ITIL Applying ITSM Guiding Principles 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A service team is overwhelmed with change requests and considers skipping documentation to save time. Which guiding principle should they apply?
- Think and work holistically
- Keep it simple and practical (Correct answer)
- Optimize and automate
- Focus on value
Correct answer: Keep it simple and practical
'Keep it simple and practical' means eliminating unnecessary steps, but documentation that provides value should be retained — the team should simplify, not skip critical steps.
Question 2: An IT manager wants to deploy a new monitoring tool but insists on designing the full rollout plan before getting any stakeholder input. Which principle is being violated?
- Focus on value
- Collaborate and promote visibility
- Start where you are
- Progress iteratively with feedback (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Progress iteratively with feedback
'Progress iteratively with feedback' means gathering stakeholder input early and often rather than completing a full plan in isolation before testing assumptions.
Question 3: Which guiding principle is BEST demonstrated when a service owner maps out how their service connects to customer outcomes, supplier contracts, and internal teams?
- Keep it simple and practical
- Think and work holistically (Correct answer)
- Optimize and automate
- Start where you are
Correct answer: Think and work holistically
'Think and work holistically' focuses on understanding the full system of relationships and dependencies rather than viewing a service in isolation.
Question 4: When applying 'Focus on value,' what is the MOST important question a practitioner should ask about a proposed service activity?
- How quickly can it be implemented?
- Who requested it?
- How does it contribute to stakeholder outcomes? (Correct answer)
- Does it follow existing policy?
Correct answer: How does it contribute to stakeholder outcomes?
Every activity should be evaluated by whether it contributes to stakeholder outcomes, which is the essence of the 'Focus on value' principle.
Question 5: A team discovers an existing manual process that works well and proposes automating it. The ITIL guiding principle most relevant to deciding whether to automate is:
- Start where you are
- Optimize and automate (Correct answer)
- Progress iteratively with feedback
- Collaborate and promote visibility
Correct answer: Optimize and automate
'Optimize and automate' states that processes should be optimized first, then automated — automation of a poorly designed process only makes the problem faster.
Question 6: An organization launches a new service improvement without informing the support teams until go-live. Which guiding principle was neglected?
- Focus on value
- Collaborate and promote visibility (Correct answer)
- Start where you are
- Keep it simple and practical
Correct answer: Collaborate and promote visibility
'Collaborate and promote visibility' requires sharing information and involving relevant parties throughout the initiative, not just at the end.
Question 7: A practitioner reviewing a legacy process finds that most steps are outdated. According to 'Start where you are,' what should they do FIRST?
- Immediately design a replacement process from scratch
- Assess what currently exists and determine what can be reused or improved (Correct answer)
- Automate all existing steps to save time
- Benchmark against industry best practices before touching anything
Correct answer: Assess what currently exists and determine what can be reused or improved
'Start where you are' means evaluating current capabilities honestly before deciding what to change, reuse, or discard.
ITIL Applying ITSM Guiding Principles 2
A service team is overwhelmed with change requests and considers skipping documentation to save time.
Which guiding principle should they apply?