5.2.1. The Seven Principles and How They Interact
💡 First Principle: Listing the seven — focus on value; start where you are; progress iteratively with feedback; collaborate and promote visibility; think and work holistically; keep it simple and practical; optimize and automate — and recognizing that they work as a set is the foundation everything else in this topic builds on.
The seven ITIL guiding principles:
| # | Principle | One-line essence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Focus on value | Everything must link back to value for a stakeholder |
| 2 | Start where you are | Assess and reuse what exists; don't rip and replace blindly |
| 3 | Progress iteratively with feedback | Work in small steps, learn, adjust |
| 4 | Collaborate and promote visibility | Work together openly; hidden work breeds distrust |
| 5 | Think and work holistically | The whole system matters, not isolated parts |
| 6 | Keep it simple and practical | Use the minimum steps to achieve the outcome |
| 7 | Optimize and automate | Make work efficient first, then automate it |
How they interact: the principles reinforce each other — "progress iteratively with feedback" depends on "collaborate and promote visibility" to get the feedback; "optimize and automate" depends on "keep it simple and practical" so you don't automate complexity. They can also create tension (simplicity vs. holistic completeness) that judgment must balance.
⚠️ Exam Trap: Know all seven by name — a "list" question will offer near-misses ("focus on the customer," "automate everything," "move fast"). And remember they're applied together, not in isolation.
Reflection Question: Pick two principles and explain how one supports the other in practice.
