ITIL® RCV Sample Exam #2

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Version 6.1 (Live) Owner – The Official ITIL Accreditor

ITIL® Intermediate Capability Stream: RELEASE, CONTROL AND VALIDATION (RCV) CERTIFICATE Sample Paper 2, version 6.1

Gradient Style, Complex Multiple Choice SCENARIO BOOKLET This booklet contains the scenarios upon which the eight examination questions will be based. All questions are contained within the Question Booklet and each question will clearly state the scenario to which the question relates. In order to answer each of the eight questions, you will need to read the related scenario carefully. On the basis of the information provided in the scenario, you will be required to select which of the four answer options provided (A, B, C or D) you believe to be the optimum answer. You may choose ONE answer only, and the Gradient Scoring system works as follows:

• If you select the CORRECT answer, you will be awarded 5 marks for the question • If you select the SECOND BEST answer, you will be awarded 3 marks for the question • If you select the THIRD BEST answer, you will be awarded 1 mark for the question • If you select the DISTRACTER (the incorrect answer), you will receive no marks for the

question In order to pass this examination, you must achieve a total of 28 marks or more out of a maximum of 40 marks (70%).

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Scenario One A healthcare company plans to expand its business by adding an online shopping (e-Shop) capability to its existing website. There have been recent website performance issues caused by insufficient capacity and resources. The project to create the new e-Shop service is in the ‘Define Service Solution’ stage. The IT organization is also adopting the ITIL service transition processes, including the change evaluation process. You are the head of change management. You have been asked to review and provide suggestions for improving the following email which will be circulated to the stakeholders involved in the evaluation review:

Dear Colleague, You are requested to attend the service design evaluation meeting for the e-Shop service. This review is part of the change evaluation process. The meeting’s objective is to evaluate the e-Shop service design package v01 to confirm the intended effects and to identify potential unintended effects of the proposed service change. The agenda is:

1. Introduction 2. Presentation - Overview of the change evaluation process - plan the evaluation, evaluate

predicted performance 3. Evaluation of e-Shop service design - factors for considering the effect of the change:

a) Service provider capability - ability of business support and IT to perform as required b) Tolerance - ability or capacity of the current website to absorb the e-Shop service c) Organizational setting - ability of our organization to accept the e-Shop service d) Modelling and measurement – the extent to which the predicted behaviour from a model

matches the actual behaviour from the e-Shop service e) Purpose - whether the e-Shop service will be fit for purpose f) People - the people within the e-Shop operating environment and the effect of change on

them 4. Risk identification and assessment 5. Actions and next steps



Scenario Two

An international school has just appointed a vendor to replace their school administrative system. The project is divided into three phases. Phase one will be completed in three months’ time. This will include the delivery of a configuration management database (CMDB) interfaced with the first major release of the new school system. You are the head of IT operations for the school. To support this project, the chief information officer (CIO) has asked you to establish a new service transition organization. You have been assigned the roles of service transition manager and change manager. Another experienced IT manager will take on the role of service asset and configuration management (SACM) process manager. Although there are some skilled practitioners, the new organization will also require the following key service transition roles:

• Configuration analyst • Configuration librarian • Change evaluation manager • Service validation and test manager • Release and deployment manager

The board has approved the immediate recruitment of three resources initially. If phase one of this project is successful the board will approve the hiring of resources for all of the remaining roles. In addition, the board and the CIO have agreed the following principles for staffing the project in phase one:

1. Since there are more roles than approved headcount, roles and responsibilities may be combined where appropriate.

2. The school will engage an external vendor to conduct the design and planning of the SACM process and the CMDB.

3. The initial organization should have clear ownership of all the required service transition processes.

You move on to start the recruitment for the new organization.



Scenario Three You are the service transition manager for a large enterprise. Recently there were some major issues related to upgrading various business systems. The issues were:

1. Some of the application upgrades were deployed to production even though the changes did not fully meet the acceptance criteria. The risks of these changes were not fully understood and mitigated. This led to failures to meet business expectations.

2. For some upgrades, the promised service levels were not realized in the production environment. Prior to deploying the upgrade the test team was unable to verify whether the service levels could be achieved.

3. The test environment had not been upgraded in the past few years to reasonably mirror the actual production environment. This led to an inability to analyse the impact of the change based on the test results.

All of the issues primarily relate to the poor effectiveness of the service validation and testing (SVT) process. The chief information officer is very concerned and has asked you and your service transition staff to work with the service strategy manager, the service design manager and the service operation manager to review the current situation, and to develop an action plan to resolve the issues.



Scenario Four

A services organization uses its centralized service desk (CSD) to manage incidents and changes. The CSD has only a few service agents. They manage technical issues and problems, answer users’ queries, handle generic information requests and reset passwords. All these activities are registered and tracked in a service desk system. For change requests, users can submit a request for change (RFC) form to the e-mail address, ‘[email protected]’. Due to resource constraints this e-mail address is monitored by only one agent from the service desk. This agent screens every change request and, depending on the type of change, routes the RFC to the appropriate team. Service level management is responsible for handling requests for new services and requests for changes to existing services. The service level manager works with the change manager to submit RFCs deemed appropriate to the change advisory board. All RFCs are recorded in an internal system. The current service model has resulted in three main issues: 1. A large number of service requests and standard changes are raised by the users. This creates a

heavy workload for both incident management and change management. 2. Users are confused by the multiple channels they can use to submit requests, and confused as to

who should be their first contact. 3. The ownership for fulfilling different types of service or change request is unclear. The above issues have had an impact on levels of performance which the IT service provides to the business. Service efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction are declining. To rectify the situation the chief information officer (CIO) plans to set up a request fulfilment process within IT.



Scenario Five A global bank is planning to deploy a large number of releases to its mission-critical applications. This is to meet the needs of a rapid business development programme in Asia. The programme has suffered substantial delays in recent months following major failures after the deployment of some of the application releases. The bank’s system support group (SSG) gathered information from different business users and support specialists and discovered the following issues:

• Scattered data sources with inconsistent data for problem diagnosis • Insufficient skills of both business users and IT support staff • The lack of an effective approach to test the changes and releases prior to deployment.

The head of SSG proposes that a new service knowledge management system (SKMS) should be implemented to improve the performance of service transition. This needs to be approved by the chief operating officer (COO). The COO’s interests are to improve the bank’s overall organizational capability, insights and wisdom to respond to business demands, to manage risks, and to implement all changes effectively. Other requirements from the users or IT support groups are of less concern. The head of SSG needs to develop the business justifications for the SKMS. The contents of the business justifications should display the value of SKMS and describe how data within the organization can be transformed to information, subsequently to knowledge, and finally to wisdom.



Scenario Six

You are the process owner for change management at a large local government organization. The goal of the organization is the provision of quality and widely-available services to internal and external customers. The services should also provide good value for money. There are 64 different IT services. Half of these services were developed by external suppliers. Customers can access some of the IT services 24 hours a day. Changes are authorized by a change advisory board with senior representation from IT and the business. The number of unsuccessful changes has increased, affecting the availability and reliability of the IT services. The number of incidents reported in relation to implementing changes is also increasing. One recent incident affected the deployment of a major change to a key service. Some important steps were missing from the change documentation, and the change was backed out. This meant that the planned date was not achieved and the costs of the change were a lot higher than budgeted. There is also an increase in the number of changes that have failed to meet the required service level based on their urgency. Several complaints were received from the customers. The chief information officer is concerned about the situation and the damage it has caused to the reputation of the IT organization.



Scenario Seven The management of a company recently approved the implementation of a versatile configuration management system (CMS), including a federated configuration management database (CMDB), related processes and tools. The company currently has a separate problem management database for end-user support, and a definitive media library (DML) to store current versions of all software and systems. Information about all other IT assets is maintained in disparate systems. There are several CMS tool functions that the company wishes to implement, the most urgent ones being those related to configuration verification and audit. Four vendors have been shortlisted to provide the technologies and implementation services. Due to budget constraints the CMS solution will be implemented in three phases, with only two major CMS functions being implemented in each phase. To select the BEST-qualified vendor the company has asked each vendor to present their approach for implementing the configuration verification and audit functions. The proposals are summarized as follows: (No particular order for the functions within each phase) Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C Vendor D Phase 1

Automatic discovery and loading of CI information

Guided interrogation and reporting of the CMDB


Integration and interface with definitive media library (DML)

Automatic discovery and loading CI information

Integration with current problem management database

Discovery, update and display of hierarchic and networked CI relationships

Support the update and display of CIs of varying complexity

Phase 2




Support for configuration baselines, including reversion to trusted versions




Support for configuration baselines, including reversion to trusted versions

Phase 3

Support for configuration baselines, including reversion to trusted version

Maintenance and display of history of all CIs



Automatic identification of all affected CIs when any CI is the subject of a request for change


Integration with current problem management database




Scenario Eight

You are the release and deployment manager for a multi-national organization using off-the-shelf applications to support business operations. There are 2500 users in the USA, 10 in Sweden and 60 in Denmark. Users in Denmark and Sweden use identical applications on PCs and server infrastructure with identical configurations. The USA applications and infrastructure configurations are similar, but not identical. There are service level agreements (SLAs) for each service. Monthly service reviews are attended by stakeholders where performance and open problems are discussed. Most users access the services over a private network. The sales force work remotely during the week and upload sales orders and download updated price lists on the weekend. Users have different usernames and passwords to access each application. It has been decided that new, single sign-on functionality will be introduced for all users, which will require deployment of a new release of each application to all PCs. To minimize risks, a pilot for the deployment of the single sign-on release will be used. This will provide an opportunity to identify and fix any issues before a full roll-out. A baseline will be taken before any deployments commence. According to the release and deployment management policy, the pilot will be rolled back if there are significant failures or if it is necessary to ensure that pilot users have the correct baseline before the full deployment.

© The Official ITIL Accreditor 2012. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of the Cabinet Office. ITIL® is a registered trade mark of the Cabinet Office. ITIL Intermediate Capability RCVSample2 QUESTION BOOKLET v6.1.

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Gradient Style, Complex Multiple Choice QUESTION BOOKLET Gradient Style Multiple Choice 90 minute paper 8 questions, Closed Book Instructions

1. All 8 questions should be attempted. 2. You should refer to the accompanying Scenario Booklet to answer each question. 3. All answers are to be marked on the answer grid provided. 4. You have 90 minutes to complete this paper. 5. You must achieve 28 or more out of a possible 40 marks (70%) to pass this

examination.

© The Official ITIL Accreditor 2012. ITIL Intermediate Capability RCVSample2 QUESTION BOOKLET v6.1. This document must not be reproduced without express permission from The Accreditor.


Question One Refer to Scenario One You need to make recommendations when reviewing the email about the evaluation agenda. Which one of the following options provides the BEST recommendations to improve the agenda? A. 1. The presentation on the “Overview of the change evaluation process” should also cover:

• Contents of the service design interim evaluation report, i.e. the risk profile, deviations report and a recommendation to accept or reject the change

• An explanation of how the actual performance of the e-Shop service will be evaluated during release packaging.

2. Under agenda item 3 – add: Actual performance.

B. 1. The presentation on the “Overview of the change evaluation process” should also cover the objectives, and inputs and outputs including the evaluation report that goes to change management.

2. Under agenda item 3 - add:

• Fit for use - whether the e-Shop service will minimize the number of security breaches as well as providing enough capacity

• Resources - availability of staff, finances, and other resources to run the e-Shop service.

C. 1. The presentation on the “Overview of the change evaluation process” should also cover the objectives, the evaluation of the actual performance, and the sections to be included in the change evaluation report.

2. Under agenda item 3 – add: Fit for use, as this is very important for an e-Shop in the healthcare sector.

D. 1. Meeting’s objective: delete ‘unintended’ because the evaluation after service design should focus on the intended effects of the change.

2. The presentation on the “Overview of the change evaluation process” should cover the objectives, and inputs and outputs including the evaluation report that goes to change management.



Question Two Refer to Scenario Two Which of the following recruitment strategies is MOST appropriate when staffing the initial service transition organization? A. Combine the roles of configuration analyst and configuration librarian for the first headcount due to

synergy between these two roles. Hire the release and deployment manager for the second because it is a key role currently required. Combine the change evaluation manager and service validation and testing manager for the third to reduce interfaces.

B. Hire the configuration librarian for the first headcount since this resource is needed to work with the

vendor. Hire the change evaluation manager for the second because it is a key role currently required. Combine the service validation and testing manager and the release and deployment manager for the third to reduce interfaces. Leave the configuration analyst till a later stage.

C. Merge the role of the configuration analyst with the SACM manager. Hire the release and

deployment manager for the first headcount because it is a key role currently required. Hire the change evaluation manager for the second and the configuration librarian for the third. Leave the service validation and testing manager till a later stage.

D. Combine the roles of configuration analyst and change evaluation manager for the first headcount

due to synergy between these two roles. Hire the release and deployment manager for the second because it is a key role currently required. Combine the roles of configuration librarian and service validation and testing manager for the third to reduce interfaces.



Question Three Refer to Scenario Three As a first step you decide to have a separate meeting with the most appropriate personnel for each of these issues. Who should you invite for discussion in each meeting? A. For issue #1 you involve the service operation manager. You request that problem management

staff develop a clear process with your SVT staff to identify the risks of system change and to mitigate them where possible. For issue #2 you enlist the help of your release and deployment management staff to propose effective ways for testing the changes in all release packages. For issue #3 you involve the service design manager and your selected service transition staff to identify improvement opportunities for the current test environment and to develop a funding proposal to upgrade the testing environment.

B. For issue #1 you involve the service operation manager. You request that problem management staff develop a clear process with your SVT staff to identify the risks of system changes and to mitigate them where possible. For issue #2 you enlist the help of your release and deployment management staff to propose effective ways for testing the changes in all release packages. For issue #3 you talk to the service strategy manager to identify improvement opportunities for the current test environment and to develop a funding proposal to upgrade the testing environment.

C. For issue #1 you request the service operation manager to work with your staff from change

management, change evaluation and SVT staff to develop a clear process to identify the risks of system change and to mitigate them where possible. For issue #2 you speak to the service design manager about the possibility of incorporating an effective approach for testing the change in all service design packages. For issue #3 you talk to the service strategy manager to identify improvement opportunities for the current test environment and to develop a funding proposal to upgrade the testing environment.

D. For issue #1 you enlist the help of your staff from change management, change evaluation and SVT

to develop a clear process to identify risks of system change and to mitigate them where possible. For issue #2 you talk to the service design manager about the possibility of incorporating an effective approach for testing the change in all service design packages. For issue #3 you talk to all three of them and your selected service transition staff to identify improvement opportunities for the current test environment, in particular, to the service strategy manager to develop a funding proposal to upgrade the testing environment.



Question Four Refer to Scenario Four You are an experienced ITSM consultant. The chief information officer (CIO) has hired you to provide a recommendation on the future service model for request fulfilment. Which one of the following options is the BEST course of action the company should take? A. A service catalogue will be published on a company web portal to enable users to request services.

The centralized service desk (CSD) agent will log all service requests submitted through the portal in the CSD system. The agent will assign service requests, and standard changes that have a pre-approved procedure and cost, to request fulfilment. All other requests will be routed either to incident management or to change management depending on their actual requirements.

B. A service catalogue will be published on a company web portal to enable users to request services.

Request fulfilment will receive all service requests through a comprehensive self-help function on the portal. This will allow users to apply workarounds and quick fixes, and execute pre-defined changes without having to contact the CSD. Other requests that cannot be fulfilled by the self-help function will be forwarded to the CSD for further screening and handling.

C. All users will submit service requests, and standard changes that have a pre-approved procedure

and cost, to request fulfilment via a new email address, ‘[email protected]’. This email address will be monitored by request fulfilment staff. All other requests will be raised by calling the CSD hotline where the CSD agent will redirect them either to incident management or to change management depending on their actual requirements.

D. Users will continue to forward all change requests to the email address, ‘[email protected]’, which will be monitored by change management. The users will send all other service requests to another email address, ‘[email protected]’, which will be monitored by request fulfilment. Once a change is identified as a standard change it will also be forwarded to ‘[email protected]’ by change management.



Question Five Refer to Scenario Five Which one of the following four business justifications will be MOST likely to secure the approval of the bank’s chief operating officer (COO) to implement the service knowledge management system (SKMS)? A. Recent incidents indicate the need to improve the capability of the business users, systems

developers and support staff for implementing system and service upgrade projects. Through ensuring accuracy and correlation of configuration information, the SKMS will improve the knowledge of the business users and technical staff. This empowers all staff to determine the most effective application testing and support strategy. Over time this will enhance the overall organizational capability to respond to the changing business requirements.

B. The capture of accurate configuration information directly into the SKMS will provide much better

visibility of application dependency and compatibility for the entire environment. Such information is crucial for implementing major system upgrades. It will facilitate the development of more effective test plans and test scripts by the users and test team. It will also provide the support staff with better information to respond to incidents and technical problems. Over time this will help mitigate risks and improve time-to-production for the business changes.

C. The new SKMS will capture accurate configuration data in a single, federated repository. This will

improve the development, testing and support of all systems changes prior to actual deployment. By implementing effective governance and policies on its use, the SKMS will preserve accuracy of configuration data. It will also remove conflicting data from different data sources and enable timely identification and analysis of errors. Over time this will lead to improved problem resolution and time-to-production for the business changes.

D. Information provided by the SKMS will reveal patterns of successful change management for

system and service upgrades, and enable lessons to be learned from experience. This will lead to the bank having an improved capability to predict the risks of all options for implementing business changes. The SKMS will also enable the staff to anticipate and avoid common issues and problems with business changes, and help management to develop an effective change strategy. Over time this will help the bank to make informed business decisions.



Question Six Refer to Scenario Six The chief information officer has asked you to recommend suitable key performance indicators (KPIs) for the change management process. The KPIs must support the goals of the organization and support the resolution of the issues in the scenario. Which one of the following options proposes the MOST suitable KPIs for the accompanying scenario? A. The following KPIs should be introduced:

• Number of changes that were authorized and implemented for the last two years • Percentage of unauthorized changes out of all changes implemented within the last two

years • Number of failed changes caused by poor and inaccurate specification • Number of incidents associated with problems caused by implemented changes within the

last two years.

B. The following KPIs should be introduced: • Reduction in number of reported incidents associated with implemented changes • Reduction in the number of failed changes that result in a “backed-out” situation • Percentage of all changes in each month meets service level targets (SLA) based on their

urgency and priority • Improvement in percentage of all changes that meet customer’s agreed cost and time

requirements.

C. The following KPIs should be introduced: • Improvement in percentage of all changes whose implementation meets SLA based on

their urgency and priority • An increase in percentage of all changes that meet customer’s agreed cost and time

requirements • Reduction in the number of reported problems associated with implemented changes • Reduction in the number of failed changes that result in a “backed-out” situation.

D. The following KPIs should be introduced:

• An increase in percentage of all changes that meet customer’s agreed cost and time requirements

• Number of failed changes caused by poor and inaccurate specification • Increase in accuracy of predictions for time, cost and risks of all authorized changes • Number of incidents reported to the service desk.



Question Seven Refer to Scenario Seven You are a senior manager of this company and a member of the vendor selection panel. Based on the proposal summary you need to identify the vendor that BEST meets the organization’s objectives. Which vendor should you choose? A. Vendor A B. Vendor B

C. Vendor C

D. Vendor D



Question Eight Refer to Scenario Eight Which one of the following options is the BEST approach for executing the pilot? A. Pilot half of the applications with representative stakeholders from USA, and all users in Denmark

and Sweden. These users will use the new release to carry out normal activities. Service level agreement (SLA) achievements and incidents will be reviewed daily. After two weeks, if the SLAs have been consistently achieved, then the deployment will be handed over to service operation and approval requested to roll-out all applications to all remaining users. SLA achievements, open incidents and customer satisfaction will be reviewed at the monthly service review meetings.

B. Pilot all applications with representative stakeholders from USA and all users in Sweden. These

users will use the new release to carry out normal activities from Monday to Friday within a designated week. SLA achievements and incidents will be reviewed daily. At the end of the trial period the pilot will be rolled back if required. Incident and availability statistics will be analysed and a survey of all stakeholders will be taken. Plans will be updated based on the lessons learned before seeking approval for a full roll-out.

C. Pilot all applications with representative stakeholders from USA and Denmark. These users will use

the new release to carry out normal activities for two weeks. SLA achievements and incidents will be reviewed daily. After two weeks the pilot will be rolled back if required. Incident and SLA statistics will be analysed and a survey of all stakeholders will be taken. Plans will be updated based on the lessons learned before seeking approval for a full roll-out.

D. Pilot all applications with representative stakeholders from USA and Sweden. These users will use

the new release according to a pre-defined sample of transactions each day. At the end of two weeks any incidents will be recorded, and a survey will be taken. If, after two weeks customers are satisfied, then approval will be requested for a roll-out to remaining users. If customers are not satisfied the pilot will be rolled back. Plans will be updated based on the lessons learned before seeking approval for another pilot.

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Gradient Style, Complex Multiple Choice

ANSWERS AND RATIONALES

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Answer Key:

Scenario Question Correct: 5 Marks

2nd Best: 3 Marks

3rd Best: 1 Mark

Distracter: 0 Marks

One 1 B C D A

Two 2 A C D B

Three 3 D C B A

Four 4 A C D B

Five 5 D A B C

Six 6 C B D A

Seven 7 B A C D

Eight 8 C B D A



Answer and Question Rationale:

QUESTION One Scenario One

Question Rationale

The question tests whether the candidate understands the change evaluation process and can apply the ITIL practices to the change evaluation process. The objectives are to check that the candidate: • Understands the purpose, scope and terminology of the process • Understands the difference between the evaluation performed after service

design compared to the later evaluations where the actual performance of the service change can be compared to the predicted performance

• Can analyse the scenario and answer options to identify factors for evaluating the effectiveness of a service design and changes.

MOST CORRECT (5) B This is the best solution. It recommends providing an overview of the change evaluation process and its interface to change management. Covering the overview at the meeting will ensure that the stakeholder communication is better. This answer includes the relevant factors to cover in the evaluation of the service design and which are important to the company by adding ‘fit for use’ and ‘resources’ to agenda item 3.

SECOND BEST (3) C This is correct and reasonably constructive. Although it adds ‘fit for use’ to agenda item 3, it is not as good as the MOST correct answer because it does not add a reference to ‘resources’, which the scenario states are insufficient.

THIRD BEST (1) D This does not add as much constructive feedback as B or C. It misses adding ‘fit for use’ and ‘resources’ to agenda item 3. Deleting the unintended effects of a service change is incorrect as it should be included.

DISTRACTER (0) A This is the wrong answer. The contents of the service design interim evaluation report do not include a deviations report as there is, as yet, no actual performance to compare with the predicted performance. The actual service performance against the predicted performance cannot be evaluated until the change is implemented. The statement that actual performance will be evaluated during release packaging is incorrect. Evaluation of the actual performance of the enhanced service is performed once the change is implemented. Adding ‘actual performance’ to agenda item 3 is inappropriate. The actual service performance cannot be evaluated until the change is implemented.

Syllabus Unit / Module supported

ITIL SC: RCV07 Change evaluation

Blooms Taxonomy Testing Level

Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Level 4 Analysis – The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences. Application – The candidate needs to apply content knowledge to determine the correct activities in the change evaluation process and needs to analyse how these fit within the context of the scenario to select the most correct answer option.

Subjects covered

Categories covered: • The intended effect and unintended effect of a change, and application of the

factors for evaluating the effectiveness of a service design and changes • The evaluation of predicted service performance and actual performance with

risk management and demonstration of what impact it could have on the course of actions for the overall service design/change evaluation.

Book Section Refs ST 4.6.5.4 – Service transition processes – Change evaluation – Process activities, methods and techniques – Understanding the intended effect of a change



ST 4.6.5.5 – Service transition processes – Change evaluation – Process activities, methods and techniques – Understanding the unintended effect of a change ST 4.6.5.6 – Service transition processes – Change evaluation – Process activities, methods and techniques – Factors for considering the effect of a service change ST 4.6.5.7 – Service transition processes – Change evaluation – Process activities, methods and techniques – Evaluation of predicted performance ST 4.6.5.8 – Service transition processes – Change evaluation – Process activities, methods and techniques – Evaluation of actual performance ST 4.6.5.9 – Service transition processes – Change evaluation – Process activities, methods and techniques – Risk management ST 4.6.5.10 – Service transition processes – Change evaluation – Evaluation report ST Table 4.14 – Service transition processes – Change evaluation – Factors for considering the effect of a service change

Difficulty Easy



QUESTION Two Scenario Two

Question Rationale

This question tests the candidates on discerning the high-level roles and responsibilities within a service transition organization and, based on a given set of scenario principles, articulating the importance and urgency of having some or all of these roles fulfilled. The end result is a staffing strategy. To answer this question correctly, one must be able to capture the following learning points: 1. Change evaluation takes input from the service design and release packages to

develop the evaluation plan. It also takes input from service validation and testing to produce evaluation reports for change management.

2. While release and deployment management will plan, design, build and test release packages, it must not be combined with service validation testing which helps verify the release packages

3. The configuration analyst is a detailed planner/designer for service asset and configuration management (SACM) principles, process, configuration item (CI), configuration management database (CMDB) sponsored by the SACM process manager. The role of configuration analyst may be combined with either SACM manager or configuration librarian to leverage the synergy among these roles.

MOST CORRECT (5) A Combining the roles of configuration analyst and librarian sounds logical per learning point #3 from the question rationale, especially when the SACM practice and the CMDB are built from the beginning to foster synergy between architecture and operations. Putting a separate headcount for release and deployment manager is also sensible as it is an integral part of the entire service transition practice. Combining change evaluation management with service validation and testing management would reduce handoffs (per staffing principle #1 from the scenario) as they work together closely with change management to make the whole transition successful.

SECOND BEST (3) C This answer has a lot of merits but has one flaw: it leaves the hiring of service validation and testing manager to a later stage so it fails staffing principle #3, which demands clear ownership for all required service transition processes.

THIRD BEST (1) D This answer has major flaws. Combining the roles of configuration analyst and change evaluation manager has little to do with synergy as their responsibilities are different. Combining the roles of configuration librarian and service validation and testing manager would not reduce interfaces because the two roles have minimal inter-dependency.

DISTRACTER (0) B This is the wrong answer. It makes a logical error by hiring a configuration librarian before hiring a configuration analyst. The roles of release and deployment manager should not be combined with service validation and testing manager.


ITIL SC: RCV04 Service validation and testing ITIL SC: RCV07 Change evaluation ITIL SC: RCV09 Roles and responsibilities


Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Level 4 Analysis – The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand their structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences. Application – The candidate needs to capture the concepts and learning of different service transition roles and apply them to the scenario in order to determine the best staffing strategy for a major system deployment project. The logical relationship between roles, their conflict of interests and the staffing principles (given in the scenario) must be clearly understood in order to select the right strategy.



Subjects covered

Categories covered include roles relating to: • Service asset and configuration management • Service validation and testing • Release and deployment management • Change evaluation.

Book Section Ref ST 6.4.7.3 – Organizing for service transition – Roles – Service asset and configuration management roles – Configuration analyst ST 6.4.7.4 – Organizing for service transition – Roles – Service asset and configuration management roles – Configuration librarian ST 6.4.8.2 – Organizing for service transition – Roles – Release and deployment management roles – Release and deployment management process manager ST 6.4.9.2 – Organizing for service transition – Roles – Service validation and testing roles – Service validation and testing manager ST 6.4.10.2 – Organizing for service transition – Roles – Change evaluation roles – Change evaluation process manager ST 4.5.6.4 – Service transition processes – Service validation and testing – Triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces – Interfaces ST 4.6.6.4 - Service transition processes – Change evaluation – Triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces – Interfaces

Difficulty Moderate



QUESTION Three Scenario Three

Question Rationale

The question focuses on testing the candidate’s ability to understand the validation and testing (SVT) process and its interface with other service transition processes and service lifecycle stages. In particular it is important to recognize SVT not only supports all of the release and deployment steps within service transition but also interacts with processes within all stages of the service lifecycle.

MOST CORRECT D This is the right answer. Issue #1 is concerned with risk identification and mitigation for service changes. It is the sole responsibility of service transition, with change management, change evaluation and SVT interacting with each other to ascertain change performance through test results, conduct risk assessment, and eventually approve or reject the change to proceed for deployment. Therefore the discussion need not go outside of service transition to develop a resolution. Issue #2 is concerned with the testability of the change and ensuring there is a feasible approach to test the change. This is the responsibility of service design, which should support SVT’s effort to carry out an effective testing of the changes. The discussion therefore should involve service design to mobilize appropriate resources to support SVT. Issue #3 is concerned with the provision of sufficient funding and resources to accommodate effective testing of all changes. It is the responsibility of service strategy to support all lifecycle stages, particularly with service transition, to identify needs and to provision appropriate funding to realize those needs. The discussion should therefore involve all service leads and selected service transition staff to provide input of the requirements.

SECOND BEST C This is the next best answer. This answer is wrong in addressing issue #1, as service transition is responsible for risk identification and mitigation for changes. The discussion need not go outside of service transition to involve service operation staff. For Issue #3 it is correct to involve service strategy, but the issue needs input from all stakeholders across the lifecycle stages to understand the needs and wants. Therefore the meeting should not be just between service strategy and service transition

THIRD BEST B Almost everything is wrong in this answer except that service strategy is involved in issue #3. The approach to address issue #1 is wrong for the same reason as in C. For issue #2, the party to ensure service changes are testable is service design, not the release and deployment staff of service transition.

DISTRACTER A This answer is completely wrong. The approaches to address issues #1 and #2 are wrong for the same reason as in option B. For issue #3 service design can only support it with input to testing environment requirements, but should not be the party to accommodate SVT with funding and resource support to upgrade testing environment.


ITIL SC RCV04 Service validation and testing


Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Level 4 Analysis – The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand



their structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences. Application – This question tests the candidate’s understanding of the input, output and interface of the SVT process, and its relationship to other processes within the lifecycle. By applying this understanding and analysing the scenario the candidate is required to pick the right parties to engage in resolving the change issues described within the scenario.

Subjects covered • SVT inputs (ST 4.5.6.2) • SVT outputs (ST 4.5.6.3) • SVT interface with other lifecycle stages (ST 4.5.6.4)

Book Section Ref ST 4.5.6 - Service transition processes – Service validation and testing – triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces

Difficulty Moderate



QUESTION Four Scenario Four

Question Rationale

This question tests the candidates’ understanding of the strategy, and various aspects of the implementation and application, of request fulfilment practices. The important learning objective here is to show a thorough understanding of the differences between objectives and responsibilities of the request fulfilment and the related processes.

MOST CORRECT (5) A This is the best answer. It addresses all three issues in the scenario effectively. It redirects workload of service requests away from incident management and change management. It reduces all possible channels between users and service providers to a single interface: the service portal operated by the CSD. Finally, it clarifies ownership amongst request fulfilment, incident management and change management with clear segregation of duties.

SECOND BEST (3) C This answer is not as good as A. It creates two different channels between users and service providers, namely the email address for request fulfilment and the CSD hotline for everything else. However, issue #2 in the scenario has not been addressed. It requires the users to put forward the right type of requests to the right channel and that is undesirable from a users’ perspective.

THIRD BEST (1) D This answer has failed to address most of the issues in the scenario. It creates different channels for different request types and continues to confuse the users (issue #2 in the scenario). It divides ownership for processing standard change between change management and request fulfilment in front of the users. It does not attempt to reduce the number of change requests initially sent to change management so it would not help to reduce workload for change management (issue #1 in the scenario).

DISTRACTER (0) B This is the wrong answer. The request fulfilment process is not created to allow users to acquire incident resolution (i.e. workarounds and quick fixes) and perform change implementation themselves. Furthermore, this answer implies these activities would not be logged. It tries to resolve issue #1 through a self-help function by offering the wrong functions through request fulfilment.


ITIL SC: RCV06 Request fulfilment


Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Level 4 Analysis – The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand their structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences. Application – The candidate must apply their knowledge of the request fulfilment process and analyse how it should be implemented to resolve the issues described in the scenario.

Subjects covered

Categories Covered: • Single user interface • Self-help function • Request fulfilment purpose and objectives • Request fulfilment scope • Request fulfilment process activities, methods and techniques • Request fulfilment triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces.

Book Section Ref SO 4.3.1 – Service operation processes – Request fulfilment – Purpose and objectives SO 4.3.2 – Service Operation processes – Request Fulfilment – Scope SO 4.3.4 - Service Operation processes – Request Fulfilment – Policies, principles and basic concepts



SO 4.3.5 – Service Operation processes – Request Fulfilment – Process activities, methods and technique

Difficulty Easy



QUESTION Five Scenario Five

Question Rationale

This question tests the candidates on their understanding of the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) structure of knowledge management (KM), and how the different layers of KM value contribute to the business. The question aims to examine the candidates’ ability to apply the information layer concept into a real-life scenario, and their ability to recognise how knowledge can be created and evolved from the flow of organizing data to generating wisdom.

MOST CORRECT (5) D This describes the service knowledge management system (SKMS) benefits at the highest DIKW level – Wisdom generation. It relates KM to providing insightful information pertaining to making sound business judgements. In the context of mission-critical system upgrades, it provides a long-term solution for mitigating risks, discerning the best implementation strategy and helping the business understand the patterns for success. This is the level of information and value from KM that should be promoted and ultimately achieved for the business.

SECOND BEST (3) A This describes the SKMS benefits at the next level below wisdom – Knowledge generation. It describes all the knowledge required to address the current issues, and the formation of an effective test strategy through the knowledgebase to address on-going challenges. However the benefits stop at the know-how and effective knowledge-sharing, rather than recognizing a pattern for successful change management to becoming organizational wisdom and the capability to manage all future changes.

THIRD BEST (1) B This describes the SKMS benefits at the next level below knowledge – Information generation. It simply focuses on two capabilities to address the problems of past failures, and how the knowledgebase can contribute to providing these capabilities. The benefits described are the point solutions for current issues which do not really help drive the keen interest from the business on KM over time.

DISTRACTER (0) C This simply describes how the SKMS can integrate all discrete data sources within the bank to provide a single repository that eliminates all data inconsistency and redundancy. This is not what the major value of KM is about and will generate limited benefits to address current issues.


ITIL SC: RCV08 Knowledge management


Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Level 4 Analysis – The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand their structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences. Application – The candidate must apply their knowledge of SKMS and their understanding of the DIKW structure for knowledge management to determine the best value statement to acquire the SKMS project approval within the context of the scenario.

Subjects covered

• Articulate the value of the KM process to the business, especially in the context of service transition

• Illustrate the basic information layers of the KM concept using the DIKW structure and discuss relationships between the layers using examples

• The Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to-Wisdom structure • The SKMS; the flow from data to wisdom • KM value to business • KM policies, principles, basic concepts.

Book Section Ref ST 4.7.3 – Service transition processes – Knowledge management – Value to



business ST 4.7.4.2 – Service transition processes – Knowledge management – Policies, principles and basic concepts – The Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to-Wisdom structure ST 4.7.4.3 – Service transition processes – Knowledge management – Policies, principles and basic concepts – The service knowledge management system ST Fig 4.35 –- Service transition processes – Knowledge management – Policies, principles and basic concepts – The flow from data to wisdom

Difficulty Hard



QUESTION Six Scenario Six

Question Rationale

This question focuses on the selection and use of KPIs to support change management in the context of the case study, requiring analysis and judgement in selecting the best option for this particular scenario. The scenario displays the four major issues and/or requirements related to implementing change:

1. The number of incidents due to problems encountered in changes has increased.

2. Many changes overrun in costs and time to implement. 3. Many changes have resulted into a “backed-out” situation due to errors. 4. Some urgent changes have failed to meet the service level requirement.

MOST CORRECT (5) C This is the right answer. All four KPIs correlate well with the four issues or requirements above. They aim at either improving the performance of change management or reducing deficiencies leading to failed changes.

• The first KPI aims to improve the service level of changes particularly for those that are considered urgent for the business

• The second KPI promotes changes to be run on time and within budget

• The third KPI aims to improve quality of changes by reducing problems and consequential incidents

• The fourth KPI aims to reduce significant errors leading to change being backed out.

They are all relevant to the context of the scenario and will help improve the overall change management performance

SECOND BEST (3) B This is the next best answer. Some KPIs are not as relevant as those in the most correct answer. A reduction in the number of incidents caused by change is good but not as good as reducing the number of problems, which implies the cause is determined. The answer about “average time to implement all changes meets SLA target” is a metric and not a KPI and has no supporting evidence in the scenario.

THIRD BEST (1) D Most of this answer is wrong. The first KPI is valid as it addresses the issue of changes going over budget and having delay. However, none of the others are KPIs or relevant to the scenario. The increase in accuracy of prediction for time and cost as a valid KPI has no supporting evidence in the scenario. The others are simply metrics, not KPIs.

DISTRACTER (0) A This answer is wrong. None of these are KPIs they are all metrics. Some of these are valid metrics for change management but none of them are valid KPIs in the context of the scenario.


ITIL SC: RCV02 Change management


Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Level 4 Analysis – The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand their structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences. Application – The candidate must apply knowledge of what distinguishes a KPI from a metric and determine valid KPIs for change management, then analyse and select the appropriate ones based on the context of the scenario.

Subjects covered

Categories covered: • How change management can be effectively measured • Key performance indicators; examples of the types of measures for change in the

context of business goals. Book Section Ref ST 4.2.8 – Service transition processes – Change management – Critical success



factors and key performance indicators Difficulty Easy



QUESTION Seven Scenario Seven

Question Rationale

This question tests the candidates on their understanding of the configuration verification and audit activity, and the identification of a tool’s configuration management system (CMS) functions which are required to enable configuration audit. By structuring the CMS implementation into phases it also tests if the candidate can articulate a logical approach for implementing configuration audit. There are roughly 3 stages to build configuration audit capability from scratch (that is a client without any automated CMS). • Populate the configuration management database (CMDB) with the required

configuration data • Establish the baseline and structure for the audit • Provide the necessary interface, change history and configuration report to

facilitate the audit. The right answer should demonstrate this logical sequence of implementation of CMS functions across different phases.

MOST CORRECT (5) B This is the best answer. The plan given here provides the best logical approach to build capability of configuration audit. • Phase 1 - implement functions that populate the configuration data, and

enable transfer of definitive media library (DML) information to the CMDB • Phase 2 - establish the baseline for the audit through building CI

relationships and setting a configuration baseline for gap discovery • Phase 3 - facilitate the actual configuration audit through automating

CMDB interrogation and reporting and maintaining historic records for tracking changes.

SECOND BEST (3) A This answer has some merit but is not as good as B mainly for two reasons: • In Phase 2 the “Support the update and display of CIs of varying

complexity” function is not an urgent prerequisite for implementing configuration audit given that only 2 functions can be accommodated in each phase. It could improve the precision of the audit but it is not a show-stopper.

• The information captured in the DML is completely omitted in terms of building the initial data in the CMDB for audit.

THIRD BEST (1) C The plan here has several flaws: • In Phase 1 the “Integration with current problem management database” is

not the most urgent pre-requisite for enabling configuration audit • The plan has omitted the integration of DML • In phase 2 the “Support the update and display of CIs of varying

complexity” function is not an urgent pre-requisite for implementing configuration audit

• In phase 3 the “Automatic identification of other affected CIs when any CI is the subject of a RFC” function is not directly related to enabling configuration audit

• No configuration baseline is established in this plan for carrying out the actual audit.

DISTRACTER (0) D This answer is wrong. This plan has all the errors of plan A and, in addition, the flaw of integrating current problem management. There is also a logical error in terms of populating the CMDB with the required data: you cannot implement “Discovery, update and display of hierarchic and networked CI relationships” before you implement “Automatic discovery and loading of IT assets/infrastructure”. The flow of implementation is technically not feasible.


ITIL SC: RCV03 Service asset and configuration management ITIL SC: RCV10 Technology and implementation considerations


Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension



and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Level 4 Analysis – The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand their structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences. Application – Through understanding of configuration verification and audit and the technological considerations for implementing CMS, the candidate needs to articulate the correct approach to implement configuration verification and audit, and to identify the right set of CMS functions that are required to enable configuration verification and audit.

Subjects covered • Illustrate the key process activities of SACM, and discuss the tools, models and deliverables for executing each of these key activities, in particular verification and audit

• Illustrate considerations for implementing technologies in support of the processes within the release, control and validation practice and , in particular, analyse how the configuration management system should be deployed

• Process activities, methods and techniques; verification and audit Book Section Ref ST 4.3.5.6 – Service transition processes – Service asset and configuration

management – Process activities, methods and techniques – Verification and audit ST 7.3 - Technology considerations - Configuration management system

Difficulty Hard



QUESTION Eight Scenario Eight

Question Rationale

This question focuses on the planning of service transition pilots in the context of the case study, requiring analysis and judgement in selecting the best option for this particular scenario.

MOST CORRECT (5) C This is the right answer. The scope of the pilot includes sample user representation from all affected applications and unique infrastructure combinations, without making it into a full roll-out (note that Denmark and Sweden have the same applications and infrastructure, so it is valid to just include users from Denmark). The time extent of the pilot is reasonable, allowing sufficient time for issues to be highlighted, including weekend access. The method of assessing the success of the pilot is balanced, using both incidents to identify any problems and satisfaction surveys involving a balance of stakeholders to assess the quality of the deployment. The pilot will be rolled back if required, in line with the ITIL advice, and in line with the policy stated in the scenario. It will then be reviewed before commencing full roll-out, subject to approval.

SECOND BEST (3) B There is some merit in this answer. Denmark and Sweden have the same applications and infrastructure, so it is valid just to include users from Sweden. However, the scope of the pilot includes all users from Sweden instead of a sample, making this into a full roll-out rather than a pilot for Sweden. The time extent (5 consecutive workdays from Monday to Friday) of the pilot falls short of covering weekend access as described in the scenario. The method of assessing the success of the pilot is balanced, using both incidents to identify any problems and satisfaction surveys involving a balance of stakeholders. The pilot will be rolled back if required, in line with the ITIL advice, and in line with the policy stated in the scenario which identifies situations when a roll-back is necessary. It will then be reviewed before commencing full roll-out, subject to approval.

THIRD BEST (1) D There is little merit in this answer. The scope of the pilot is acceptable as it includes sample user representation from all affected applications and unique infrastructure combinations, without making it into a full roll-out. The time extent of the pilot is reasonable, allowing sufficient time for issues to be highlighted, however the pilot will be run using a pre-defined sample of transactions, which will not cover all activities carried out by users. This may miss key transactions that use the new functionality. The pilot will only be rolled back if customers are not satisfied, which (1) is inconsistent with the policy stated in the scenario and (2) virtually makes this a limited roll-out to the USA and Sweden, and not a pilot.

DISTRACTER (0) A This is the wrong answer. The scope of the pilot is all users in Sweden and Denmark, which is a roll-out, not a pilot. The time extent relies on SLA achievements, which is a roll-out with a back-out plan, not a pilot. There is no consideration given to the policy stated in the scenario regarding rolling back the pilot if required. The error is compounded by using the monthly service review to review ‘pilot’ achievements, instead of at the end of the pilot. Roll-out of all applications to all remaining users is wrong since only half of the applications were covered in the pilot. All incidents and problems should be reviewed, not just open incidents and problems.


ITIL SC: RCV05 Release and deployment management


Level 3 Applying – Use ideas, principles and theories in new, particular and concrete situations. Behavioural tasks at this level involve both knowing and comprehension and might include choosing appropriate procedures, applying principles, using an approach or identifying the selection of options. Level 4 Analysis – The ability to use the practices and concepts in a situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Can apply what is learned in the classroom in workplace situations. Can separate concepts into component parts to understand



their structure and can distinguish between facts and inferences. Application – The candidate must apply their knowledge of release and deployment management process activities, specifically those pertinent to pilots, and analyse the scenario objectives, stated policy and requirements to determine the best approach.

Subjects covered

• The overall approach for release and deployment planning. Describe clear planning considerations, particularly relative to pilots

• Release and deployment planning. Book Section Ref ST 4.4.5.1 – Service transition processes – Release and deployment management –

Process activities, methods and techniques – Release and deployment planning (Planning of pilots)

Difficulty Moderate

Documents

ITIL® RCV Sample Exam #2