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Blog posted by: Martin Waters, Head of Product Development for Service Management, QA, 26 April 2017.

At the start of teaching of ITIL Practitioner I tell candidates that the guidance will become the ‘most thumbed book’ in their arsenal. By the time they finish their training, they agree universally.

The response to ITIL Practitioner has been resoundingly positive in our industry because it has filled a gap within the framework. Previously, while it wasn’t a huge void, there was a sense that once you’d completed your certifications, it was sometimes challenging to know where to start and really get your hands dirty. ITIL Practitioner has changed this and helps candidates to ensure that ITIL concepts can be more easily applied to day-to-day practice.

A toolkit for success

The ITIL Practitioner toolkit has probably been the most valued element by my candidates as it’s the go-to starting point when they leave the training room and go back into their organization. People now feel they don’t have to start from scratch as there’s a list of questions that help you make that first assessment and work out where to begin. Before, some delegates struggled to see the right path and sometimes asked: “what do I do now?”

Alongside the toolkit, the guidance on Continual Service Improvement (CSI) has really resonated with candidates because, while it’s broadly common sense, it’s the thing that we’re all very good at not doing.

Overwhelmingly, I hear delegates say they’re struck by the level of discipline that’s recommended in the guidance, but armed with the six stages in the CSI approach they can see how to tackle CSI and make sure they are always improving.

A versatile approach

Another reason why ITIL Practitioner has been so positively received is its versatility.

I often hear candidates say: “we only use DevOps or Agile or ITIL” but, in reality, we probably all use a combination. The beauty of ITIL Practitioner is that it recognizes this practicality and integrates with other approaches. For instance, guiding principles like “Progress Iteratively” gel very well with Agile as it breaks things down into smaller tasks allowing quicker delivery of incremental service improvement to an organization.

Seeing delegates switch on to this versatility and the understanding of how ITIL Practitioner allows them to embrace all of these elements is really powerful.

Allowing ownership

I think the principal reason ITIL Practitioner resonates with today’s ITSM professionals is that it gives delegates confidence to go back into their business and really extract better value when applying ITIL. We’re all stretched for time, and so being enabled through the toolkit to be able to apply service improvement quicker is making a huge difference in many an organization.

In fact, one of my candidates said that because of their ITIL Practitioner training, they feel they can ‘own’ CSI within their organization. They are now properly equipped to do what’s expected of them and ensure CSI is relevant. I’m not sure that prior to ITIL Practitioner they would’ve necessarily felt this way.

More broadly, ITIL Practitioner has really aided the market and sparked a new thirst for service management. It’s had a positive impact on the overall best practice industry and I look forward to seeing the difference it makes longer term.

In my experience and, more importantly, from what my delegates have said, ITIL Practitioner is a bedrock of guidance that will stand the test of time.