ITIL 4 Foundation: valuable at any point in a career

Lucy Banks began as a digital technology apprentice eight years ago and has since risen to be Global Head of Problem Operations at Barclays. Recently, she was certified in ITIL 4 Foundation and this is her impression:

Working in an ITIL environment for my whole career, certifying in ITIL 4 Foundation makes sense: now, it’s putting a structure against what I’ve been doing already.

What struck me was how easy it is to digest, adopt, transfer and implement to any kind of service management in any organization and how easily the practices can be used in real-life scenarios.

What was new to me in ITIL 4 (versus ITIL v3) was the structure around the service value system and service value chain and how it relates to my role as a senior leader.

So, what will I do differently?

The seven guiding principles really stood out to me as something to adopt, as our team is going through a period of transformation in how it operates with stakeholders, outputs and how we perform our role. Reading the guiding principles was a lightbulb moment for exactly what we’ve been trying to do in expanding the scope for our improvement program – and especially making sure we have a clear feedback loop when going through changes on a large scale.

Taking ITIL Foundation at this stage in my career has reminded me of the value of learning – you can never not learn, particularly working in service stability; gaining knowledge is about digging deeper into what everyone’s doing and the processes behind the technology.

There is always something to learn no matter where you are and how high you are in your industry and I plan to continue on this journey.

ITIL 4 Foundation for new industry entrants

If I’d done the training and certification my first year at Barclays, many things would have made sense much more quickly. Having the ability to understand the ideas more formally and the ability to apply them is a good route for new colleagues to take, giving them wider understanding of what we do and how it can transfer across an organization.

As we are sitting in the command centre for the company, new joiners need a training framework to adapt to such a demanding environment.

Problem management and the ITIL Practice Manager designation

I’m elated about problem management having its own ITIL 4 course as part of the ITIL Practice Manager designation.

Problem management doesn’t often get the attention it needs and it’s my job to change the perception about what it means to stability of service management in the business overall. Having a dedicated ITIL practice dedicated to this and a certification is absolutely a step towards that, as ITIL is respected within Barclays. And this is such a pivotal year for problem management at Barclays.

When funding allows, I’d like to put our team through such courses. It will give us a wider depth of knowledge – different perceptions and fresh eyes, adding an extra layer of learning and knowledge to the team.

And I think it’s incredibly important to have separate ITIL learning routes to attain higher qualifications depending on your roles and goals. This gives the workforce and leadership a diversity of thought, something which is a key value in our company.

Achieving variety in what colleagues are learning ultimately diversifies the way we work with changes and improvements and how we apply ITIL to what we do.