ITIL V3 Release, Control and Validation (RCV) Certification Program

Course Objectives:

Through a series of lectures designed at achieving a clear understanding of the ITIL Best Practice lifecycle approach and through various exercises, assignments and discussions, participants will gain the necessary knowledge enabling them to capture:

• Service Management as a Practice
• Processes across the Service Lifecycle pertaining to the capability of Release, Control and Validation management
• Change management as a capability to realise successful service transition
• Service validation and testing as a capability to assure the integrity and the quality of service transition
• Service asset and configuration management as a capability to monitor the state of service transition
• Knowledge management as part of enhancing the on-going management decision support and service delivery capability
• Service request fulfillment and evaluation to assure meeting committed service level performance
• Release Control and Validation process roles and responsibilities
• Technology and Implementation Considerations
• Challenges, Critical Success Factors and risks

Course Audience:

The target group of the ITIL Expert Qualification Release Control and Validation (RCV) is:

• Individuals who have attained the V3 ITIL Foundation certificate in Service Management, or the V2 Foundation plus the V3 Foundation Bridge certificate and who wish to advance to higher level ITIL certifications
• Individuals who require a deep understanding of ITIL Certificate in Release, Control and Validation processes and how it may be used to enhance the quality of IT service support within an organization
• IT professionals that are working within an organization that has adopted and adapted ITIL who need to be informed about and thereafter contribute to an ongoing service improvement program
• Operational staff involved in Change Management, Release and Deployment Management, Service Validation and Testing, Service Asset and Configuration Management, Request Fulfillment, Service Evaluation and Knowledge Management, who wish to enhance their role based capabilities.
• This may include but is not limited to, IT professionals, business managers and business process owners.

Course PreRequisites:

Individuals who have attained and have a proof of one of the following certifications:

• V3 ITIL® Foundation certificate in Service Management; OR
• V2 Foundation plus the V3 Foundation Bridge certificate;

At least 30 contact hours of study with an accredited training provider or accredited e-learning provider for this syllabus, as part of a formal, approved training course/scheme.

It is also strongly recommended that course participants:

• "Demonstrate familiarity with IT terminology and understand the context of Release, Control and Validation management in their own business environment
• Have some experience of working in a service management capacity within a service provider environment, with responsibility relating to at least one of the following service management processes:
  • Change management
  • Release management
  • Configuration management
  • Service evaluation and quality assurance
  • Knowledge management
  • Service validation and testing

It is strongly recommended that candidates read the ITIL Service Lifecycle core publications in advance of attending training for the certification, and in particular the Service Transition and Service Operation books.

Course Outline:

Introduction

This module introduces the candidate to the concepts and terminology of the Service Lifecycle and the role of RCV within the Lifecycle, where the course participants will have the ability to capture, understand and describe:

• the concept of Service Management as a practice
• the concept of Service, its value proposition and composition
• the functions and process across the Lifecycle
• the role of Processes in the Service Lifecycle
• how Service Management creates business value
• how the processes within the Release, Control and Validation curriculum supports the Service Lifecycle

Change Management

This module covers the change management process, its components and deliverables, where the candidates will be able to understand, describe, identify, demonstrate, apply, distinguish, produce, decide or analyze:

• the purpose, goal and objectives of the change management process and describe its practical application within a business environment
• the scope of the change management process
• the business value of change management and demonstrate some practical examples in real-life situation
• change management policies, and its design and planning considerations
• types of change request and describe them using examples by Service Lifecycle stage
• typical activities of managing changes and describe workflow of processing different types of change requests
• the methods and techniques associated with each major change management activity
• the change management process triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces with other processes
• how change management can be effectively measured, and list example of types of metrics and their applications
• typical change management activities that may be performed on a day-to-day basis during the Service Operation Lifecycle stage
• the relationship between Continual Service Improvement and organizational change

Service Asset and Configuration Management

This module covers the Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM) process, its components and deliverables, where the candidates will be able to understand, describe, identify, demonstrate, apply, distinguish, produce, decide or analyze:

• the purpose of the SACM process and the goal of configuration management
• the scope of asset management and configuration management
• the business value of SACM process and how it supports the execution of other processes
• the SACM policies and basic concepts, and be able to distinguish various types of Configuration Item (CI)
• the use of a configuration management system (CMS), and its major components, in supporting the effective execution of SACM process
• the key SACM process activities of SACM, and describe the tools, activity model and deliverables for executing each of these key activities
• the considerations for retaining CMS back-up and historical data for business purposes
• how the SACM process can be effectively measured, and list example of types of metric and their application
• typical configuration management activities that may be performed on a day to day basis by Service Operation.

Service Validation and Testing

This module covers the Service Validation and Testing (SVT) process, its components and deliverables where the candidates will be able to understand, describe, identify, demonstrate, apply, distinguish, produce, decide or analyze:

• the purpose, goal and objectives of the SVT process
• the scope of the SVT process
• how policies can drive and support the execution of the SVT process, and describe practical examples of such policies
• various test models, understand their objectives and test conditions
• examples of validation condition
• various validation and testing perspectives, understand each of their purposes and the stakeholder groups’ requirements to be addressed
• the use of test levels and test models to help with building quality service deliverables during the early stage of the service development Lifecycle
• the key activities of the SVT process, and understand the underlying method and techniques in performing each step
• the SVT process triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces with other processes
• the practices of maintaining test data and test environments in respect of changing test requirements
• how the SVT processes can be measured in terms of business value contribution and internal efficiency, and list examples of possible metrics

Release and Deployment Management

This module covers the Release and Deployment Management (RDM) process, its components and deliverables where the candidates will be able to understand, describe, identify, demonstrate, apply, distinguish, produce, decide or analyze:

• the purpose, goal, objectives and scope of the RDM process
• the business value of the RDM process
• the concept of Release Unit, and distinguish and apply various Release Design options and considerations
• the overall approach for release and deployment planning. Describe clear planning considerations such as pass/fail criteria. Release build and test, pilots, deployment, logistics, delivery and financial
• the approach for developing the detailed implementation plan for release deployment
• the key steps for performing the actual transfer, deployment and retirement, verifying deployment and providing Early Life support after deploying the new release
• the RDM process triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces with other processes
• how information pertaining to service deployment should be recorded and maintained
• the challenges, risks and critical success factors pertaining to release and deployment management

Request Fulfillment

This module covers the Request Fulfillment process, its components and deliverables where the candidates will be able to understand, describe, identify, demonstrate, apply, distinguish, produce, decide or analyze:

• the purpose and scope of the request fulfillment process
• how Request Fulfillment may help to establish a self-help service practice within an organization. Demonstrate examples of service requests that can be offered as standard services
• the difference between Request Fulfillment and Incident Management and therefore how they may be handled differently
• the relationship between Request Fulfillment and Release Management, and how they interact with SACM process to handle pre-defined release
• some of the challenges, risk and critical success factors pertaining to Request Fulfillment

Service Evaluation

This module covers the Service Evaluation process, its components and deliverables where the candidates will be able to understand, describe, identify, demonstrate, apply, distinguish, produce, decide or analyze:

• the purpose, goal, objectives and scope of the service evaluation process
• the terminologies used for the service evaluation process and demonstrate typical evaluation workflow
• the intended effect and unintended effect of a change, and apply the factors for evaluating the effectiveness of a service design and changes
• the evaluation of predicted service performance and actual performance to risk management and demonstrate how it could impact the course of actions for the overall service design / change evaluation
• some of the challenges pertaining to Service Evaluation

Knowledge Management

This module covers the Knowledge Management (KM) process, its components and deliverables where the candidates will be able to understand, describe, identify, demonstrate, apply, distinguish, produce, decide or analyze:

• the purpose, goal, objectives and scope of the KM process
• the business value of the KM process, especially in the context of service transition, and demonstrate the benefits of deploying a Service Knowledge Management System using real-life examples
• the basic layers of the KM concept using the DIKW structure, demonstrate relationships between the layers using examples
• what constitutes an effective KM strategy, and apply practical techniques for enabling knowledge transfer
• effective data and information management for successful knowledge management, and describe its key steps
• the stakeholder groups within the IT service management organization whose support is needed for effective knowledge management, and understand why their commitment and support are critical
• various perspectives in measuring the value contribution of KM, and describe some practical metrics for each of these perspectives
• the relationship between Continual Service Improvement and knowledge management

Service Release, Control and Validation Roles and Responsibilities

This module covers how Service roles and responsibilities contribute to Service Release, Control and Validation. Specifically, based on a given service scenario where the candidates will be able to understand, describe, identify, demonstrate, apply, distinguish, produce, decide or analyze:

• the key roles / functions responsible for executing each process step as related to:
  • Change Management
  • Service Asset and Configuration Management
  • Service Validation and Testing
  • Release and Deployment
  • Request Fulfillment
  • Service Performance and Risk Evaluation
  • Service Knowledge Management

Technology and Implementation Considerations

This module covers technology implementation as part of implementing service management process capabilities, and what special technology functions and features are related to Release, Control and Validation practices; where the candidates will be able to understand, describe, identify, demonstrate, apply, distinguish, produce, decide or analyze:

• the list of generic requirements for ITSM technology for implementing processes
• the evaluation criteria for technology and tooling for process implementation
• the practices for process implementation which include:
  • Managing change in operations
  • Service operation and project management
  • Assessing and managing risk in service operation
  • Operational staff in service design and transition
• the challenges, critical success factors and risks related to implementing practices and processes
• how to plan and implement Service Management technologies
• the technology considerations for implementing the following processes and activities:
  • Collaboration for process execution
  • Configuration Management
  • Knowledge Management
• the Deming Cycle and apply its concept to perform self-monitoring and self-improving for all processes on a continual basis

Summary, Exam Preparation and Directed Studies

This module summarizes the material covered in the previous modules and prepares candidates for the examination through the review and practice of a mock examination. The Examination is comprised of eight (8) multiple choice, scenario-based, gradient scored questions. The standard duration of the exam is Maximum 90 minutes.

Program Material

This training program includes the following as reference documentation:

• Program slide presentation
• Syllabus document
• ITIL V3 acronyms and glossary
• Sample examination questions and answers

Simulation and practical application

We provide the students with real life experiences; we use the client organization as “Case study” example for the purpose of discussion to show the value of using best practice. We integrate group exercises and sample exam questions to simulate and practice the subject matter.