The design process is vital to the continued improvement and development of services within the IT life-cycle and the ITIL Release, Control and Validation Certificate has become the IT industry's de-facto intermediate professional qualification in the field of IT Service Management.

This module provides an introduction to the purpose and objectives of the service transition phase and the role that RCV plays within that phase and within the service life-cycle.

Considerations for developing a transition strategy and planning and coordinating service transition activities are explored, including associated roles and responsibilities.

The candidate must be able to understand and describe:

This module addresses how the process of change management contributes to RCV practices.

The life-cycle stage emphasized in this module is service transition. A complete overview of the purpose, objectives, scope and importance of change management as a process to generate business value is explored and demonstrated using examples.

Change management policies, principles, concepts, activities, methods and techniques are explained in relation to RCV practices, and especially in relation to types of change requests and how they flow through the process. Efficient use of change management metrics are reviewed in this unit, as well as how service operation and continual service improvement interacts with change management.

The candidate must be able to understand and describe:

* The purpose and objectives of the Change Management process and describe its practical application within a business environment
* The scope of the Change Management process
* The business value of change management and demonstrate some practical examples in real-life situations
* Change management policies, and its design and planning considerations
* Types of change request, and describe them using examples by service lifecycle stage; distinguish           changes, requests for change (RFCs)     and change records
* The role of change models, change proposals and standard changes
* The options and considerations for remediation planning
* Typical activities involved in managing changes, and describe workflow of processing different types of change requests
* The methods and techniques associated with each major change management activity
* The change management process triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces with other processes
* The role of the configuration management system (CMS) in change management
* How change management can be effectively measured, and examples of critical success factors and key performance indicators
* The challenges and risks of change management
* Typical change management activities that may be performed on a day-to-day basis during the service operation lifecycle stage
* Managing organization and stakeholder change as an essential part of continual improvement

This module expands on how the process of service asset and configuration management (SACM) contributes to RCV practices.

The life-cycle phase emphasized in this module is service transition. It provides a complete overview of the purpose, objectives, scope and importance of SACM as a process to generate business value.

SACM policies, principles, concepts, activities, methods and techniques are explained in relation to RCV practices. The importance and use of configuration items (CIs) is explained, along with tools, activity models, CMS back-ups and historical data.

Efficient use of SACM metrics are reviewed in this module, as well as how service operation interacts with SACM.

The candidate must be able to understand and describe:

* The purpose and objectives of the SACM process
* The scope of SACM
* The business value of the SACM process, and demonstrate some practical examples in real-life situations
* SACM policies and basic concepts and various types of CIs
* The use of a configuration management system (CMS), and its major components, in supporting the effective execution of SACM process
* The activities of asset management, the role of software asset management and associated tools
* The key SACM process activities and deliverables for executing each of these activities
* The SACM process triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces with other processes
* The information management considerations for SACM & the challenges and risks of SACM
* How the SACM process can be effectively measured, and examples of critical success factors and key performance indicators and their   application
* Typical SACM activities performed on a daily basis by service operation

This module introduces the service validation and testing (SVT) process and looks at how it contributes to RCV.

It provides a complete overview of the purpose, objectives, scope and importance of SVT as a process, the various test models, test and validation conditions. SVT policies, principles, concepts, activities, methods and techniques are explained in relation to RCV practices and building/achieving quality of service.

Efficient use of SVT metrics is reviewed in this module in terms of business value contribution and internal efficiency.

The candidate must be able to understand and describe:

* The purpose and objectives of the SVT process
* The scope of the SVT process
* The business value of the SVT process, and demonstrate some practical examples in real-life situations
* How policies can drive and support the execution of the SVT process, and describe practical examples of such policies
* Various test models, their objectives and test conditions, and examples of validation conditions
* Various validation and testing perspectives, their purposes and the stakeholder groups ’ requirements to be addressed
* The use of test levels and test models to help with build quality service deliverables during the early stage of the service development lifecycle
* The key activities of the SVT process, the underlying method and techniques in performing each step
* The SVT process triggers, inputs, outputs and interface with other processes
* The practices of maintaining test data and test environments in respect of changing test requirements
* How the SVT processes can be measured in terms of business value contribution and internal efficiency, and examples of critical success factors    and key performance indicators
* The challenges and risks of SVT

This module covers how the release and deployment management (RDM) process contributes to RCV practices.

It provides a complete overview of the purpose, objectives, scope and importance of release and deployment management as a process to generate business value.

Release and deployment management policies, principles, concepts, activities, methods and techniques are explained in relationship to RCV practices. The concept of the release module is explained, along with RDM planning, release build and test, pilots, deployment, logistics, delivery, retirement, risks and financials.

Efficient use of RDM critical success factors and key performance indicators are reviewed.

The candidate must be able to understand and describe:

* The purpose, and objectives of the RDM process
* The scope of the RDM process
* The business value of the RDM process
* RDM policies, the concept of a release unit, release design options and considerations, and models
* The four phases of RDM
* Release and deployment planning considerations
* Release and deployment plans
* Pass/fail criteria
* Build and test planning
* Planning release packaging and build
* Preparation for release build and test
* Deployment planning
* Planning of pilots
* Financial/commercial planning
* The key steps and techniques for performing the release build and test stage
* Release and build documentation
* Acquire and test input configuration items and components
* Build and manage the test

This module looks at how the request fulfilment process contributes to RCV practices.

The life-cycle phase emphasized in this unit is service operation. A complete overview of the purpose, objectives, scope and importance of request fulfillment as a process, as well as of how request fulfillment may help to establish a self-help service practice within an organization.

Request fulfillment policies, principles, concepts, activities, methods and techniques are explained in relation to RCV practices. The relationship between request fulfillment and release and deployment management is explored, as well as how it differs from incident management.

The candidate must be able to understand and describe:

* The purpose, objectives and scope of the request fulfillment process
* The business value of the request fulfillment process
* Request fulfillment policies, principles and basic concepts
* Request fulfillment activities and demonstrate some practical examples of service requests that can be offered as standard services by category
* Request fulfillment process triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces (particularly with RDM, SACM and change management)
* Information required by the request fulfillment process
* How request fulfillment can be effectively measured, and examples of critical success factors and key performance indicators
* Challenges and risks pertaining to request fulfillment

This module covers the change evaluation process of service transition and how it contributes to RCV and provides a complete overview of the purpose, objectives, scope and importance of change evaluation as a process.

Change evaluation policies, principles, concepts, activities, methods, and techniques are explained in relation to RCV practices.

The evaluation of predicted and actual service performance and their relation to risk management is also discussed.

The candidate must be able to understand and describe:

* The purpose, objectives and scope of the change evaluation process
* The business value of the change evaluation process
* Change evaluation policies, principles and use of the Plan-Do-Check-Act model
* Change evaluation process terminology and typical change evaluation process workflow
* Perspectives to consider when executing an evaluation plan, the intended and unintended effect of a change, and factors for evaluating the         effectiveness of a service change
* The evaluation of predicted service performance and actual performance and of risk management
* How this can impact the course of actions for the overall service design / change evaluation
* Evaluation report contents
* Change evaluation process triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces
* The role of the SKMS and CMS
* How change evaluation can be effectively measured, and examples of critical success factors and key performance indicators
* Challenges and risks pertaining to change evaluation

This module deals with how the KM process contributes to RCV practices. It covers a complete overview of the purpose, objectives, scope and importance of KM as a process, and the benefits of deploying a service knowledge management system (SKMS).

The basic layers of the KM concept using the data-information-knowledge-wisdom (DIKW) structure are covered, as well as what constitutes an effective KM strategy with practical techniques for enabling knowledge transfer.

It covers KM policies, principles, concepts, activities, methods and in relation to RCV practices and the importance of the stakeholder groups. Efficient use of KM critical success factors and key performance indicators are reviewed.

The candidate must be able to understand and describe:

* The purpose, objectives and scope of the KM process
* The business value of the KM process, especially in the context of service transition
* KM policies and use of DIKW structure. The SKMS and its relationship with the CMDB and CMS, using examples
* KM activities and practical techniques for enabling a KM strategy, knowledge transfer and the effective management of data, information and   knowledge
* Demonstrate the benefits of using an SKMS through examples
* KM process triggers, inputs, outputs and interfaces. The stakeholder groups within the IT service management organization whose support is     needed for effective knowledge management.
* Information management aspects to consider when creating an SKMS
* How KM can be effectively measured, and examples of critical success factors and key performance indicators
* Challenges and risks pertaining to KM

This module deals with how service transition roles and responsibilities contribute to RCV practices.

It defines and discusses change management, release and deployment management, service validation and testing, service asset and configuration management, knowledge management, request fulfillment and change evaluation roles/functions that are responsible for executing each step of the process.

The candidate must be able to understand and describe:

* Generic roles involved in service transition
* The key roles/functions responsible for executing each process step
* Generic roles in service transition
* Transition planning and support
* Change management
* Service asset and configuration management
* Release and deployment management
* Service validation and testing
* Request fulfillment
* Change evaluation
* Knowledge management

This module deals with technology and implementation considerations and how they contribute to RCV practices.

Service design is specifically used to identify good practices and evaluation criteria for technology and tools. Service operation provides the specifics on managing changes in operations, service operation and project management, assessing and managing risk in service operation, operational staff in service design and transition and planning and implementing service management technology.

Service transition provides the specifics on the technology considerations for implementing and collaboration for service asset and configuration management and knowledge management.

The candidate must be able to understand and describe:

* The list of generic requirements for integrated ITSM technology
* The evaluation criteria for service management tools for process implementation
* The RCV practices for process implementation
* Managing change in operations
* Service operation and project management
* Assessing and managing risk in service operation
* Operational staff in service design and transition
* The challenges, critical success factors and risks relating to implementing service transition practices and processes
* How to plan and implement service management technologies
* The technology considerations for implementing the following processes and activities
* Knowledge management tools, collaboration, and configuration management system

This module summarizes the material covered in the previous modules and prepares candidates for the examination.