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AXELOS announces ITIL® Practitioner Architects Team

AXELOS has formed a global team of IT Service Management (ITSM) professionals to develop the new ITIL Practitioner qualification.

The Practitioner Architects Team is leading the development of the syllabus and exam questions for the new qualification, which will be available globally by the end of 2015, as well as authoring additional guidance to support the qualification. ITIL Practitioner will equip ITSM professionals with skills to successfully adopt and adapt ITIL to improve the Service Management capabilities in line with their organizations’ business goals.

The members of the team - Kevin Behr, Karen Ferris, Lou Hunnebeck, Barclay Rae, Stuart Rance and Paul Wilkinson - are bringing in years of experience from all aspects of ITSM within organizations of all sizes, industries and geographies to ensure the qualification, sitting alongside the existing qualification levels of Foundation, Intermediate, Expert and Master, meets the real needs of practitioners world-wide.

Kaimar Karu, AXELOS Head of ITSM, said: “ITIL Practitioner is being developed to help organizations and individuals increase the value they obtain from using ITIL by offering practical guidance on and testing the skills of applying the ITIL guidance in the context of a specific organization, to address relevant business challenges in a structured manner.

“The Practitioner Architects Team is playing a crucial role in the development of the new qualification, and we are very excited to be working with such a talented group of professionals. The team members are all highly skilled and recognized as some of the leading experts in the industry. Together they will help to ensure that ITIL Practitioner improves the capability of individuals throughout a business to adopt and adapt ITIL in their day to day roles.”

He added: “We also want this to be a truly international, practitioner-focused initiative. We are engaging the global ITSM community and seeking the views of practitioners concerning the challenges they face and the skills they need to develop to become even better in ITSM. We are encouraging ITSM professionals to send in examples of their good practice in all areas of the syllabus to make sure the common challenges are addressed.”

The Team

Kevin Behr (US)
Kevin is one of the authors of the recent bestseller The Phoenix Project as well as the well-known practical approach to ITSM titled The Visible Ops. Kevin has more than 25 years of IT management experience and is a trusted mentor and advisor to CEOs and CIOs around the world, as well as a sought-after common sense focused speaker at events. He has held the post of CTO and CIO at companies ranging from public corporations to technology start-ups.

He said: "It's about time we had more guidance for continual improvement in service management and on the practical side of ITIL. I am energized by the new focus this team will bring to both Improvement as a practice, making this a part of practitioners' day-to-day work, and how it will help new practices to emerge, thereby ensuring ITIL continues to evolve and deliver value to the modern-day business."

Karen Ferris (AU)
Karen Ferris is a seasoned professional in ITSM and an expert in the application of best practice frameworks such as ITIL across a range of industries. In 2014 she was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by itSMF Australia in recognition of her contribution to the industry.

She said: “I support the Practitioner certification initiative as I believe it addresses the gap that has existed and been talked about for a long time. ITIL Foundation gives a good overview of the ITIL Service Lifecycle but doesn’t equip the practitioner back in the workplace. This course and associated certification will enable the practitioner to determine the current situation and therefore decide where to start on the improvement journey. It is imperative that the practitioner undertakes the improvements that are most beneficial to the business and this course will provide practical guidance on how to do this.”

Lou Hunnebeck (US)
Lou is an ITIL Expert with over 30 years’ experience in service industries, coming to ITSM from a background of process consulting, training and ITSM systems consulting. She served as the author of the ITIL Service Design publication, 2011 Edition, the QA team for the 2007 Edition and she is on the Senior Examination Panel for ITIL. Lou has led global teams in best practice and methodology design, served domestic and international clients in financial, healthcare, manufacturing, technical, government, military and other sectors and is a regular speaker at ITSM and related industry events.

She said: “Perhaps selfishly, I wanted to help make sure that this qualification delivers actual value to the community, which is why I agreed to participate in this project. And I hope that many others in the community will share their thoughts and provide their guidance along the way to get us all the best results. After all, if you’re not part of the solution!”

Barclay Rae (UK)
Barclay has worked as a management consultant since the early 1990s, as well as owned and been involved in running consultancy and IP-based organizations. His focus is on helping individuals and organizations with improvement initiatives, regardless of the tools or the methodology. His goal is to keep developing new, improved approaches and ways of delivery.

He said: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to the new Practitioner qualification - I think this is a positive and practical step towards a contemporary and practically effective education programme the industry is crying out for. ITIL can only ever be a part of any successful change programme and this qualification should provide individuals and organizations with clear guidance on what elements are required.”

Stuart Rance (UK)
Stuart has been providing ITSM and information security management services to clients across the world for many years, and has written several books on ITSM.

He said: “My initial reaction, like that of many other people, was that there really isn’t a need for yet another ITIL exam, but then I spent a bit of time studying the announcement and trying to understand why AXELOS have launched this new exam, and I actually think it makes a lot of sense. The new ITIL Practitioner qualification will be based on continual service improvement, which, in my opinion has been a sadly underused part of ITIL up to now. I encourage you to offer your input to AXELOS, and let them know what you think should be included in this new qualification.”

Paul Wilkinson (NL)
Paul has been involved in the IT industry for more than 30 years and has a broad background in IT operations, IT management and product innovation and development. He was an ITIL V2 author and a member of the ITIL V3 advisory group.

He said: “The practitioner initiative is a great addition to the qualification scheme, helping translate theory into practice and ultimately knowledge into results. Obviously it won't be aimed at solving all the practical issues but will give people some solid skills on taking the next step on their ITSM journey.”

AXELOS is hosting webinars to discuss ITIL Practitioner on the 28th May 2015. The first webinar is at 10:00 UK time, the second at 09:00 Pacific time. Further information and registration details can be found on the AXELOS website via links provided below:

To get involved with this initiative, get in touch with AXELOS by sending an email to Ask@AXELOS.com.

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