ITIL 4 Strategist – Direct, Plan & Improve: Course Author Blog

Our latest eLearning course has arrived! If you’re ready to start your journey towards ITIL 4 Managing Professional status, or just keen to learn more about the Direct, Plan and Improve strategist training, this blog is for you. Course lead author Claire Agutter shares her inside knowledge and top tips to help you decide if this ITIL 4 certification is right for you, and prepare for your studies.

Where does this course fit in the ITIL 4 qualification scheme?

Direct, Plan and Improve (PI) is unique in the ITIL 4 certification scheme, as a building block for both ITIL Managing Professional and ITIL Strategic Leader status. You can take the course as a standalone certification or take it along with other courses to become an ITIL 4 Managing Professional or ITIL 4 Strategic Leader. At ITSM Zone, we are continually releasing new ITIL 4 training courses, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter to be notified as they are released.

Don’t forget, if you already hold 17 credits from the ITIL v3 scheme or are an ITIL Expert, you can take the Managing Professional Transition course instead of the four specialist courses. View the course information for the Managing Professional Transition.

Start your DPI training today

Who is the course for?

The DPI course is aimed towards IT and digital managers at all levels, who have a role in shaping direction, strategy or continual improvement. It’s relevant for:

• Anyone planning work, improving products, or managing organizational change
• IT professionals who interface with governance, risk and compliance capabilities

Specific role titles that will benefit from this course will include:

• Continuous improvement manager
• Change manager
• Capacity manager
• IT operations manager
• Cloud architect
• Enterprise architect
• Service portfolio manager
• Service designer
• Risk manager
• Information security/compliance manager
• Cloud systems engineer
• And more…

If you’ve got questions about whether this course will be suitable for you, get in touch.

How is the course structured?

The course is structured around eight modules, each broken down into individual lessons so that you can manage your learning at your own pace and to suit your lifestyle. As with all of our courses, the lessons include a mixture of self-paced on-screen content, exercises, storytelling and animations, quizzes and downloadable documents.

The modules include:

• Module 1 – DPI Key Concepts
• Module 2 – DPI Scope, Key Principles and Methods
• Module 3 – The Role of Governance, Risk and Compliance
• Module 4 – Focus on Improvement
• Module 5 – Focus on Organizational Change Management
• Module 6 – DPI, Measurement and Reporting
• Module 7 – DPI, Value Streams and Practices
• Module 8 – Recap and Exam Preparation

What are the key learning points?

Taking the ITIL 4 Direct, Plan and Improve training will provide you with the skills and knowledge to:

• Ensure tactical IT teams align their work effectively to meet business objectives
• Break down silos by encouraging a holistic, systems-thinking approach to value co-creation
• Adapt tools and techniques across the operating model, with minimal disruption
• Use the ITIL guiding principles, strong business cases, robust planning and effective controls when developing change management programs aligned to strategic vision
• Create regular reporting cycles and utilize Lean, Agile and DevOps ways of working to eliminate waste and encourage feedback loops
• Understand the importance of governance and compliance and help organizations remain resilient to digital disruption.

What will I find interesting?

If you already have some ITSM and ITIL experience, you’ll enjoy learning about service management at a more strategic level. This course looks at the 'why' of the organization, and how products and services help it to achieve its vision and mission.

Whether you’ve got in-depth ITIL experience or not, you'll leave the course with a more holistic focus, looking at planning and improvement across the value chain.

Start your DPI training today

What will I find most challenging?

The DPI course helps ITSM practitioners to embed ITIL methods in the overall IT strategy. The focus is on a learning and improving culture, but this can be challenging for students who work in a siloed organization. It's important to approach the course contents with a holistic mindset, to see where improvements are possible in your own organization and your own scope of control.

What are the benefits of ITIL 4 Direct, Plan and Improve strategist certification?

ITIL 4 Strategist: DPI will help you as a professional to:

• Encourage a culture of continual improvement
• Accelerate decision making
• Balance innovation and compliance

The ITIL 4 certifications are valued around the world and recognized by employers as a sign that you have up to date service management skills and knowledge. Achieving the certification is an investment in your career.

What are the benefits of taking the ITSM Zone eLearning course for ITIL 4 DPI?

Let’s consider this question from the organizational and the individual perspective.

For organizations, there will be tangible benefits realized by training staff in the DPI module. It’s easy for staff to only see their own part of the organization, leading to bottlenecks and localized improvements. DPI encourages a holistic focus and better alignment with the organizations overall vision and mission.

For individuals, there are the obvious employability benefits that come with having up to date certifications on your resume. But training is about so much more than just having a certificate, it’s about exposure to new ideas and the outcomes that this can deliver. If you’ve been working in ITSM for a long time, this training will give you an opportunity to consider product and service management at a strategic level.

Start your DPI training today

About the author
Claire Agutter is the founder and lead tutor at ITSM Zone. Catch up with Claire on the ITSM Crowd every month for 30 minutes of ITSM knowledge sharing. Follow Claire on social media: Linkedin, Twitter