A preview of 15 of the 40 questions in this set, with full explanations. Take the interactive exam above for the complete set with timer, flagging, and scoring.
Question 1The ITIL Value System
After a new customer service platform goes live, the operations team monitors performance, applies patches, and resolves any degradation in service quality day to day.
Which value chain activity does this represent?
ADeliver
BSupport
C ✓Operate
DTransition
Explanation: Operate maintains and monitors digital products and supporting systems, ensuring optimal performance and reliability. Day-to-day running and performance management are Operate responsibilities.
Question 2The ITIL Value System
An airline's IT team is responsible for onboarding customers to a new frequent flyer mobile app, including account setup, in-app training, and managing early feedback from users after launch.
Which value chain activity BEST covers these responsibilities?
ATransition
BBuild
COperate
D ✓Deliver
Explanation: Deliver provides services to users, manages user onboarding and offboarding, maintains service quality standards, and gathers consumer feedback — all of which the airline IT team is doing post-launch.
Question 3The ITIL Value System
Identify the missing word(s) in the following sentence.
The ITIL Value System includes five components: guiding principles, governance, the value chain, [ ? ], and continual improvement.
AOperating models
B ✓Practices
CService catalogue
DStakeholder maps
Explanation: The five components of the ITIL Value System are: guiding principles, governance, the value chain, practices, and continual improvement.
Question 4The ITIL Value System
A software company releases a new version of its product. The team carefully plans the rollout, schedules a maintenance window, and prepares a rollback plan to ensure the change does not disrupt existing customers.
Which value chain activity does this BEST describe?
ABuild
BOperate
C ✓Transition
DDeliver
Explanation: Transition seamlessly introduces new or updated products into operational environments. Planning the rollout, scheduling maintenance windows, and preparing rollback plans are all Transition activities.
Question 5The ITIL Value System
Which of the following BEST describes the relationship between the value chain and a value stream?
AThe value chain is a specific instance of a value stream
B ✓A value stream is a specific path through the value chain activities
CThe value chain and value stream are two names for the same thing
DA value stream contains multiple value chains
Explanation: The value chain provides the 8 available activities. A value stream is a specific combination and sequence of those activities used to deliver a particular outcome. Same chain, different routes.
Question 6The ITIL Value System
Which of the following is NOT one of the eight value chain activities in ITIL Foundation?
ADiscover
B ✓Govern
CAcquire
DTransition
Explanation: The 8 value chain activities are: Discover, Design, Acquire, Build, Transition, Operate, Deliver, Support. 'Govern' is not a value chain activity — governance is a component of the value system, not the chain.
Question 7The ITIL Value System
A retail bank needs to improve its mortgage application processing time. Before making any changes, the IT manager reviews the existing workflow, tools, and team capabilities already in place.
Which guiding principle is the IT manager applying?
AFocus on value
BProgress iteratively with feedback
C ✓Start where you are
DThink and work holistically
Explanation: 'Start where you are' advises assessing what already exists before making changes. The IT manager is reviewing the existing state rather than assuming everything needs to be replaced.
Question 8The ITIL Value System
An improvement team has completed a process redesign and is ready to automate steps to speed up processing. A consultant recommends automating the redesigned process as-is.
Which guiding principle is being correctly applied here?
AKeep it simple and practical
B ✓Optimise and automate
CStart where you are
DCollaborate and promote visibility
Explanation: 'Optimise and automate' states that organisations should first simplify and optimise, then automate. The team has already redesigned (optimised) the process and is now automating — applying the principle correctly.
Question 9The ITIL Value System
The ITIL continual improvement model asks 'What is the vision?' as its first step.
What should the vision be aligned with?
AThe current baseline assessment
BThe available technology tools
C ✓Business goals and objectives
DThe team's preferred improvement approach
Explanation: In the continual improvement model, the vision must be aligned with business goals and objectives — not technology, team preferences, or current state. This links to the 'Focus on value' guiding principle.
Question 10Key ITIL terms and definitions
A company subscribes to a payroll processing service. The finance team does not manage the payroll software, servers, or data security — the provider handles everything under a monthly fee.
What does the finance team represent in this service relationship?
AService provider
BSponsor
C ✓Service consumer
DOperating model owner
Explanation: A service consumer is an organisation responsible for procuring and using services. The company uses the payroll service without managing the underlying resources — they are the service consumer.
Question 11Key ITIL terms and definitions
Identify the missing word(s) in the following sentence.
[ ? ] is the amount of money spent on a specific activity, resource, product, or service. It can be removed or introduced by a service, and both possibilities must be considered in the value proposition.
ARisk
B ✓Cost
CUtility
DValue
Explanation: Cost is the amount of money spent. Services can remove costs from consumers (positive) or introduce new costs (negative). Both must be factored into the value proposition.
Question 12Key ITIL terms and definitions
A new expense management app is technically excellent — available 99.9% of the time. However, the finance team refuses to use it because it doesn't support the multi-currency approvals they require.
What problem does this BEST illustrate?
AThe app has poor warranty but good utility
B ✓The app has good warranty but lacks utility
CThe app has neither utility nor warranty
DThe outcome is negative despite good warranty
Explanation: Warranty is fit for use (availability, reliability) — the app has this. Utility is fit for purpose (does what users need) — the app lacks this because it doesn't support multi-currency approvals. Both are needed for value.
Question 13Key ITIL terms and definitions
A cloud provider experiences an unexpected outage that takes its file storage service offline for 4 hours, preventing thousands of business customers from accessing their files.
What ITIL term describes this event from the customers' perspective?
AProblem
BKnown error
C ✓Incident
DChange
Explanation: An incident is an unplanned interruption to a service or reduction in service quality. The outage is unplanned and causes loss of service — it is an incident.
Question 14Key ITIL terms and definitions
After investigating recurring database incidents, the root cause is identified: a memory leak in the database software. The engineering team documents the finding but cannot fix it immediately due to a vendor dependency.
What ITIL term describes this situation?
AIncident
BEvent
C ✓Known error
DChange
Explanation: A known error is a problem that has been analysed but has not been resolved. The root cause (memory leak) is identified and documented, but cannot yet be fixed — this is the definition of a known error.
Question 15Key ITIL terms and definitions
Which of the following is NOT a risk that a service might introduce to a consumer?
AData breach due to inadequate security controls
BDependency on a provider that could become unavailable
C ✓Reduced workload for internal IT staff
DCompliance exposure due to poor data handling
Explanation: Reduced workload for internal IT staff is a benefit gained — not a risk introduced. Data breach, provider dependency failure, and compliance exposure are all genuine risks a service might introduce.