Bita Beigishah
Most professionals pursue certification as a means to increase their worth within their current role, position themselves for a promotion or leverage a transition to a new organization all together. In the case of ITIL certifications, everything hinges on the organization’s ITSM practices as to whether or not gaining the cert will actually pay off.
The ITIL Certification Scheme
ITIL offers a certification scheme that covers 5 levels:
- Foundation
- Practitioner
- Intermediate
- Expert
- Master
This scheme covers everything from a general awareness of key ITIL terms, concepts and elements to applying ITIL knowledge, techniques, methods and principles as a means to achieve desired business goals. In order for an ITIL practitioner to leverage their skill set, he or she needs to be employed within an environment that has either adopted or adapted ITIL, since the primary goal of ITIL is to improve ITSM practices at an organizational level to achieve business goals.
What Organizations Use ITIL?
According to the AXELOS website (the certifying body behind ITIL), the ITIL method has been adopted by thousands of organizations across the globe. These organizations include:
- NASA
- Microsoft
- Mueller Dairy
- The Walt Disney Company
- The Ohio State University
- IRS
ITIL can be leveraged in any organizational environment but buy in must be made at the top level and everyone must be on board in order to see improvement.
What ITIL Job Roles Could Benefit From Certification?
While the specific job duties, title and required experience hinges largely on the organization’s specific ITSM structure, most available job areas organized by the level of ITIL knowledge required are as follows:
Foundation Level:
- IT Project Support
- Service Desk Technician
Practitioner Level:
- IT Support Technician
- Application Support Specialist
- Hardware Support Specialist
- Network Support Specialist
- Security Analyst
Intermediate Level:
- Incident Manager
- Cyber Resilience Auditor
- IT Project Manager
- Service Desk Manager
- IT Configuration Manager
- IT Change Manager
- Release Manager
- Service Level Manager
Expert Level:
- Cyber Resilience Consultant
- IT Architect
- IT Security Architect
- Supplier Relationship Manager
- Cyber Resilience Manager
- IT Program Manager
Master Level:
- Business Relationship Manager
- Business Continuity Manager
- IT Operations Manager
- Executive Offices – CIO, CTO, CISO