ITIL 4 Practitioner: Relationship Management study plan

Define relationship management in your own words and distinguish it from customer experience management, service level management and supplier management

Explain how the relationship management practice contributes to the ITIL 4 service value chain, naming at least three value chain activities it supports

Map the key concepts of stakeholders, personas, trust, empathy and shared outcomes to concrete examples from your own organization

Identify the inputs, outputs and key interfaces of the relationship management practice as described in ITIL 4

Describe the purpose and scope of the relationship management practice and list the activities it performs across the lifecycle of a relationship

Differentiate the four relationship stages (initiate, establish, maintain, mature or equivalent) and state the objective of each

Draft a stakeholder segmentation approach that groups stakeholders by influence, interest and dependency

Explain how relationship management activities feed into continual improvement and the improve value chain activity

Walk through the key activities of the practice: identifying stakeholders, analysing needs, agreeing expectations, managing interactions and reviewing relationship health

Construct a stakeholder analysis for a difficult or at-risk relationship and propose concrete corrective actions

Explain how complaints, feedback and satisfaction data are captured, analysed and turned into improvement actions

Describe how the practice agrees and documents expectations without confusing them with service level targets

Explain how relationship management interacts with the information and technology dimension, including tools such as CRM, ITSM platforms and survey systems

Describe how data from relationship activities is captured, governed and used to inform decisions

Identify the partner and supplier dimension of relationships and how supplier relationships differ from customer relationships

Trace how relationship management activities appear in a real value stream, from demand to value

List the key roles involved in relationship management and state the responsibilities and accountabilities of each

Explain how responsibility for relationship management is distributed across practice owners, service owners, account managers and product teams

Describe the competencies, skills and behaviours a relationship manager needs, including communication, negotiation and empathy

Draft a RACI matrix for the main relationship management activities across at least four roles

Explain how relationship management is organized in different operating models: centralized, federated and product-team-based

Describe how the practice integrates with other ITIL 4 practices, particularly service level management, supplier management, service desk and continual improvement

Identify the organizational structures and governance forums that support relationship management, such as service review meetings and escalation paths

Assess the strengths and weaknesses of your own organization's structure for relationship management

Explain how relationship management supports the four dimensions of service management and the guiding principles

Describe how the practice uses information and technology to measure relationship health and stakeholder satisfaction

Identify the metrics and KPIs used to evaluate relationship management effectiveness and how they link to value

Revisit and refine your week 1 concept map with the wider framework knowledge gained

Consolidate all four domains into a single revision summary covering concepts, activities, roles and framework integration

Complete timed practice questions across all domains and review every incorrect answer against the source material

Identify remaining weak areas and close them with targeted reading

Explain the end-to-end relationship lifecycle using your own organization as the worked example