons To Take Your ITIL Training Now Rather Than Wait For ITIL4

10 reasons to take your ITIL® training now rather than wait for ITIL4®

ITIL… train now or wait till 2019?

ITIL Courses: As one of the long standing ITIL training providers we have noticed that over the last 6 months there’s been a downturn in the number of people taking our ITIL training courses and wondered why, so we did a bit of market research.Not by any means using any known scientific method, more a case of ‘Hey, why aren’t you progressing beyond Foundation to the Intermediate levels and Expert?’

Some of the reasons we were given we could identify with, whilst others invoked a raised eyebrow and one or two smiles.If you haven’t or won’t be investing in ITIL training before 2019 what is your reason, was it one of these?

• Lack of training budget
• New version on the horizon, so we’ll wait and see what happens
• The apprentice levy has stolen my training budget
• GDPR burned my budget
• The weather was great this summer… I didn’t want to sit in a classroom
• I would have missed the World Cup
• ITIL isn’t really applicable anymore, it’s not Agile
• I don’t know what courses are appropriate beyond Foundation
• Brexit stole my training budget

Let me tell you what AXELOS and the sole Examination Institute (PeopleCert) have publicly said so far about ITIL4, then let me address some of those reasons, and then I’ll tell you my ten reasons why you should invest in your future now and not wait until next year or beyond.

(Before I continue you might want to take a look at our ITIL v4 Foundation training course).

Here is what AXELOS and PeopleCert have said so far…

Regarding the impending new release of ITIL. Known as ITIL4 it is said that it will address compatibility with other emerging practices, approaches, frameworks, methodologies and mind-sets such as Agile, DevOps, Lean, VeriSM and SIAM.

AXELOS has also assured us that…

• There will be a smooth transition from the current version of ITIL to ITIL4.
• Your previous investment in ITIL will be protected.
• It’s an evolution not a revolution.
• ITIL4 will build upon current existing ‘Best Practice’, not replace it.
• Existing qualifications will still be recognised
• There will be bridging courses as there were in the v2 to v3 transition

So we have assurance that AXELOS are not throwing the baby out with the bath water.There is still a lot of good, if not ‘Best Practice’ in the existing and previous versions of ITIL.

I’ve used ITIL for nearly 30 years and it delivers… as long as you use it correctly and adapt it to meet individual organisational needs.

So reading between the lines of what AXELOS have said to-date and using my own experience and judgement here is my advice.

Here are my 10 reasons to get your ITIL training booked now rather than wait for ITIL4…

1) Your skills and capabilities are your organisation’s key assets - Management in most organisations have now recognised that people are their greatest asset and are ready to commit to training them now ready for the opportunities that the future holds. The future is evolving quicker than some of us realise with rapid digital transformation, automation and AI initiatives.IT Service Management has always been at the heart of IT and ITIL has always been at the heart of Service Management. So is it worth taking the current version of ITIL Foundation with ITIL4 just around the corner in 2019? Yes it is, because ITIL4 is potentially 7 months away, and you can achieve a lot in 7 months.If your customers have problems due to lack of Service Management functionality now they certainly won’t be happy you not addressing the problems for another 7 months.

2) The basics of ITSM/ITIL won’t change between releases – To be brutally honest most organisation’s IT Service Management capability is not that mature. Despite years of effort many organisations are still struggling with getting the basics right like Incident, Problem and Change. How do I know this? Because I work with them on training and consultancy assignments. Many organisations are still to address some of the ‘new’ feature of ITIL that appeared in 2008 such as Knowledge Management, Transition Management, Service Portfolio Management and Business Relationship Management. If you skip the basics then jumping straight to ITIL4 is not going to do you any favours.

(Click here if you might be interested in our incident management training).

3) Finish off your journey - If you have already embarked on your journey to becoming an ITIL Expert now is NOT the time to put the brakes on. Go get that ITIL Expert Level qualification.If previous increments are anything to go by you probably have at least 18 months to get to Expert level. There is also most likely an ‘Expert Bridging exam’ that will help you move to the next ITIL4 release as and when you are ready for it. Being totally honest knowledge of v3 (2011) and ITIL4 will be a huge advantage… I have worked with all the various flavours of ITIL and it has helped me understand IT Service Management in much greater depth.

4) Recruiters will take time to differentiate between the qualifications - Organisations and recruiters seeking new staff won’t differentiate for years between the current and future versions of ITIL. From my experience most recruiters are version blind anyway, well at least for a couple of years.If you have ITIL Expert on your CV they won’t be looking if you got there in 2008 or 2018. AXELOS have already said that your existing investment in ITIL will be protected. ITIL4 is not going to be a wholesale replacement of current ‘Best Practice’.It will build around what we already know works.

5) ITIL is still applicable - The current version of ITIL V3 (2011 edition) is still very applicable and very much in demand. It’s been around since 2007 and it still highly sought after by most employers, especially ITIL Expert level.To let you into a secret, ITIL has been around since 1989…Some of the key processes haven’t really changed since the original version. I should know because I’ve been around ITIL for about that long.

6) Avoid Procrastination – If you don’t start investing in your own personal development now you probably will never start on progressing your IT Service Management career. The children go back to school in September motivated for another year’s education, which makes September an ideal time of year to start or restart your own continual professional development.If you are time-poor and can’t afford days out of the office consider self-paced eLearning.If you find it hard to self-motivate and commit an hour a day to learning then you are probably best suited to classroom training.

(You might also want to reads this post: What is Service Management ITIL?)

7) Invest in yourself - There has never been a better time to invest in your own future development especially for those who have to self-fund their personal and technical development. We have seen that people are increasingly self-skilling because they recognise the worth of accreditation and are committing to their personal and professional development.

8) There is a skills shortage – You may not be aware that IT skills are very much in demand at the moment and that is across the whole IT industry. Certifications certainly help to open those doors for you next career move either in or outside of your organisation..

9) Time-frames always slip - so although we say ITIL4 courses available in Q1 2019 in reality it could be the end of March 2019 for Foundation and the end of 2019 /early 2020 for the rest of the new ITIL4 courses. Do you want to put of ITIL training till then you could be two years older?

10) Lastly if you have a training budget now…Will you still have that budget in 2019 after Brexit? How does that saying go...? “Use it or lose it”.

(You might also like to read this post about the importance of the ITIL RACI model).

If you are wondering what training to take beyond ITIL Foundation here’s a short explanation…

ITIL Practitioner – This course will give you the knowledge of how to implement IT Service Management using the ITIL framework.Its main focus is how to implement rather than what to implement.A better title for this course may have been ‘Planning to implement’.

ITIL Lifecycle modules – There are five courses in this intermediate work stream. Each is focused on one of the five core ITIL ‘Best Practice’ manuals, Service Strategy (SS), Service Design (SD), Service Transition (ST), Service Operation (SO) and Continual Service Improvement (CSI).They are aimed at those who will be establishing, managing and improving these areas of IT Service Management.

ITIL Capability modules – There are four courses in this intermediate work stream. Each is focused on an area of day to day management.The modules are Release, Control &Validation (RCV), Service Offerings & Agreements (SOA), Operational Support & Analysis and Planning (OSA), Protection & Optimisation (PPO).They are aimed more at hands-on practitioners working in these specific areas.

Mix and match – You can mix Lifecycle and Capability modules and the Practitioner to tailor your training to your specific needs but beware there are overlaps between the two intermediate work streams. You will want to gain as broad a level of knowledge as possible across the intermediate modules to ensure your success with the top level MALC training and exam.

Managing Across The Lifecycle (MALC) – This is the capstone qualification which will make you an ‘ITIL Expert’.The focus of this course is not about adding any further knowledge, it’s more about bringing all of your ITIL knowledge together.

Do you need more reasons to book your ITIL training now? If so call us and we’ll try to help you choose the most appropriate training to meet your individual needs.