Retirement of V2 Examinations

On October 29th, the OGC announced their plans for retiring ITIL V2 products and examinations by June 2011. This is a global product withdrawal, meaning that all languages will be removed at the same time.

Here are the final dates for first time exam takers:

• V2 Foundation - June 30, 2010
• V2 Service Manager - August 31, 2010
• V2 Practitioner exams - Dec 31, 2010
• V2/V3 Foundation Bridge exams - Dec 31, 2010

Re-takes for all of the above will be available until 30 June 2011.

The V2 Service Manager Bridge exam will also end on 30 June 2011. At this time, there are no re-take extensions (although myself and others are still pressing to have this reconsidered).

All V2 books will be unavailable after June 30, 2011 and some may be withdrawn before that date based on demand. Service Support and Service Delivery publications will be not be available after June 30, 2011 although OGC states that "in the later period these may only be available as ‘print on demand’ or in electronic formats." I am not quite sure what this means but suspect that if demand does not justify printing, they will make other options available until the end date.

So, if you are planning to obtain a V2 certification, you must achieve it by the end dates described above. This is particularly important for those with existing V2 certifications who would like to take advantage of bridging courses for Foundation and Service Manager.

ITIL V2 Service Managers have the unique opportunity to fast-track to ITIL Expert by taking the V2 Manager's Bridge course and passing the exam. If you have taken the Service Manager course but did not pass one or both exams, I would highly recommend that you plan for a re-take before the end dates. Becoming an ITIL Expert via the Manager's Bridge route is much faster and less costly than navigating the 22 credits required of the V3 scheme.

If you have a V2 Foundation Certificate, you can upgrade your certification and meet the pre-requisite for entry into the ITIL V3 Intermediate courses by taking the V2/V3 Foundation Bridge course and exam.

From a knowledge perspective, the guidance from V2 Service Support/Service Delivery is alive and well in V3. There may be some new vocabulary and processes, but the core concepts are essentially the same. The V3 service lifecycle just puts those processes into context while bringing forth other considerations. Some of those considerations (such as Security Management or continual service improvement) actually build on other books in the V2 library that were not as widely read as Service Support and Service Delivery.

Most organizations do not implement ITIL in its purest form. In the end, each will develop a custom framework based on a combination of ITIL (and/or other ITSM frameworks or standards) and successful internal practices. So, whether you call it ITIL V2 or V3, what really matters is that you have the knowledge, training, experience and resources to manage your services to meet the needs and requirements of your customers.