Which statement best describes how the service desk relates to other practices?
ITIL 4 Foundation, objective 7. Seven ITIL practices in detail medium
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
Not correct It should resolve every contact itself, because escalating to other practices indicates a failure of the desk
Wrong, and it encourages the wrong behaviour. Escalating work that belongs elsewhere is correct practice; forcing the desk to resolve everything would either delay users or produce unsafe fixes.
Correct It relies on support from many other practices, and needs shared information and tooling so that contacts can be classified, owned and progressed
Correct. The desk depends on incident management, service request management, problem management, supplier management, configuration information and knowledge to do its job.
Not correct It directs the other practices, since incident management, problem management and change enablement all report into the service desk
Wrong. The desk coordinates and follows up on the contacts it captures, but it does not own or direct those practices. Practices are ways of working, not a reporting hierarchy with the desk at the top.
Not correct It replaces the need for problem management, because recurring calls reveal underlying causes directly
Wrong. Recurring calls are a valuable signal that feeds problem management, but analysing and removing causes is a distinct practice with its own techniques.
Why
The service desk sits at a junction. It needs support from the practices that actually resolve or fulfil what users bring, and it needs shared information — knowledge articles, configuration data, the change schedule — to classify and progress contacts intelligently. Treating escalation as failure, or treating the desk as self-sufficient, both break that design.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- ITIL 4 syllabus clause 7
- What it says
- The service desk needs support from other practices and relies on shared information and integrated tooling.
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a set from objective 7 and space the ones you get wrong.