The ITIL Joint Venture Partner Has Been Announced

The Cabinet Office has officially announced their selection of Capita, plc as their partner in a joint venture that will oversee the ITIL and other Best Management Practice schemes and intellectual property.    The joint venture release is available at http://www.best-management-practice.com/?DI=637050.

Why a joint venture?   ITIL, Prince2 and the other “swirl” products have taken on a life of their own, way beyond the expectations of the British government agency, the Cabinet Office.  The global uptake of the frameworks requires a stronger infrastructure than that which is currently in place.  The joint venture is more than a supplier or partner relationship:  Capita and the Cabinet Office will form and invest in a separate commercial entity.  The new company will be formed in July with it’s own leadership team.  They take over the reins of the portfolio on January 1, 2014.

For ITSM Academy learners and clients, the transition to the joint venture should be seamless.

There are no planned dramatic changes to the exams, qualification scheme or publications.  In their announcement, Capita clearly places value on the current ITIL ecosystem and provides assurance that any disruption will be minimal.  Learners will still have their exams delivered, marked and certificates issued.  While the issuing party may (or may not) change, the value of the qualification will not.

Mostly importantly, Capita stressed their commitment to investing in and enhancing product quality through continuous improvement and innovation.     Capita is a very large, successful British company with access to significant resources.   I expect better industry alignment,  stronger quality standards,  improved communication and leveraging of the latest technologies.

 ITSM Academy is and will continue to be an active contributor and voice of the customer in industry groups such as the ATO Sub-group, ITIL Qualification Board and Examination Panel.    I will continue to update this blog as more tangible information becomes available.

Intermediate Courses and Bloom's Taxonomy

ITIL Lifecycle and Capability courses and exams are built based on Bloom levels 3 and 4

• Bloom 3 – application – measures ability to use information in new ways to solve problems, predict results, tell how, when, where and why 
• Bloom 4 – analysis – measures ability to distinguish between different parts, understand how parts fit together, identify causes, recognize hidden meanings, draw conclusions

These courses are intended to provide “how to” knowledge as opposed to ITIL Foundation’s “what about” knowledge.

Effective learning and study techniques for learners taking Bloom levels 3 and 4 exams include:

• Do your pre-class reading and in-class homework assignments
• Actively participate in class discussions, debates and assignments
• Use the SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review) reading and study technique 
• Create complex mind maps to tie terms, concepts, and activities to key topics (Visual/Kinesthetic) 
• Practice mapping ITIL concepts to real world situations/problems 
• Create inductive diagrams - diagrams that illustrate inductive reasoning which involves moving from observations to a theory 
• Create deductive diagrams - diagrams that illustrate deductive reasoning which involves starting with a theory and confirming (or not) that theory

Want to become an ITIL Expert?  In May, 2012, the new Managing Across the Lifecycle (MALC) syllabus and exam will be introduced based on Bloom level 5.  Stay tuned to my next blog for more information on Bloom Level 5 and MALC.

Who was Benjamin Bloom and Why Should I Care?

Benjamin Bloom (1913 – 1999) was an American educational psychologist who contributed to the classification of educational objectives and to the theory of mastery-learning (an instructional method that presumes all students can learn if they are provided with appropriate learning conditions). Bloom headed a team that developed a taxonomy, or structure, through which educational objectives could be organized according to their cognitive complexity. The cognitive domain deals with a person's ability to process information and use it in a meaningful way. Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive domain, from the simple recall of facts, through increasingly more complex and abstract levels of thinking.

Simply put, Bloom’s Taxonomy helps educators categorize learning objectives and assess learning achievements.

Why should you care? The ITIL syllabi and exams are based on Bloom’s Taxonomy in increasing levels of difficulty and complexity. ITIL Foundation, for example, is tested at Blooms Level 1 and 2. The upcoming MALC 2011 course will be testing at Blooms Level 4 and 5. That's a pretty big difference.

Understanding Blooms levels helps to set your expectations, therefore increasing your ability to

• Realistically estimate the time and effort required before and during the class
• Engage with your instructor and other learners in class
• Pass the certification exam
• Use the knowledge that you gain in class

Bloom’s taxonomy includes measurable verbs that can be used to describe and classify knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviors and abilities that we expect to observe in learners. The theory is based upon the idea that there are levels of observable actions that indicate something is happening in the brain (cognitive activity). By creating learning objectives using measurable verbs, instructors know explicitly what the student must do in order to demonstrate learning. This improves the ability of the instructor to help you achieve your learning goals and pass the exam. 

Over the next few blogs, I'll dive a little deeper into the different levels of Blooms Taxonomy at the different levels of the ITIL Qualification Scheme. Stay tuned!