ITIL 4 Leader - Digital & IT Strategy plus Exam

The 3-day Digital and IT Strategy module focuses on the alignment of digital business strategy with IT strategy. It also covers how disruption from new technologies are impacting organizations in every industry and how business leaders are responding. It will help IT leaders and aspiring leaders build and implement effective IT and digital strategy that can tackle digital disruption and drive success.

Overview

What is ITIL4 Leader: Digital & IT Strategy

ITIL 4: Digital and IT Strategy is part of the ITIL 4 Strategic Leader designation. Digital and IT Strategy is a compilation and discussion of approaches and practices employed by business professionals who are navigating a landscape that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA).

The premise of ITIL 4: Digital and IT Strategy is that all organizations exist to provide products and/or services that other people need, and they need to do so efficiently and at a desired level of quality. An organization’s strategy defines how it achieves this.

In a digitally enabled world, people need different products and services, and
organizations can fulfil their customer’s needs faster and better. Each new technology offers new opportunities and capabilities. A digital and IT strategy defines which of those opportunities and capabilities will best enable the organization to meet its purpose and remain viable.

Organizations need to change as rapidly as the environment around them. These changes usually lead to flatter organizational structures, more responsive operations, and faster decision-making.

Who is ITIL4: Digital & IT Strategy for?

ITIL 4: Digital and IT Strategy was written for business leaders who understand that the future of their organization depends on how they use digital and information technology.

Many of these leaders are IT managers who are learning to augment their technical expertise with business understanding. Others are business leaders who must learn how to harness the disruptive power of digital and information technology.

The publication is a guide for executives that explains how to ensure short-term results while planning for long-term viability. The content provides practical ideas and tools for defining the vision and strategy of the organization, and then implementing it through effective organizational change. The book also provides an overview of the capabilities needed in digital organizations.

The guidance will be useful to business analysts, steering committee members, enterprise architects, senior business managers, vendor managers, business relationship managers, and service management leaders.

Content

• Demonstrate the use of the ITIL guiding principles in Digital and IT Strategy decisions and activities
  • Relate the ITIL guiding principles to all aspects of Digital and IT Strategy
• Understand how to leverage digital strategy to react to digital disruption
  • Understand the following concepts:
    • Digital Technology
    • Digital Business
    • Digital Organization
    • Digitization
    • Digital Transformation
  • Understand the following concepts:
    • Business strategy and business models
    • Digital and IT Strategy
    • Products
    • Services
  • Know how to explain the relationship between Digital and IT Strategy and the components of the ITIL SVS.
• Understand the relationship between the concepts of Digital and IT Strategy, the service value system and the service value chain, and explain how to utilize them to create value
  • Explain environmental analysis in terms of:
    • External analysis: PESTLE
    • Internal analysis: The four dimensions of service management
• Understand how an organization uses Digital and IT Strategy to remain viable in environments disrupted by digital technology
  
  • Know how to show how an organization’s viability is related to how agile, resilient, lean, continuous and co-creational it is
  • Know how to analyse the VUCA factors and address them in a Digital and IT Strategy
  • Explain and compare three levels of digital disruption:
    a) Ecosystem
    b) Industry/market
    c) Organizational
  • Show how an organization’s position in a particular market or industry is influenced by the following factors:
    a) Achieving customer/market relevance
    b) Achieving operational excellence
    c) Internal and external focus
    d) Balanced approach
  • Use a digital positioning tool to determine the appropriate position for a digital organization
• Understand strategic approaches made possible by digital and information technology to achieve customer/market relevance and operational excellence
  
  • Know how to apply the following approaches to achieve customer/market relevance:
    • Customer journeys
    • Omnichannel delivery and support
    • Context-sensitive delivery and support
    • Customer analytics
    • Customer feedback and 360° approaches
  • Know how to achieve operational excellence in the four dimensions of service management
  • Understand the financial aspects of Digital and IT Strategy in terms of the following:
    • Financial policies
    • Portfolio optimization
    • Funding projects, products and services
    • Balancing the cost of innovation and operation
    • Charging models
  • Assess strategic approaches for digital organizations
• Understand the risks and opportunities of Digital and IT Strategy
  
  • Explain the concept of risk management in the context of a digital organization
  • In the context of Digital and IT Strategy, explain how to:
    • Identify risk
    • Assess risk
  • Know how to explain the concept of risk posture and show how to determine an acceptable balance between opportunity and risk
  • Explain the concept of innovation, including its key elements and techniques
  • Know how to apply techniques to develop and maintain a culture of innovation
• Understand the steps and techniques involved in defining and advocating for a Digital and IT Strategy
  
  • Know how to use a digital readiness assessment to perform a gap analysis between an organization’s current and desired positions
  • Explain how to define and communicate a vision and a strategy
  • Know how to use business cases to advocate for a Digital and IT Strategy
• Understand how to implement a Digital and IT Strategy
• Know how to define operating models for digital organizations
• Explain the major skills required of leaders in a digital organization
• Apply the following approaches to strategy coordination and implementation:
  • Large-scale transformation
  • Incremental transformation
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Individual changes
• Explain approaches to POMs (parallel operating models)
• Explain how to assess success of a Digital and IT Strategy
• Explain the typical activities of a digital transformation programme

Assessment

The assessment process for this modules comes in 2 parts.

Part 1: Practical assignment

• 5 assessment criteria
• Bloom’s level 4 (“Analysis”)
• In-class, in-group assignments based on a case study
• Open-book
• The trainer evaluates the outputs of the assignment

Part 2: Multiple choice exam

• 60 minutes
• 30 questions
• Pass mark 70% (21/30)
• Bloom’s level 2 (“Comprehension”) and 3 (“Application”)
• Online proctored exam available
• Closed-book