ITIL Practitioner: agree and define (service level and financial management)

Description:

Course overview

This 5-day course focuses on the implementation and management of the Agree and Define processes and functions that are responsible for achieving control and stability within an IT infrastructure and include effective Service Level and Financial Management. It consists of 4 days of lectures and hands-on activities and one day of exam review with exam. The course will include individual and group assignments required for certification as well as homework.

Prerequisites

ISEB, EXIN or APMG ITIL Foundation Certificate for IT Service Management:
Before taking the Practitioner examination included at the end of the course, the candidate must have attended accredited training (eg. this course) and successfully completed the three required practical assignments which are offered during the course. It is advisable that the candidate has a minimum of one year’s general IT experience and at least one year’s experience with the ITIL processes of Service Level Management or Financial Management for IT Services, either as a practitioner, supervisor or manager  

Audience

• IT staff responsible for the agreement and definition of IT services, especially those who will participate in managing, organizing and optimizing the Agree and Define processes in an IT Service organisation which has implemented, or started to implement, ITIL based Service Level Management and/or Financial Management processes
• IT staff requiring training in order to perform in a Service Level or Financial Management role and who require a formal qualification
• Service managers who want to develop their practical knowledge about the Service Level and Financial Management processes as described by ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library)
• Business analysts and other ITIL process managers with interest in the service level and/or Financial Management processes

Benefits to you

• Learn how to base decisions about the services to be provided on assessments of cost- effectiveness, service by service
• Learn how to make more business-like decisions about IT services and their relevant investments
• Be able to plan and budget with confidence
• Develop sufficient knowledge for the IPAD exam
• Use Service Level Management functions to maximize company bandwidth
• Effectively manage the relationship between parties involved in Service Level Agreements
• Prepare, maintain, and negotiate Service Level Agreements for large and small business partners

Course outline

Introduction

• Training objectives
• Brief refresher on ITSM

Service Level Management - Implementing

• Service Level Management objective
• Planning for Service Level Management
• Creating the Service Catalog
• Define Service Level Agreements- Service Level Objectives, Service Level Requirements and Service Level Agreements- Operational Level Agreements and Underpinning Contracts
• Negotiate and agree on SLAs
• Implementing Service Level Agreements
• Delivering services according to agreements

Service Level Management - Maintaining

• Monitor SLAs achievements vs. targets
• Improving services delivered – Service Improvement Program (SIP)
• Quality of service parameters and performance reporting
• Management reporting

Service Level Management - Interrelationships and requirements

• Relationships and links with other ITIL processes
• Best practices and business benefits
• Common roadblocks
• Financial Management
• Objectives
• Components of Financial Management
• Scope of Financial Management
• Locking IT to the Business
• The role of the Business in Financial Management
• Financial Management’s relationship with other ITSM processes
• Core elements of Financial Management - budgeting
• Purpose of budgeting
• What budgeting is based on
• Estimating the cost of budget items
• Estimating the cost of workload dependent items

Core elements of Financial Management – IT accounting system

• Aims
• Financial organizations
• Cost models
• Cost types and elements
• Classifying cost elements
• Depreciation
• Apportioning IT costs
• Cost units
• Changes affecting costs
• Investment appraisal
• Return on investment
• Return on employed capital
• Total cost of ownership

Core elements of Financial Management – charging system

• Aims
• Charging policies
• Deciding chargeable items
• Pricing & pricing policies
• The internal market
• Differential charging
• Pricing flexibility
• Charging methods
• Types of billing
• When to charge
• Benefits of charging

Implementation - planning

• The project
• Feasibility study
• The project plan
• Designing the cost model
• Performance indicators
• Dependencies

Implementation - tools

• Tool assessment
• Internally developed vs. externally developed

Implementation - execution

• Documentation
• Preparation
• Awareness
• Piloting the system
• Monitor the system

Process control and management

• Measures for Financial Management – Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Management reporting
• Auditing and audit checks

Course program

• Theory
• Exercises and presentations
• Exam preparation

Exam Information

• The exam, offered by EXIN, is a two hour multiple-choice paper based on a case study (provided during the exam). It consists of 40 questions and candidates need to achieve 65% or more (26 or more) to pass. It is a closed book exam. In addition candidates must complete, and pass, three in-course assignments
• ISEB does not offer this exam