The IT Skeptic - Comments for "How many ITIL Examination Institutes is enough?"

Competition For "Service", not "Product"

David Ratcliffe — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:26:40 +0000

Right. We certainly don't want "pell-mell proliferation of EIs"!

Let me digress for a second - back to my earlier comment about "competition being a good thing". I am, of course, referring to how it's good that ATOs and students have the opportunity to chose between EIs based on level of SERVICE - not because the exams are any better or worse from one EI to another. Contrary to a popular myth, no EI's exams are any easier or tougher than any other EI's. All exams are created from a common database of questions.

So the only difference between what you get from EI "A" compared to EI "B" is the quality of service - and maybe a slight variation in pricing. I like this model!

pell-mell proliferation

skeptic — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:36:00 +0000

I agree the current arrangement of EIs is better than the sort of monopolistic sole-rights arrangement that exists above them with APMG and TSO.

I did shape the post as a question, because I'm not sure. I just have a certain discomfort that pell-mell proliferation of EIs may not be in the best interests of ITIL professionalism and protection of the value and credibility of ITIL certifications (whatever of that is left). Especially when OGC governance is already clearly seen to be sloppy at best.

And OGC's idea of regionalisation is to allow the little locals to do all the translations as volunteers or grossly underpaid serfs, while the copyright and control remains firmly wedged in the royal rectum. "Patronising" doesn't begin to describe it. "Colonialism" is closer.

What Do You Care?

David Ratcliffe — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:49:02 +0000

Really, what do you care how many EIs there are Skep? What's the point here?

Originally there was only BCS, and then EXIN. The rest of the non English-speaking world had to whistle for their certifications until EXIN (with their Dutch genes) became entrepreneurial by issuing examinations in languages other than Dutch and English. Then things got interesting as Loyalist "translated" Dutch-English into Canadian-US English. As time marched on, more dispersed EIs came on-board specializing in additional languages & different time zones (one day we may even have an EI specializing in "Kiwi" offering the first exams of the day!)

The point is - more EIs means that more people can be served in the language they need, and supported in their local time zone. That's a good thing, right? And if you were to say "But why do we need 2 German EIs or 2 North American EIs ...." well, competition is good too, right?

So what's the problem with more EIs? Bring 'em on!

BTW - If you need all the EIs to fit into some acronymic paradigm, Loyalist is actually LCS (Loyalist Certification Services).

And then there were ten

skeptic — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:45:00 +0000

APMG have added yet another Examination Institute to the list of ITIL EIs: the German company CERT-IT. Once again I ask the question: how many is enough? A year-and-a-half ago there were six. Now there are ten: APMG themselves, BCS-ISEB, CERT-IT, CSE, DANSK IT, DF Certifiering AB, EXIN, Loyalist, PEOPLECERT, and TÜV SÜD Akademie. (BTW, how did Loyalist get to be an EI with such a lowercase name?)

On the contrary, itSMF UK

Barry Corless — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 22:46:21 +0000

On the contrary, itSMF UK has always know what it wanted to do with the scheme. It was in our strategic plan fully three years ago to consider our position as Exam Institute and Accreditor when the time was right and certain criteria were met. As 'Skeptic' alludes to it is not our core business and others do it much better. The management board took that decision confident in the expectation that APMG would take the scheme forward and with the full support of itSMF International with whom we liaised before finalising the deal. Both I and the UK Board believe once the full details emerge it will be seen as a tremendously positive step for the scheme, wider itSMF movement and ITSM in general.

Barry Corless

Chairman, itSMF UK

APMG certainly have

Liz Gallacher — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 20:27:55 +0000

APMG certainly have expertise as an EI. itSMF were not developing the qualification scheme at all, and their website advertising it is apalling. Hopefully those things will improve as a result of this development.Time will tell whether APMG change the Consultancy exams to multiple choice -I think that would be a backward step.
itSMF never really knew what it wanted to do in this area, and should have handed it over to one or more EIs years ago.
As far as the certification scheme itself is concerned - I am not aware of any APMG experience in this area. Most people currently involved in the various committees will be retained...so time will tell

Liz Gallacher
Freelance Trainer and Consultant (and ATO rep to itsmf )

Oddly enough

skeptic — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 06:46:20 +0000

Oddly enough, I'm more comfortable with the scheme being with APMG than with itSMFUK, for these reasons:

itSMFUk is not itSMF - there were potential power struggles down the track not unlike other problems we've only recently overcome
the closer itSMF gets to being a member-representative organisation the better, or at least industry-agnostic. Being a certification vendor took it further over the dark side.
there's synergy with ITIL certification - better than creating a new situation where ITIL certification is competing with ISO20000 certification
it doesn't hurt to retain an EXIN competitor

APMG takes over ISMF UK, ISO/IEC scheme

Liz Gallacher — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 06:37:54 +0000

APMG has signed an agreement with itSMF UK to acquire its ISO/IEC 20000 Certification and Qualification scheme. see http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/isoiec-20000-expands-apmg-suite-... .

Existing ATO's will transfer to APMG - but this may boost the EXIN qualification scheme. Certainly most ATO's were keen on the qualification side going to a "proper" EI, but be careful what you wish for..... Not sure what expertise APMG has in the Certification side.
Liz Gallacher
Freelance Trainer and Consultant

BTW

JamesFinister — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:19:07 +0000

You might like to read between the lines

there's no shortage of testing centers

fecnde — Mon, 24 May 2010 01:21:10 +0000

EXIN sub-contracted (franchised ... or something) to Prometric to run the foundation exams http://prometric.com/EXIN/default.htm . They have a pretty wide coverage internationally. They have 11 sites in Greece that will handle English (I didn't check other languages - but it's probably the same).

I'd say you're right Skep - APMG have bought into more of a manageability problem without gaining very much in the way of increasing the availability of assessment sites.

Although - to be fair, prometric only do foundation exams

Culture and language

JamesFinister — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:21:34 +0000

I believe there is a credible justification for expanding the number of EIs if they can make the qualification more accessible across cultures and languages, with the proviso that they do not weaken the global value of the qualification