Speech for ITIL® Launch
Delivered by Richard Pharro, Managing Director APM Group Ltd.
Good afternoon everybody. I'm aware that I'm keeping you from a celebratory drink so I promise to be brief!
Since our appointment in July last year we have learnt a great deal about ITIL®. We have got to know the people involved, and have learnt about the international nature of the product. I know now that if you trace things back far enough you reach a point where two or three people laid the foundations of ITIL, what I haven't found is a consensus on who they are!
We fully appreciate the responsibility we have as OGC's Official Accreditor and also in acting as an Examination Institute. As most of you are aware, our appointment coincided with several concerns being raised about V3. For a period in the middle of 2006 it looked as though the Service Management community, and in particular, the ITIL Market Place would fragment. Certainly our first Conference in Salt Lake City in September 2006 was one we'll never forget!
Since then we've worked hard with EXIN and ISEB to find a contractual relationship which supports their involvement in V3. We believe it is in the community's best interests for them to build on the successes they have achieved with V2. It is to their credit that ITIL is positioned as a Global Service Management process with over 200,000 people holding an ITIL qualification.
We have also reached agreement with itSMFi to ensure the involvement of the global community in the governance of the accreditation and qualification scheme.
We trust these agreements will provide a strong foundation for the future of v3.
As we go forward, we hope that APMG's positive approach to working collaboratively with its partners, will escalate the take up of the qualification. We look forward to continued collaboration with EXIN, ISEB and with other Examination Institutes who may wish to get involved in this global enterprise.
For the last few months we have all been focused on developing the new qualification scheme, in particular finalising the foundation syllabus and exams so that examinations are available at launch. We are delighted that the first exams will be taken next Wednesday, 13th June 2007. Those of you who were at the roadshow earlier will have seen the details of the scheme and there is a summary document on www.best-management-practice.com.
We have agreed a single syllabus and a set of examination papers that will be used for the first few weeks of the scheme. It is fair to say that the development owed more to expediency, experience and trust than it did to any formal processes.
However, that won't be the case for the upper level qualifications. We all feel that the time scale for their release is not constrained by the dependency on other products, notably the launch of the books. There will be wider consultation on these qualifications as they are developed and a longer lead time for the training companies to prepare material.
With the whole Qualification Board and in particular the Examination Institutes committed to developing a single syllabus, a single set of examination questions and a single global scheme, we believe V3 will build on the success of V2 and will be central to the qualification structure of a growing worldwide profession of Service Management.
By ensuring that every candidate who takes an ITIL 3 qualification anywhere in the world will be assessed to the same standard as a candidate in any other place, the scheme will deliver benefits for candidates, their employers and the wider professional community.
There will be occasions in the future when things do not go smoothly, but having worked hard to avoid market fragmentation, as OGC's Official Accreditor, we will continue to try and ensure that the ITIL Qualification Scheme respects the breadth of ITIL V3. We aim to ensure it is relevant and fit for purpose, thus maintaining widespread market support. We will do this by involving professionals knowledgeable in the methodology and its application as part of our expanding multinational group of Examiners and Assessors and through close liaison with accredited training organisations.
We look forward to working with EXIN, ISEB, other Examination Institutes, OGC, TSO and ITSMFi in delivering the certification scheme, through a gobal network of accredited training companies, that the industry requires for the next decade and beyond.
We also look forward to the award of the first ITIL V3 examination certificates and, in due course, the kick off meeting for ITIL v4.
Thank you.
