The ITIL 4 Practice Guides

The ITIL 4 Practice Guides

ITIL 4 might have given us the impression that actual guidance on practices (previously know as ITSM processes) is missing.

If you look at the foundation material, some of the most important ones are mentioned, like Incident Management, Problem Management and Change Enablement. However, there are no flowcharts, value streams or any other documentation on how these practices should be implemented and executed.

Looking at the advanced courses and materials, I faced the same situation. Different practices are mentioned and stressed in different modules, but no actual guidance or details.

If you remember ITIL 3, we had clear process maps for each process. Those were quite valuable to most organizations, as they acted as a common baseline for individual process definitions. They were industry standards and well acknowledged representations of best practices.

Now, with ITIL 4, we have much more flexibility. We are free to design our own value streams, allowing us to fully concentrate on the customer / consumer value they are supposed to facilitate. But too much flexibility can be a challenge as well, especially, if an organization does not have too much routine in defining processes and practices.

Luckily, PeopleCert responded to the needs of the Service Management world and presented the official ITIL 4 Practice Guides, a set of documentations for each individual practice, including all the details one might need. Please note that, you need an active PeopleCert Plus Subscription, which is included in our ITIL 4 training packages. Otherwise, you can get it individually for EUR 121 / year directly from PeopleCert or at a discounted EUR 100 / year with our partner pricing (believe me, it is absolutely worth it).

Why do you need the Practice Guides?

1. They give you a concise and practical overview for all ITIL 4 Practices
2. They are the best starting point when you look into implementing ITIL 4 and have no idea where to start
3. They provide a common language, applicable in any industry
4. And last but not least, they make your life easier, as you don’t need to start from scratch (applying the ITIL 4 Guiding Principle “Start where you are”)

PS: please note that PeopleCert strongly states that the Practice Guides act as a helpful starting point, they are recommendations, but they are not a “must follow” and they are not prescriptive. Apply them to your own specific context and always keep the Seven Guiding Principles in mind while doing so:

1. Focus on value
2. Start where you are
3. Progress iteratively with feedback
4. Collaborate and promote visibility
5. Think and work holistically
6. Keep it simple and practical
7. Optimize and automate

Where to find the ITIL 4 Practice Guides?

1. Login in with your PeopleCert account at https://www.peoplecert.org/ or create a new account
2. Make sure, that your PeopleCert Plus Membership is active
3. Navigate to “My Ressources” and select “Library”. You can also use this link https://www.peoplecert.org/MyResources/library
4. In the filters set the following
   1. Type = Official Practice Guide
   2. Certififcate = ITIL 4 Practice
   3. Language = select your preference
   4. Look up your desired Practice Guide and click “Learn more”
   5. This will lead you to the overview
   6. Now click “Read now” to open PeopleCerts ebook tool, where you can read everything
   7. There is an appa vailable for offline reaqding as well. You can reach it by clicking on the three dots in the right upper corner

What do they contain?

Unfortunately, I cannot go into details here as they are the property of PeopleCert and you would need to buy their subscription first. Furthermore, it would make this article a 500 page document, which would be quite unreadable.

So, here just a summary of sections you will find in those much awaited Practice Guides:

• Most common PSFs (Practice Success Factors)
• Related example KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
• An overview to which Service Value Chain activity it contributes most
• An example flowchart (probably the thing we have missed most since ITIL v3)
• Details on how the practice should consider the 4 Dimensions of Service Management (VOIP = Value streams & processes, Organization & people, Information & technology, Partners & suppliers)

Conclusion

The ITIL 4 Practice Guides are a “must read” for all ITIL 4 enthusiasts (like myself), early adopters and practitioners.
They provide a great overview and guidance, allowing organizations in any industry to easily adopt them.

In case you want to dive deeper into this topic, check out our ITIL 4 Foundation and ITIL 4 Managing Professional training offering.

If you have any additional question or if you are looking for further discussions on this topic, please feel free to leave us a comment, reach us on [email protected] or simply contact us!