ITIL Interview Questions

A list of mostly asked SAS Interview Questions is given below:

1) What is ITIL?

ITIL is a short form of Information Technology Infrastructure Library. It is a set of comprehensive practices and guidelines that helps software developers provide the best IT services according to the current market trends and requirements. Additionally, it helps businesses establish a competitive environment and achieve their goals in the best possible way, including better plan, management, and deliveries.

2) Compare ITIL with COBIT.

We can compare ITIL with COBIT with the help of the following table:

3) What are some advantages of using ITIL?

The following are some advantages of ITIL:

• Financial management
• Better customer satisfaction
• Better decision-making processes
• Improved service availability
• Better control over infrastructure services
• Builds a clear structure of an organization

4) What are the processes involved in ITIL Service life cycle model?

There are mainly five different processes involved in the ITIL Service life cycle model; they are:

• Service Strategy: This process helps implement, define and maintain service strategies, rules, and policies.
• Service Design: This process helps to design the processes to ensure the proper implementation of strategies.
• Service Transition: This process helps form communication between projects and operations to effectively improve service quality for better service transitions.
• Service Operation: This process helps create end-to-end process overflow to provide stable services to the end-user.
• Continual Service Improvement: This process is mainly used to improve service quality by adding new options and features to meet the current industry standards.

5) Enlist the few benefits of ITIL.

The following are the significant benefits of ITIL:

• Provides powerful alignment between the business and IT.
• Increased customer satisfaction and better service deliveries.
• Better utilization of resources, making it cost-effective.
• Better control over business risks and service disruption.
• An accessible and in-depth vision of a business' IT costs, including the assets.
• Availability of quick business change for a controlled service environment.

6) Enlist the primary functions and responsibilities of the Incident management.

The following are the primary responsibilities of the Incident management:

• Incident management ensures that appropriate methods and strategies are implemented for effective response, broad analysis, documentation, reporting incidents, and other ongoing management services.
• It reports progress stats and connectivity options of incident management to support staff.
• It sets priorities and activities efficiently.
• It manages and controls user-experience with improved IT services.

7) What are some steps involved in the working of the Incident management system?

The following are the steps involved in the working of Incident management system:

• Records the incidents.
• Categorizes the incidents according to their impact and urgency.
• Authorizes the incidents.
• Provides resolution and recovery after the occurrence of an incident.

8) What are the stages involved in incident management in ITIL?

Incident management is a process that is mainly beneficial in managing and handling the lifecycle of reported incidents. There are many stages involved in incident management to resolve and document the incidents properly. The following are the stages that must be carried out throughout the lifecycle of incident management:

• Identification of incident
• Incident logging
• Incident categorization
• Incident prioritization
• Incident response
• Initial diagnosis
• Incident escalation
• Resolution and recovery
• Incident Closure

9) What are some essential features of ITIL?

The following are some essential features of ITIL:

• Based on a single language/terminology.
• Delivers consistent quality.
• Several existing activities and processes for optimizing them.
• Focuses on IT. However, it is not limited to IT only.
• Availability of multiple related processes and roles (tasks).

10) What is meant by SLA?

SLA is a short form of 'Service Level Agreement'. It is nothing but a proposal or an agreement signed between a service provider (includes internal or external both) and the end-user. The SLA consists of the different levels of services required by the service provider.

11) How many types of service level agreements are there?

There are three different types of service level agreements, such as:

• Customer Service Level Agreements: This type of agreement is formed between the customer and the service provider.
• Internal Service Level Agreements: This type of agreement is formed between IT and internal customers (for example- any other department or site).
• Vendor Service Level Agreements: This type of agreement is formed between the developer and the vendor.

12) Enlist a few responsibilities of problem management in context to ITIL.

The problem management in ITIL is mainly responsible for performing the followings:

• Recognizes and troubleshoot recurring incidents.
• Determines the root cause of these occurrences.
• Takes appropriate action to prevent these incidents from reoccurring.

13) What are the main steps involved in the problem management process?

The following are the steps involved in the problem management process:

• Problem detection and logging
• Categorization of the problem and further prioritizing the problem
• Investigation of the actual reason
• Workaround a solution for a problem
• Report a known error stats
• Problem resolution
• Problem closure
• Reviewing the problem

14) What is the use of event management in ITIL?

The primary use of event management is to check configuration items and services and make sure that they are continually observed. Besides, event management can also filter and categorize events, which eventually helps to find any particular actions.

15) What are the different service providers involved in the ITIL process?

The following are the different service providers involved in the ITIL process:

• Internal Service Provider: ISP usually manages the internal business or an organization. It is a dedicated resource of the business unit that physically exists to fulfill the organization's needs.
• External Service Provider: ESP usually deals with the management of an external organization. It means that ESP offers IT services and features to external customers and fulfill their needs. It is not limited to any market, business, or individual.
• Shared Services Unit: SSU usually acts as an extension of ISPs. This type of provider is considered an autonomous unit within the organization.

16) What is defined by the term Known Error?

A Known Error is an identified problem that contains a recorded root cause and a solution. It mainly includes the followings:

• Status of the error
• Description of the error
• Root cause of the error
• Workaround (solution) of the error

17) What are the different knowledge management systems in ITIL?

The following are some main knowledge management systems:

• Definitive Media Library (DML)
• Capacity Management Information System (CMIS)
• Known Error Database (KEDB)
• Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
• Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS)
• Availability Management Information System (AMIS)

18) What are the objectives of the IT service continuity management system?

The main objectives of the IT service continuity management system are:

• Identification of risks
• Testing the back-out situations
• Finalizing the entire back-out arrangements

19) Enlist a few benefits of the ITIL service desk implementation.

The following are the few benefits of the ITIL service desk implementation:

• Better first call resolution
• Better identification of trends and events
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Better tracking of service quality
• Quick restoration of service
• Skill-based support
• Better incident response time

20) Name the processes that are utilized by the service desk.

The following are the processes that are utilized by the service desk:

• Workflow
• Procedures diagrams

21) What are some of the conditions to be followed to close any known error?

A known error can be closed when any of the following conditions occur:

• When all the RFC (Request for Change) records are closed.
• When a record resides in the error closure stage.

22) What is the primary function of Configuration Management in ITIL?

The primary function of Configuration Management in ITIL is to receive, keep, manage, update and verify the data on IT assets and configuration in the organizations.

23) How will you differentiate a service request from a change request?

A service request is usually defined as the request formally submitted by the user to access IT services and change its standard. On the other hand, a change request is defined as the proposal to change any specific product or the entire system.

24) What is defined by the PDSA cycle? Also, explain its phases.

The term PDSA here is the short form of plan-do-check-act. It is a 4-step approach that is mainly used continuous improvements of any product or process in an enterprise. It is also known as the Deming cycle/wheel/circle.

The four phases can be explained as:

Plan: Analyzing and identifying the current problem.

Do: Developing the necessary solution for the problem.

Check: Testing a solution and checking how effectively it handles the problem. Additionally, finding other options that could be helpful in the improvements.

Act: Implementing the final solution.

25) Differentiate a project from a process in the context of ITIL.

A project is a limited time procedure in which work is done. Whereas, a process is continuous and does not include any specified end date.

26) Enlist the few responsibilities of an ITIL Service Desk.

The following are the few responsibilities of an ITL Service Desk:

• Log, classify and prioritize incidents.
• Investigate the incidents
• Resolve the incident
• Manage major incidents
• Incident management reporting

27) Enlist three ITIL models that are widely adopted by an organization.

The following are the three ITIL models that are widely adopted by an organization:

• IBM (IT Process Model)
• MOF (Microsoft Operation Framework)
• Hewlett-Packard (HP ITSM Reference Model)

28) How will you differentiate an end-user from a customer?

End-User: An end-user (also called an end-customer) is the one who directly receives and accesses the service or uses the service or a product.

Customer: A customer may or may not have the authority to select between products and suppliers.

29) How will you define an Incident and a Problem?

Incident: It is usually defined as an event that is not part of a standard process. In other words, it is the event that causes unplanned interruption or disruption to an IT service.

Problem: It is generally defined as the underlying cause of a conflict or chain of events.

30) How will you differentiate proactive problem management from reactive problem management?

The main function of proactive problem management is to stop incidents before happening by finding potential problems and IT infrastructure errors. On the other side, reactive problem management's main function is to identify and eliminate the main reasons of recognized incidents.

31) What is the primary function of ITIL Change Management?

Change management's primary function is to eliminate or reduce the risk in business processes and systems by establishing standardized procedures. It is one of the main tasks of the Change manager that is performed in an agile and effective manner. Additionally, it ensures that the projects satisfy their goals and essential requirements within the specified time and budget.

32) List down the Seven R's of Change Management.

The following are the seven R's of Change Management:

• First, who RAISED the change?
• Second, what is the REASON for the change?
• Third, what RETURN will the change deliver?
• Fourth, what RISKS are there is we do or do not carry out the change?
• Fifth, What RESOURCES will be required to perform this change?
• Sixth, who is RESPONSIBLE for this change being performed?
• Seventh, what RELATIONSHIPS are there between this and other changes?

33) What is defined by the term PIR in the context of ITIL?

The term PIR is a short form of 'Post Implementation Review'. PIR in ITIL is usually defined as the identification and examination of the complete working process, along with the solution. The post-implementation review evaluates the implementation's effectiveness after the change request is implemented into the system. It is a free-form review report that is generally processed once the live running session of the project has been done.

34) What is the primary goal of Capacity Management? Also, list its sub-processes.

The primary goal of capacity management is to ensure that IT services and resources are appropriately sized to meet service level objectives for current and upcoming business needs in a cost-effective and timely manner.

Capacity Management has three following sub-processes:

• Service Capacity Management
• Component Management
• Business Capacity Management

35) What is meant by the term OLA?

The term OLA is a short form of 'Operational Level Agreement'. OLA is usually defined as the contract that emphasizes the different IT groups within the organization. This also defines how the various IT groups will design and deliver their services to support SLA (Service Level Agreement).

36) What are some commonly used Recovery options?

The following are the most commonly used Recovery options:

Fast Recovery: As the name suggests, this recovery option is speedy and takes place within 24 hours. It is also called a hot standby.

Intermediate Recovery: This type of recovery mode usually takes a few days. Here, recovery possibly takes three to four days. It is referred to as warm standby as it used mirroring load balancing.

Gradual Recovery: This type of recovery may take a relatively long time. It can take a few weeks. But, the time will always exceed 24 hours in this recovery mode. It is also called a cold standby.

37) What does the Freeze period mean in ITIL?

The freeze period is defined as the specific time within the development process, after which the methods required to make changes to the source code seems much more difficult.

38) What is defined by the term CAB?

The term CAB is a short form of 'Change Advisory Board'. CAB involves a different authoritative and representative group of professionals who mainly help in Change Management. The CAB people assist with assessment, authorization, prioritization, and scheduling of the requested and the necessary changes whenever required.

39) Define the following terms: Service pipeline, Service portfolio, and Service catalog.

Service Pipeline: It is defined as a listing of those services that are not yet ready and reside in the development mode.

Service Portfolio: It is defined as a listing of the comprehensive services offered by a service provider to the customers or shared throughout the entire market.

Service Catalog: It is defined as a listing of those services that have already been developed to be provided to the customers. It is known as the subset of the Service portfolio.

40) Define Expedite/Urgent Changes and Emergency Changes.

Expedite Change: It is a kind of change that meets a specified business or legal needs but does not relate to any restoring service.

Emergency Change: It is a kind of change that is taken care of on a priority basis. It is considered a top priority change in any organization that must be implemented as quickly as possible.