ITIL-4 - Know the purpose and key terms of 15 ITIL practices (18% of the exam) - Section 6.1

Recall the purpose of the 15 named ITIL practices, including information security, supplier, change enablement, incident, problem, and service level management.

Recall the one-line purpose of each of the 15 ITIL practices in scope, including information security management, relationship management, supplier management, IT asset management, monitoring and event management, release management, service configuration management, and deployment management. Distinguish purposes that candidates commonly conflate, such as change enablement (authorising changes) versus release management (making a service available).

Information security managementSupplier managementChange enablementRelease managementDeployment management

Practice question for this objective

Free sampleKnow the purpose and key terms of 15 ITIL practicesmedium

Which statement best expresses the difference in purpose between service level management and change enablement in ITIL 4?

  • AService level management moves changed components into the live environment, while change enablement makes the resulting features available to users.
  • BService level management authorises changes after assessing their risk, while change enablement negotiates the targets recorded in service level agreements.
  • CService level management sets clear business-based targets for service performance and assesses delivery against them, while change enablement maximises successful changes by assessing and authorising them. Correct
  • DService level management protects the confidentiality and integrity of service data, while change enablement restores normal operation after an interruption.
Contrast service level management's purpose of setting and monitoring service targets with change enablement's purpose of authorising successful changes. Service level management exists to agree measurable, business-based service targets and check that delivery meets them, while change enablement exists to maximise successful changes by assessing risk and granting authorisation. Keeping the two purposes distinct prevents confusing performance agreements with change authorisation.

Why A is wrong: This is tempting because both sit near the delivery of change, but moving components to live is deployment management and making features available is release management, so neither half describes the two named practices.

Why B is wrong: This swaps the two purposes, which appeals to a candidate who knows both practices exist but not which does what; authorising changes is change enablement and agreeing targets is service level management.

Why C is correct: This is correct: service level management's purpose is setting and monitoring agreed, business-based service targets, while change enablement's purpose is maximising successful changes through risk assessment and authorisation.

Why D is wrong: This is attractive because both clauses name genuine ITIL concerns, but protecting data is information security management and restoring normal operation is incident management, so neither describes service level management or change enablement.

See more ITIL-4 practice questions, answers explained.

Exam traps in Know the purpose and key terms of 15 ITIL practices

Answers that look right on this material and are not. Each one is a distractor from a different question in the ITIL-4 bank for this domain.

  • To record, investigate and manage the resolution of incidents that arise when a poorly controlled change fails in production.

    Why it is wrong: Tempting because failed changes cause incidents, but resolving incidents is the purpose of incident management; change enablement aims to prevent such failures by assessing and authorising changes beforehand.

  • Release management authorises whether a change may proceed, while deployment management assesses the risk that the change presents to live services.

    Why it is wrong: Tempting because both ideas are real ITIL activities, but authorising change and assessing its risk both belong to change enablement, not to release or deployment management.

  • To minimise the total number of changes made to services so that stability is preserved

    Why it is wrong: This reflects the manager's misconception; change enablement does not aim to reduce how many changes occur, so restricting change for its own sake is not its purpose.

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