ITIL-4-Foundation ITIL 4 Foundation Exam Questions and Answers

“Service desk staff require training and competency across a number of broad technical and business areas. In particular, they need to demonstrate excellent customer service skills such as empathy, incident analysis and prioritization, effective communication, and emotional intelligence.

https://www.servicedeskinstitute.com/the-case-for-itil4-foundation-service-desk-analyst-training/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CService%20desk%20staff%20require%20training,effective%20communication%2C%20and%20emotional%20intelligence.

A set of interconnected activities that an organization performs to deliver a valuable product or service to its consumers and to facilitate value realization

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-value-system/#:~:text=The%20key%20inputs%20to%20the,or%20otherwise%20improve%20the%20organization.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

In ITIL 4, stakeholders are individuals or organizations that have an interest in the service, or may be affected by its activities, objectives, or outcomes. Among these, customers are identified as the primary, key stakeholder group for a service provider because:

Customers define the requirements for services.

They determine what is considered value and which outcomes they want to achieve.

Services are specifically designed, delivered, and improved to meet customer needs and expectations.

Therefore, effective cooperation and collaboration with customers is essential for successful service management and value co-creation. While suppliers, relationship managers, and developers are important parties in service delivery, ITIL 4 emphasizes customers as the key stakeholder group with whom service providers must actively cooperate.

Relevant ITIL 4 Foundation references:

Key concepts of service management (stakeholders, customers, users, sponsors).

Discussions of value co-creation and the importance of understanding customer needs and outcomes.

In ITIL 4, the ‘improve’ value chain activity is part of the service value chain within the service value system. Its official purpose is to ensure continual improvement of products, services, and practices across all value chain activities and the four dimensions of service management.

Option A matches the core wording of this purpose:

“Ensure the continual improvement of practices across all value chain activities.”

Even though the full ITIL statement also mentions products, services, and the four dimensions of service management, this option is the only one that directly reflects the continual improvement focus of the improve activity across the value chain.

Why the other options are not correct:

B. Ensure services continually meet expectations for quality, costs, and time to marketThis is more aligned with design and transition, obtain/build, and deliver and support, which focus on planning, building, and delivering services that meet agreed requirements, costs, and time constraints.

C. Ensure a shared understanding of the improvement direction for services across the organizationThis sounds closer to guiding principles or governance, and to some aspects of service level management and continual improvement planning, but it is not the formal purpose statement of the improve value chain activity.

D. Ensure continual engagement and good relationships with all stakeholdersThis aligns strongly with the engage value chain activity, whose purpose is about understanding stakeholder needs, ensuring transparency, and maintaining relationships.

Therefore, A is the correct option because it directly reflects the official purpose of the ‘improve’ value chain activity in ITIL 4.

References (ITIL 4 Foundation):

ITIL® Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition – Service Value System, Service Value Chain – Improve activity (purpose)

ITIL® Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition – Overview of service value chain activities

In ITIL 4 terminology, a problem is defined as the cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents. Incident management deals with restoring service as quickly as possible, while problem management focuses on finding and addressing the underlying causes so that incidents do not recur.

A problem is therefore directly associated with the cause behind one or more incidents, matching the wording in the sentence.

A known error is a problem that has been analyzed and has a documented root cause and workaround; it is not simply “the cause or potential cause” but a further state of a problem.

A change is the addition, modification, or removal of anything that could have a direct or indirect effect on services, not specifically the cause of incidents.

An event is any change of state that has significance for the management of a service or other configuration item; again, not defined as the cause of incidents.

Because ITIL 4 explicitly associates the phrase “cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents” with problem, the correct answer is D.

Organizations maximize co-creation of value with their customers by facilitating the outcomes they want to achieve. The four dimensions of service management have shown that a holistic approach is the best way for an organization to:

Achieve its goals in delivering quality and cost effective services

Meet the needs of its customers

Satisfy the requirements of its stakeholders

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-value-system/

In ITIL 4, the purpose of the information security management practice is to:

Protect the organization’s information by ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, and also covering aspects such as authentication, non-repudiation, and reliability.

Authentication ensures that users or systems are who they claim to be.

Non-repudiation ensures that an action or transaction cannot later be denied by the party that performed it.

These are core topics within information security controls and are explicitly associated with the information security management practice.

Why the other options are incorrect:

Change enablement – Focuses on ensuring that changes are properly assessed, authorized, and managed to maximize value and reduce risk; it does not specifically manage authentication or non-repudiation.

Service configuration management – Ensures that accurate and reliable information about configuration items (CIs) and their relationships is available; it is not primarily about security controls like authentication and non-repudiation.

IT asset management – Manages IT assets to maximize value and control costs and risks; again, not about authentication or non-repudiation as a primary purpose.

Therefore, the practice whose purpose includes managing authentication and non-repudiation is information security management.

In ITIL 4, “user” is a specific stakeholder role in the context of service management.

A user is defined as:

The role that uses services.

This is distinct from other roles involved in service relationships:

A customer is typically the person or role who defines the requirements for a service and/or authorizes the budget for its consumption.

A sponsor is the person or role that authorizes the funding for service consumption.

Governance roles (such as senior management or a board) are those who direct and control the organization.

Looking at the options:

A. The role that directs and controls an organizationThis describes governance or management roles, not the user role.

B. The role that uses services ✅This exactly matches the ITIL 4 definition of a user.

C. The role that authorizes budget for service consumptionThis better matches a customer or sponsor, not a user.

D. The role that defines the requirements for a serviceThis also aligns with the customer role.

Therefore, according to ITIL 4 terminology, a user is:

The role that uses services.

So the correct answer is B.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract (Aligned with ITIL 4 Foundation Study Guide)

The correct answer is IT asset management, because its core purpose directly addresses the management of financially valuable assets that support the delivery of IT services.

In ITIL 4, the purpose of the IT asset management practice is to:

ensure that the organization’s IT assets are properly managed throughout their lifecycle

ensure that assets provide value

control the financial, legal, and operational risks associated with IT assets

maximize the value derived from those assets

ITIL defines an IT asset as any financially valuable component that contributes to the delivery of an IT service.

This includes hardware, software, networks, cloud resources, licenses, and other items that have financial value and support service delivery.

This wording directly matches the question, making A. IT asset management the correct choice.

Why the other options are incorrect:

B. Deployment management: Concerned with moving new or changed components into live environments; not focused on financial value or asset lifecycle.

C. Continual improvement: Focuses on ongoing enhancement of products, services, and practices; not about managing financially valuable components.

D. Monitoring and event management: Focuses on identifying events and ensuring services are observed for normal and abnormal conditions; not asset-focused.

References (Aligned with ITIL 4 Foundation Concepts)

ITIL 4 Foundation: Practice purpose of IT Asset Management

Definition of IT asset as a financially valuable component supporting IT service delivery

ITIL 4 Foundation: Practice summaries for the 15 ITIL practices

The purpose of the release management practice is to make new and changed services and features available for use.

Release: A version of a service or other configuration item, or a collection of configuration items, that is made available for use.

https://wiki.process-symphony.com.au/framework/lifecycle/process/release-management-itil-4/

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

In ITIL 4, problem management focuses on identifying and managing the underlying causes of incidents. Its purpose is described as reducing both the likelihood and impact of incidents by:

Identifying actual and potential causes of incidents (problems).

Managing workarounds and known errors so that the impact of incidents is minimized until a permanent solution can be implemented.

A workaround is a way of reducing or eliminating the impact of an incident or problem when a full resolution is not yet available. A known error is a problem that has a documented cause and either a workaround or a permanent solution identified.

Therefore, the missing word in the sentence is “workarounds”, making D the correct answer.

Why the other options are incorrect:

Events are handled primarily by the monitoring and event management practice.

Changes are controlled through the change enablement practice.

Configuration items are managed by the service configuration management practice.

Relevant ITIL 4 Foundation references:

Problem management practice: purpose, definitions of problem, workaround, and known error.

The Obtain/Build activity is responsible for ensuring that all service components are available when and where needed, and that they meet the agreed specifications.

https://www.beyond20.com/blog/what-is-the-itil-4-service-value-chain/#:~:text=The%20Obtain%2FBuild%20activity%20is,they%20meet%20the%20agreed%20specifications.

In ITIL 4, the IT asset management practice is concerned with managing IT assets so that their value is maximized, and financial, legal, and operational risks are controlled. An IT asset is defined as any financially valuable component that can contribute to the delivery of a service.

The purpose of IT asset management includes:

Making sure IT assets are used effectively

Ensuring that IT assets are accounted for and controlled

Supporting decision-making about purchase, re-use, retirement, and disposal of IT assets

This matches option B exactly:

“Supporting decision-making about purchase, re-use, retirement, and disposal of assets.”

Why the other options are not correct:

A. Moving assets to live or other environments for testing or stagingThis is part of deployment management, whose purpose is to move new or changed components to live or test environments.

C. Making new and changed assets available for useThis relates more to release management and deployment management — getting releases into use and making them available to customers and users.

D. Providing information on how assets are configured and the relationships between themThis is the core of service configuration management, which focuses on configuration items, their attributes, and relationships in configuration records (often stored in a CMDB or CMIS).

Therefore, B is correct because it reflects the core decision-support and lifecycle focus of IT asset management.

References (ITIL 4 Foundation):

ITIL® Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition – Practice guide overview, IT Asset Management (purpose and definition of IT assets)

ITIL® Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition – Summary of the 15 ITIL practices

In ITIL 4, the service value chain is a central element of the service value system and is composed of six activities. Each activity transforms inputs into outputs, contributing to the overall creation of value.

Key points:

Every value chain activity takes one or more inputs (such as information, resources, or outputs from other activities).

It then performs work that transforms these inputs.

It produces one or more outputs that are used by other activities or delivered to stakeholders.

Why the other options are incorrect:

A. Inputs and outputs are fixed for each value chain activity – ITIL 4 explicitly allows for flexibility; inputs and outputs vary depending on the value stream and context.

B. Some value chain activities only have inputs, whereas others only have outputs – This contradicts the model; each activity must receive inputs and produce outputs.

C. Governance determines the inputs and outputs – Governance influences direction and controls but does not prescribe specific inputs and outputs for the value chain activities.

Therefore, the correct statement is that each value chain activity receives inputs and provides outputs.

An SLA is defined as a documented agreement between a service provider and a customer that identifies both services required and the expected level of service.

SLAs are used to measure the performance of services from the customer’s point of view, and it is important that they are agreed in the wider business context.

Some of the key requirements for successful SLAs include:

They must be related to a defined ‘service’ in the service catalogue. Individual metrics without a specified service context are unhelpful.

They should relate to defined outcomes and not simply operational metrics. This can be achieved with balanced bundles of metrics, such as customer satisfaction and key business outcomes.

They should reflect an ‘agreement’: an engagement and discussion between the service provider and the service consumer. It is important to involve all stakeholders, including partners, sponsors, users, and customers.

They must be simply written and easy to understand and use for all parties.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-level-management/#:~:text=Service%20Level%20Agreements%20(SLAs) &text=Some%20of%20the%20key%20requirements,and%20not%20simply%20operational%20metrics.

The incident management practice aims to minimize the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible1. A complex or major incident is an incident that has a significant impact or urgency for the business and requires a high level of coordination and resources to resolve2. This may require a temporary team to work together, such as a major incident team or a swarming team3. References: ITIL Foundation - ITIL 4 Edition, page 14; ITIL® 4 – A Pocket Guide, page 32; ITIL® 4 Practice Guide: Incident Management, page 8.

The incident management practice aims to minimize the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible1. A major incident is an incident that has a significant impact or urgency for the business and requires a high level of coordination and resources to resolve2. The most likely way of resolving major incidents is by forming a temporary team working together to identify a resolution, such as a major incident team or a swarming team3. The other statements are not true because:

Users establishing a resolution using self-help: Self-help is an option for users to resolve their own incidents with minimal or no assistance from the service provider, but it is not suitable for major incidents that require urgent and expert attention3.

The service desk identifying the cause and a resolution: The service desk is responsible for logging, categorizing, prioritizing, and escalating incidents, but it may not have the skills or authority to identify the cause and a resolution for major incidents that involve multiple teams or suppliers3.

A support team following detailed procedures for investigating the incident: A support team may follow detailed procedures for investigating the incident, but it may not be able to resolve major incidents that require cross-functional collaboration or escalation3. References: ITIL Foundation - ITIL 4 Edition, page 14; ITIL® 4 – A Pocket Guide, page 32; ITIL® 4 Practice Guide: Incident Management, page 8.

Continual improvement encompasses all elements of the ITIL SVS. It involves aligning an organization’s practices and services with changing business needs, through the ongoing assessment and improvement of each element involved in the management of products and services. Continual improvement applies to the SVS in its entirety, as well as to all of the organization’s products, services, service components, and relationships, and is the responsibility of every individual involved in service management.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-continual-improvement/

Service desks provide a variety of channels for access including:

Phone calls, which can include specialized technology, such as interactive voice response (IVR), conference calls, voice recognition, and others.

Service portals and mobile applications, supported by service and request catalogues, and knowledge bases.

Chat, through live chat and chatbots.

Email for logging and updating, and for follow-up surveys and confirmations.

Walk-in service desk (which are becoming more prevalent in some sectors, such as higher education, where there are high peaks of activity that demand physical presence).,

Text and social media messaging, which are useful for notifications in case of major incidents and for contacting specific stakeholder groups, but can also be used to allow users to request support.

Public and corporate social media and discussion forums for contacting the service provider and for peer-to-peer support.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-desk/

The purpose of the SLM practice is to set clear business-based targets for service performance, so that the delivery of a service can be properly assessed, monitored, and managed against these targets. SLM involves service level activities, including:

Defining service levels

Documenting

Actively managing them

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-level-management/

The purpose of the service configuration management practice is to ensure that accurate and reliable information about the configuration of services, and the CIs that support them, is available when and where it is needed. This includes information on how CIs are configured and the relationships between them.

https://wiki.process-symphony.com.au/framework/lifecycle/process/service-configuration-management-itil-4/

ITIL® defines a problem as a cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents. A known error is a problem that has been analyzed but not resolved.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-problem-management/

IT asset is any financially valuable component that can contribute to the delivery of an IT product or service. The scope of IT asset management typically includes all software, hardware, networking, cloud services, and client devices

https://wiki.process-symphony.com.au/framework/lifecycle/process/it-asset-management-itil-4/#:~:text=IT%20asset%20is%20any%20financially,cloud%20services%2C%20and%20client%20devices.

It is important to understand the difference in these terms not just for clarity, but because outputs are much easier to measure than outcomes.

Outputs are nearly always quantitative, with data available to show whether these have been delivered. Outputs are easy to report on and to validate. There is no grey area.

Outcomes are more challenging to verify because they are both qualitative and quantitative. Whether your outcomes have been achieved will rely, to a great extent, on the perception of the people who receive the service. Perceptions are not easy to measure or report on, but it is essential you find a way to do so.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/outcomes-vs-outputs/

The ‘progress iteratively with feedback’ guiding principle encourages organizations to break down complex initiatives into smaller, simpler, and more manageable units of work1. This principle also recommends seeking and acting on feedback from stakeholders, avoiding big-bang approaches, and adapting plans based on new information2. However, this principle does not advise prohibiting changes to plans, analysing the whole situation in detail, or reducing the number of steps that produce tangible results, as these would be contrary to the iterative and adaptive nature of this principle3. References: ITIL Foundation - ITIL 4 Edition, page 7; ITIL® 4 – A Pocket Guide, page 27; ITIL® 4 Practice Guide: Progress Iteratively with Feedback, page 9.

There are many ways in which practices and services can be optimized. Regardless of the specific techniques, the path to optimization follows these high-level steps:

Understand and agree the context in which the proposed optimization exists

Assess the current state of the proposed optimization

Agree what the future state and priorities of the organization should be, focusing on simplification and value

Ensure the optimization has the appropriate level of stakeholder engagement and commitment

Execute the improvements in an iterative way

Continually monitor the impact of optimization

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-guiding-principles/

In ITIL 4, the continual improvement practice is structured around the continual improvement model, which uses a series of questions such as:

What is the vision?

Where are we now?

Where do we want to be?

How do we get there?

Take action

Did we get there?

How do we keep the momentum going?

A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is specifically mentioned in ITIL 4 as a technique used to assess the current state, especially in the step “Where are we now?” of the continual improvement model.

This step is about understanding the current situation, including:

current capabilities (strengths and weaknesses)

current constraints and risks (threats)

potential areas for improvement and value creation (opportunities)

SWOT helps organizations objectively analyze their present performance and conditions, so they can make informed decisions about what to improve and how.

Therefore, in the context of the continual improvement practice, SWOT analysis is used primarily for:

Understanding the current state.

B. Defining the future desired stateThis is related to the step “Where do we want to be?” which focuses on defining measurable target states and objectives. Techniques here are more about setting goals and desired outcomes, not primarily SWOT.

C. Tracking and managing ideasThis aligns more with maintaining an improvement register or backlog, not with SWOT. Idea tracking is about managing suggestions and initiatives over time.

D. Ensuring everyone actively participatesThis relates to communication, organizational change management, and engagement, but not specifically to SWOT. SWOT is an analytical tool, not a participation method by itself.

ITIL 4 Foundation – Continual improvement model, especially the step “Where are we now?”

ITIL 4 Foundation – Continual improvement practice: use of assessment tools such as SWOT analysis to evaluate the current state of services, processes, and practices.

A service request is defined as a request from a user or a user’s authorized representative that initiates a service action which has been agreed as a normal part of service delivery.

The purpose of the service request management practice is to support the agreed quality of a service by handling all pre-defined, user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner. Service request management is dependent upon well-designed processes and procedures, which are operationalized through tracking and automation tools to maximize the efficiency of the practice. To be handled optimally, service request management should follow these guidelines:

Service requests and their fulfilment should be standardized and automated to the greatest degree possible.

Policies should define which service requests will be fulfilled with limited or even no additional approvals so that fulfilment can be streamlined.

The expectations of users regarding fulfilment times and costs should be clearly set, based on what the organization can realistically deliver.

Opportunities for improvement should be identified and implemented to produce faster fulfilment times and take advantage of automation.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-request-management/

Error control also regularly re-assesses the status of known errors that have not been resolved, taking account of the overall impact on customers and/or service availability, and the cost of permanent resolutions, and effectiveness of workarounds

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-problem-management/#:~:text=Error%20control%20also%20regularly%20re,resolutions%2C%20and%20effectiveness%20of%20workarounds.

The problem management practice follows a three-phase approach to reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents and managing workarounds and known errors1. The three phases are:

Problem identification: the process of finding problems that are the cause or potential cause of one or more incidents2.

Problem control: the process of analysing the root cause and impact of a problem and developing a workaround or a permanent solution2.

Error control: the process of managing known errors throughout their lifecycle, from recording to removal2. References: ITIL Foundation - ITIL 4 Edition, page 15; ITIL® 4 – A Pocket Guide, page 35; ITIL® 4 Practice Guide: Problem Management, page 9.

The purpose of the service request management practice is to support the agreed quality of a service by handling all pre-defined, user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner. Service request management is dependent upon well-designed processes and procedures, which are operationalized through tracking and automation tools to maximize the efficiency of the practice. To be handled optimally, service request management should follow these guidelines:

Service requests and their fulfilment should be standardized and automated to the greatest degree possible.

Policies should define which service requests will be fulfilled with limited or even no additional approvals so that fulfilment can be streamlined.

The expectations of users regarding fulfilment times and costs should be clearly set, based on what the organization can realistically deliver.

Opportunities for improvement should be identified and implemented to produce faster fulfilment times and take advantage of automation.

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-service-request-management/

The ITIL continual improvement model, which provides organizations with a structured approach to implementing improvements

https://www.bmc.com/blogs/itil-continual-improvement/