A preview of 15 of the 40 questions in this set, with full explanations. Take the interactive exam above for the complete set with timer, flagging, and scoring.
Question 1The ITIL Value System
An IT organisation supporting 14,000 staff has teams making changes to their processes each month without coordinating with other teams, leading to inconsistencies and service quality problems.
Which guiding principle is being MOST violated?
AFocus on value
B ✓Think and work holistically
CKeep it simple and practical
DStart where you are
Explanation: 'Think and work holistically' requires understanding how all parts of the organisation work together in an integrated way. Making isolated changes without coordination violates this principle.
Question 2The ITIL Value System
A retailer's customer experience team meets weekly with IT to review customer feedback, portal performance data, and support ticket trends — using this combined view to prioritise what to improve next.
Which guiding principle does this BEST demonstrate?
AKeep it simple and practical
BOptimise and automate
C ✓Progress iteratively with feedback
DStart where you are
Explanation: Weekly reviews using feedback from customers and performance data — and using these to adjust priorities — is a direct application of 'Progress iteratively with feedback'.
Question 3The ITIL Value System
A continual improvement initiative is showing strong results after 6 months. The project manager wants to close it. The IT service manager argues the work should continue in a new cycle.
Which aspect of continual improvement supports the IT service manager?
AContinual improvement ends when the KPI target is met
B ✓Continual improvement is a recurring activity that never truly ends
CContinual improvement only applies to practices, not services
DContinual improvement requires a formal project structure to continue
Explanation: Continual improvement is a recurring organisational activity — it does not end when a target is met. The final step loops back to the vision, starting a new cycle.
Question 4The ITIL Value System
Identify the missing word(s) in the following sentence.
The guiding principle '[ ? ]' recommends using the minimum number of steps to produce practical solutions, and eliminating unnecessary complexity, processes, or tools.
AFocus on value
BStart where you are
C ✓Keep it simple and practical
DOptimise and automate
Explanation: 'Keep it simple and practical' requires applying outcome-based thinking and using the minimum number of steps. Eliminate anything that does not support valuable outcomes.
Question 5The ITIL Value System
A service improvement programme has a target of reducing service downtime by 25% in 6 months. The team measures current downtime monthly and compares it to the target.
What is the monthly downtime measurement BEST described as?
ACritical Success Factor
BBaseline
C ✓Key Performance Indicator
DContinual improvement step
Explanation: A KPI is a metric used to evaluate success in meeting an objective. The monthly downtime measurement used to track progress toward the 25% reduction target is a KPI.
Question 6The ITIL Value System
Which of the following is NOT one of the guiding principles in ITIL?
AFocus on value
B ✓Maximise efficiency at all costs
CCollaborate and promote visibility
DThink and work holistically
Explanation: 'Maximise efficiency at all costs' is not a guiding principle. The 7 principles are: Focus on value, Start where you are, Progress iteratively with feedback, Collaborate and promote visibility, Think and work holistically, Keep it simple and practical, Optimise and automate.
Question 7The ITIL Value System
An improvement team reviews a 47-step change approval process and finds only 8 steps add value — the rest are legacy approvals with no current purpose.
Which guiding principle should guide the rationalisation?
AStart where you are
BThink and work holistically
C ✓Keep it simple and practical
DCollaborate and promote visibility
Explanation: 'Keep it simple and practical' — eliminate steps, processes, and tools that do not support outcomes. Reducing 47 steps to the 8 that add value is a direct application of this principle.
Question 8The ITIL Value System
A service desk manager reviews AI chatbot satisfaction scores after each two-week deployment cycle and adjusts the chatbot's responses before the next cycle.
What approach is this?
AThink and work holistically
BStart where you are
CFocus on value
D ✓Progress iteratively with feedback
Explanation: Two-week cycles with review and adjustment after each cycle — using satisfaction data as feedback — is a textbook application of 'Progress iteratively with feedback'.
Question 9Key ITIL terms and definitions
A freight management application works correctly (calculating routes accurately) but is only available during office hours, making it useless for drivers working overnight.
What does this scenario demonstrate?
A ✓The service has utility but lacks warranty
BThe service has warranty but lacks utility
CThe service has neither utility nor warranty
DThe service has both utility and warranty but lacks value
Explanation: Utility = fit for purpose (calculates routes correctly — utility present). Warranty = fit for use, including availability (not available overnight — warranty absent). Both are needed for value delivery.
Question 10Key ITIL terms and definitions
A government agency outsources its IT helpdesk to a managed service provider under a 5-year contract. The agency defines service requirements and performance targets but does not manage day-to-day operations.
What role does the government agency play?
AService provider
BUser
C ✓Customer
DOperator
Explanation: The customer defines requirements and takes responsibility for the outcomes of service consumption. The government agency defines requirements and performance targets — it is the customer.
Question 11Key ITIL terms and definitions
A new service will save users 2 hours per week but will introduce a monthly cost of £50 per user and create a dependency on a single cloud provider.
What framework concept should the manager use to evaluate the overall value?
AService level agreement
B ✓Value proposition
COperating model
DUtility assessment
Explanation: The value proposition balances positive outcomes and costs/risks removed against negatives. The manager is weighing time savings (positive) against new costs and provider dependency (negatives).
Question 12Key ITIL terms and definitions
An investigation reveals that recurring network incidents are caused by faulty network switch firmware. The team documents this finding in the problem management system.
What has the team created?
AAn incident record
BA change request
C ✓A known error
DA service request
Explanation: A known error is a problem that has been analysed but has not been resolved. The team has identified the cause (faulty firmware) and documented it — but hasn't fixed it yet.
Question 13Key ITIL terms and definitions
Identify the missing word(s) in the following sentence.
A [ ? ] is an unplanned interruption to a service or a reduction in service quality, regardless of whether the cause is known.
AProblem
BEvent
CChange
D ✓Incident
Explanation: An incident is an unplanned interruption to a service or reduction in service quality. Crucially, the cause does not need to be known — identification of cause is problem management.
Question 14Key ITIL terms and definitions
Which of the following would NOT typically be classified as a service request?
AA request to install approved software
BA request to reset a forgotten password
C ✓A request to restore service after an unexpected outage
DA request to provision a new user account
Explanation: Restoring service after an unexpected outage is incident management — not a service request. Service requests are pre-agreed, routine actions. An unexpected outage requires incident response.
Question 15The ITIL Four Dimensions
An IT organisation is suffering from poor handovers between incident management, problem management, and change management. Information is lost at each handover, causing delays and rework.
Which dimension is MOST relevant to address this?
APartners and suppliers
BOrganisations and people
CInformation and technology
D ✓Value streams and processes
Explanation: Value streams and processes covers the activities, workflows, controls, and procedures that transform inputs into outputs. Poor handovers between processes are a value streams and processes dimension issue.