A manager plans a service improvement using only the monthly summary reports produced by the supplier, and does not observe how the service actually runs. Which guiding principle most directly cautions against this?
ITIL 4 Foundation, objective 2. The ITIL guiding principles hard
Draft — not checked yet. This question was written from the published exam objectives and cites the clause it comes from, but nobody has yet read it against that clause and signed for it.
It is kept out of search results and out of mock exams until they have. Read the source below before you take the answer as settled.
The options
Correct Start where you are
Correct. The principle stresses that the current state should be observed and measured directly wherever possible, because second-hand reports carry the bias of whoever produced them.
Not correct Collaborate and promote visibility
Tempting, because visibility is mentioned, but that principle is about making work visible to stakeholders and involving the right people. Here the fault is relying on reported data instead of directly assessing the current state.
Not correct Think and work holistically
This principle warns against treating components in isolation. The manager's failing is the source and reliability of the evidence, not the scope of the analysis.
Not correct Progress iteratively with feedback
Feedback loops matter, but the scenario is about how the starting position is assessed rather than about how the work is broken into iterations.
Why
'Start where you are' includes a specific caution about measurement: direct observation of the current state is preferred, because data that has been collected, filtered and summarized by others may already be distorted. Reports are useful, but they are not a substitute for seeing the service as it is.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- ITIL 4 syllabus clause 2
- What it says
- Start where you are: measure and observe the current state directly rather than relying only on second-hand reporting.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 2 and space the ones you get wrong.