ITIL Credit Administration Policy

Areas of the ITIL Credit System were recently reviewed in order to improve guidance for candidates whose certification goal is ITIL V3 Expert Level, and better steer candidates towards selecting a balanced portfolio of qualifications.

The result of this assessment was the introduction of an ITIL Credit Administration Policy which provides rules and recommendations to candidates on which ITIL certification combinations can or cannot be used together in ITIL Expert applications.

The Policy

Based on the percentage of duplicate ITIL content present between specific combinations of ITIL certifications, the following three degrees of overlap have been identified - low, moderate or high:

Low Degree of Overlap - 0-19%
Modules which fall into this degree of overlap have little or no content overlap, and cover different areas or aspects of the ITIL Best Practice guidance.

Candidates who select modules within this range are permitted to use both certifications and the credits earned together in their Expert application.

It is worth noting that candidates who select modules towards Expert within range will benefit from strengthened ITIL knowledge that will help them to succeed in passing the ITIL Managing Across the Lifecycle Certification, which is a key requirement for reaching Expert Level.

Moderate Degree of Overlap - 20-39%
Modules which fall into this range cover a moderate percentage of similar ITIL content.  This degree of overlap is most consistently seen between the Lifecycle and Capability qualifications, where the same processes and functions are resident in both, but are covered to different depths of detail.

Candidates should avoid taking V3 modules in this range and are strongly encouraged to build a  certification portfolio which cover as many ITIL disciplines as possible. 

However, those who study for and pass certifications in this range will be permitted to submit both certifications and credits earned together in their Expert application.

The following table illustrates the low and moderate degrees of overlap between ITIL V3 Intermediate Level modules:

High Degree of Overlap - 40%+
This range of content overlap is considered significant enough to compromise a balanced knowledge base of the full ITIL V3 spectrum. It is currently only found between certain combinations of V2 and V3 certifications.

Candidates must not take certifications in this range as only one qualification and set of credits from the module combinations in this range can be used in an ITIL Expert level application.

All potential Expert candidates should be aware of this policy when selecting modules of V3 study, particularly those who hold ITIL certifications from earlier versions.

V2 and V3 module combinations which fall into this range together with their credit values, are outlined in the following table:

For more information, download the New ITIL V3 Credit Administration Policy document for full details.