SMITS study plan

Define the core ITSM vocabulary (service, utility, warranty, value, outcome, incident, problem, known error) and write a one-sentence definition for each from memory

Distinguish the five ITIL 4 management-dimension and value-chain concepts well enough to sketch the service value chain with its six activities

Map every incident-versus-problem boundary case in a 10-scenario self-quiz and justify each classification in writing

Explain how governance bodies (policy, prioritisation, risk appetite) constrain service operation decisions using two worked examples

Walk through the full incident lifecycle (detect, log, categorise, prioritise, escalate, resolve, close) and state the decision rule at each stage

Calculate priority from impact and urgency for 12 given scenarios and defend the top three rankings

Draft a problem-management workflow that links known-error records to incident matching and to change requests

Select four operational KPIs and explain what each one fails to capture

Decompose a service design package into its component parts (requirements, acceptance criteria, capacity, availability, continuity, SLAs)

Write three SLAs that separate service level targets from operational level agreements and underpinning contracts

Sequence a normal change through assessment, authorisation, scheduling, build, test, and post-implementation review, naming the artefact produced at each step

Contrast standard, normal, and emergency changes and assign the correct type to 10 described changes

Explain how release and deployment practices differ and where a phased release reduces risk

Build a service value-stream map for one end-to-end service, marking inputs, outputs, constraints, and waste

Identify the outcomes, costs, and risks a described service creates for customer and provider, and articulate the value proposition

Apply a continual improvement model to a weak process, producing a baseline, target, and measurement method

Design a balanced scorecard with at least one leading and one lagging indicator per perspective

Trace a request from client to server across DNS, routing, and a load balancer, and list the monitoring signal that would localise a fault at each hop

Differentiate IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS responsibility boundaries and state which operational duties stay with the provider

Configure a small monitoring and alerting design that distinguishes symptoms from causes and suppresses duplicate alerts

Explain how a configuration management database supports impact analysis during incidents and changes

Describe the automation opportunities in three manual service-management tasks and the failure modes each automation introduces

Classify ten described risks by likelihood and impact and assign a treatment (avoid, mitigate, transfer, accept)

Map access control, least privilege, and segregation-of-duties requirements onto change and release approval paths

Identify the compliance evidence a change record must retain for an audit trail and explain retention rationale

Explain how security incidents integrate with the incident and problem workflows without duplicating escalation paths

Re-derive the governance, design, and measurement content from memory by writing a half-page summary of each without notes

Resolve 40 mixed practice items across these domains and log every error with its root cause category

Rewrite each missed concept as a corrected one-line rule and re-test on those rules 48 hours later

Explain how service level reporting feeds governance reviews and improvement prioritisation

Run two full timed mock exams under test conditions and record domain-level scores for each

Target the two weakest domains from the mock results with focused re-study and a second timed drill

Recite the incident, problem, and change workflows end to end from memory, naming each decision point

Assemble a one-page pre-exam reference sheet of formulas, matrices, and definitional distinctions