4.1.1. The Eight Lifecycle Activities
💡 First Principle: Naming the eight activities — discover, design, acquire, build, transition, operate, deliver, support — gives you the vocabulary for every stage of a product's life, and the exam expects the complete, correct set.
The eight activities of the ITIL Product and Service Lifecycle:
The solid arrows show a typical logical ordering; the dotted arrows show that the lifecycle loops — support insights trigger rediscovery, operation reveals design needs, and so on. Discover explores demand and opportunity; design shapes the solution; acquire obtains needed resources; build creates the components; transition moves them into the live environment; operate runs them; deliver provides the service to consumers; support handles issues and requests.
⚠️ Exam Trap: A "list" question may slip in a non-activity (like "deploy" or "retire") among the eight. Memorize the exact set: discover, design, acquire, build, transition, operate, deliver, support.
Reflection Question: Why does the diagram show dotted arrows looping back, and what real situation does the "support → discover" loop represent?
