9.3. Practice Questions
These mirror the four exam formats. Try each before reading the rationale.
Q1 (Standard). Which statement best describes a service in ITIL?
- A) A configuration of an organization's resources designed to offer value
- B) A means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes customers want, without the customer managing specific costs and risks
- C) A tangible item whose ownership transfers to the consumer
- D) A documented agreement specifying expected service levels
✅ Answer: B. A service enables outcomes while the provider absorbs costs and risks. A is a product; C is a good; D is an SLA. The defining feature of a service is the removal of cost and risk from the consumer.
Q2 (Negative). Which of the following is NOT one of the four dimensions of product and service management?
- A) Organizations and people
- B) Information and technology
- C) Governance
- D) Partners and suppliers
✅ Answer: C. Governance is a component of the Value System, not one of the four dimensions. The four are organizations and people, information and technology, partners and suppliers, and value streams and processes. Classic negative-question bait: C is a real ITIL concept, just not a dimension.
Q3 (Missing word). The guiding principle 'optimize and automate' means you should optimize a process ___ you automate it.
- A) instead of
- B) before
- C) after
- D) without
✅ Answer: B. Optimize before you automate — automating a wasteful process just produces waste faster. The order is the most-tested point on this principle.
Q4 (List). Which two of the following are true of continual improvement?
- It is an ongoing activity woven throughout the value system
- It is a one-time project run after a service goes live
- It is the responsibility of everyone, not a single team
- It is the final stage of the lifecycle, performed last
✅ Answer: 1 and 3. Continual improvement is ongoing and pervasive (1) and everyone's responsibility (3). Statement 2 wrongly frames it as one-time; statement 4 wrongly localizes it to a final stage. Evaluate each statement independently — the two trues are 1 and 3.
Q5 (Standard). A recurring outage's underlying cause has been identified and documented with a workaround, but no permanent fix has been deployed. In ITIL terms, this is best described as a:
- A) Incident
- B) Problem
- C) Known error
- D) Event
✅ Answer: C. A known error is a problem whose cause is understood (often with a workaround) but not yet permanently resolved. It's no longer just a "problem" (B) because the cause is now understood; it's not the symptom (incident, A) or a state change (event, D).
Q6 (Negative). All of the following are components of the ITIL Value System EXCEPT:
- A) The value chain
- B) Management practices
- C) The product and service lifecycle
- D) Continual improvement
✅ Answer: C. The product and service lifecycle is a separate ITIL model, not a component of the Value System. The five components are guiding principles, governance, value chain, management practices, and continual improvement.
Q7 (Missing word). A ___ value stream directly creates and delivers value to external customers, while an enabling value stream supports it.
- A) core
- B) primary
- C) central
- D) main
✅ Answer: A. The ITIL term is core value stream (paired with enabling). The other words are plausible English synonyms but not the ITIL term — the exam tests the precise vocabulary.
Q8 (List). Which two statements about governance are correct?
- Governance directs and controls the organization
- Governance carries out the operational work of the value chain
- Governance has an enabling nature within the value system
- Governance and management are the same activity
✅ Answer: 1 and 3. Governance directs and controls (1) and enables the rest of the system (3). Statement 2 confuses governance with execution; statement 4 wrongly equates governance and management.
