Itil exam boards reach agreement

Peace has broken out between the rival Itil accreditation bodies after an agreement was announced that will see APM Group, Exin and BCS-ISEB all offer exams for version 3 of Itil when it is released later in the year.

The three organisations had been at loggerheads since last year when APM Group secured the contract with the Office of Government Commerce to operate Itil accreditation services, replacing Exin and BCS-ISEB.

The move had prompted speculation that Exin and BCS-ISEB, both of which boast a large customer base, would attempt to expand their general IT service management qualifications as a direct competitor to Itil that would challenge the best practice guidelines' emergence as an international standard.

Richard Pharro, managing director of APM Group, said that the agreement allowed the Exin and ISEB to continue to develop broad service management qualifications but prevented them from developing a direct competitor to Itil. Instead, they will act in partnership with APM Group and continue to act as Itil examination providers.

"This agreement means that everyone is pulling in the same direction and gives us a single certification scheme and syllabus for version 3 of Itil," Pharro said. "It is good news for the Itil community and we have already received many emails from members of the community happy this has been resolved. "