Which statement best describes what a guiding principle is in ITIL 4?
ITIL 4 Foundation, objective 2. The ITIL guiding principles easy
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How these questions are written — where each question comes from, what the verification ledger records, and what happens when one is found wrong.
The options
Not correct A mandatory control that an organization must implement to be assessed as compliant
Guiding principles are recommendations, not mandatory controls, and ITIL does not certify organizations against them.
Correct A recommendation that guides an organization in all circumstances, regardless of changes in its goals, strategies or structure
Correct. Guiding principles are described as universal and enduring; they hold whatever the organization's objectives or operating model.
Not correct A set of activities that transforms inputs into outputs within the service value chain
That describes a process or a value chain activity, not a guiding principle.
Not correct An organizational resource designed for performing work, such as a practice
That is the definition of a practice, a distinct component of the service value system.
Why
A guiding principle is a recommendation that guides an organization in all circumstances, regardless of changes in its goals, strategies, type of work or management structure. That universality is what distinguishes principles from practices, processes and controls.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- ITIL 4 syllabus clause 2
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a short set from objective 2 and space the ones you get wrong.
More questions on this objective
- A team has been asked to replace an ageing service desk tool. Before designing anything, the team inventories the existing tool's integrations, workflows and data, and finds that several components work well and can be carried forward. Which guiding principle is the team applying? machine-checked
- An organization decides to introduce robotic process automation for its user access request handling. Its ITIL adviser insists that the approval steps are first reviewed and the redundant ones removed. What is the reasoning behind this advice? machine-checked
- A programme has been running for eleven months with no deliverable released, because the team intends to hand over the complete solution in one go. Which guiding principle is being ignored? machine-checked
- 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? machine-checked
- During an improvement review, a team finds that a weekly reconciliation report is produced, circulated and archived, but no one uses it for any decision. Which guiding principle states directly that an activity like this should be eliminated? machine-checked
- A change to a payment service is planned by the application team alone. When deployed, it breaks a downstream reporting service and leaves the support team without updated documentation. Which guiding principle would most likely have prevented this? machine-checked