ITIL V3 Intermediate

After completing the ITIL V3 Foundation Level, I've been very excited to answer my "Now What?" question - setting a goal towards ITIL V3 Intermediate Level.

The ITIL V3 Intermediate has 2 streams namely the Lifecycle Stream and the Capabilities Stream. The Lifecycle Stream focuses on the specific Lifecycle phase, principles and processes while the Capability Stream are basically from V2 but broader in scope and process implementation

Intermediate Lifecycle Stream

• Service Strategy
• Service Design
• Service Transition
• Service Operation, and
• Continual Service Improvement.

Intermediate Capability Stream

• Operational Support and Analysis (OS&A). Subjects covered inc. Event, Incident, Request, Problem, Access, Service Desk, Technical, IT Ops and Application Management
• Service Offerings and Agreements (SO&A). Subjects covered inc. Portfolio, Service Level, Service Catalogue, Demand, Supplier and Financial Management
• Release, Control and Validation (RC&V). Subjects covered inc. Change, Release & Deployment, Validation & Testing, Service Asset & Configuration, Knowledge, Request Management and Service Evaluation
• Planning, Protection and Optimization (PP&O). Subjects covered inc. Capacity, Availability, Continuity, Security, Demand and Risk Management.

So the question in mind now is which Stream should I take?
I guess you could start with the ones most relevant with your present work or with the areas you would like to expand your knowledge to. I could say IMO that the Capability Stream is much more enjoyable since they are most practical while the Lifecycle Stream is more of in the management aspects. Whether you'd go for the entire Lifecycle or Capability Stream is up to you or you could also have a combination of both. The Credit profiler could help you choose from the Expert Option routes available:

http://www.itil-officialsite.com/itilmapping/v2/map.asp

Btw, you'd be needing at least 22 points to become an ITIL V3 Expert Level. 2 points is awarded for the completion of the Foundation certification. 3 points is awarded per Lifecycle Module and 4 points is awarded for every Capability Module.

Next is what are the requirements to become eligible for an examination?

• ITIL V3 Foundation Certificate
• Completion of the training Module/s from an Accredited Training Organization (ATO) e-Learning included.
  

The exam type is 8 complex multiple choice and scenario based exam with a maximum of 120 minutes since the exam is not our native language.

So where do I look for an Accredited Training Organization here in the Philippines?
After some googling around, I found out that ouch! There is none here in the Philippines. I guess all of the training being offered around here is only for the Foundation Level. So its either you go out of the country to get a training OR via an e-Learning based on the syllabus.

With the e-Learning option, I came across Mountainview (http://www.mountainview.ca/) which offers accredited Distance eLearning and CBT (Computer Based Training). I have sent an inquiry and they said that the training with CBT would also make you eligible to take the exam. I guess I'll just take this path since its self-paced and would not requireme me to travel abroad just for a training.

Another site that I came across with is The Art of Service (http://theartofservice.com/). This has lots of reference materials and toolkits since as of current writing, there are only a handful of reference materials available for the V3 version.


"Now What?"