ITIL 4 CDS study guide
ITIL 4 CDS · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
ITIL 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver and Support (usually shortened to ITIL 4 CDS) is one of the ITIL 4 practice-management modules that build on ITIL 4 Foundation. Where Foundation introduces the service value system and the four dimensions, CDS is aimed at practitioners who actually shape, run and improve services day to day - service desk and support leads, delivery and operations managers, product owners, and anyone moving from process administration into end-to-end value stream work. The ITIL 4 CDS study guide has 5 sections and about 1,657 words.
01Concepts and challenges of creating, delivering and supporting services
You must be able to explain how services are created and delivered through the service value system, and describe the practical pressures that make this hard. Core concepts to name: the service value chain and its six activities (plan, improve, engage, design and transition, obtain/build, deliver and support); value streams as the specific combinations of activities an organisation actually uses; service offerings (goods, access to resources, service actions); service relationships built on provisioning, consumption and relationship management; and the utility/warranty split of value.
361 words, about 2 min02Using ITIL practices to create, deliver and support services
You must show how individual practices combine inside a value stream, rather than treating them as separate silos. Know the purpose and key interfaces of: service desk; incident, service request and problem management; change enablement; release and deployment management; service level management; knowledge management; service configuration and IT asset management; service design, service validation and testing; and continual improvement.
332 words, about 2 min03Planning and managing the flow of work and value
You must understand how work moves from demand to value, how to visualise it, and how to remove the constraints that slow it. Candidates should be comfortable with value stream mapping, Kanban and visual management, work-in-progress (WIP) limits, batch size and cadence, and priority-setting using capacity and demand data.
311 words, about 2 min04Building effective teams and organisational culture
You must explain how team structure, leadership style and culture shape service outcomes. Know the traits of effective teams - shared purpose, trust, psychological safety, autonomy with accountability, cross-functional skills, clear roles - and the models used to discuss them: T-shaped and comb-shaped skills, team topologies (stream-aligned, platform, enabling, complicated-subsystem), communities of practice, and stages of team development.
301 words, about 2 min05Developing and managing capabilities and value streams
You must be able to explain what a capability is, how capabilities combine into value streams, and how both are assessed and improved. A capability is an organisation's ability to do something, formed from people and skills, processes and practices, technology, information and partners.
352 words, about 2 min