ITIL Software Management Essentials
Course Duration - 3 Days
This course is a Foundation level course that acts as a prerequisite for candidates wishing to attend the more advanced Practitioner level SAM course.
Delivered by one of three leading consultants within Infrasolve (Harbrook Training’s sister company). Using in depth and up to date experience to deliver the course, all candidates will leave the three days with a more comprehensive and practical view of SAM.
Who should Attend
Individuals that cover any part of software management through their daily roles will find the SAM Foundation course beneficial. The following roles areas have previously benefited from the course
- Procurement or Sourcing
- Configuration management
- Release management
- IT Audit
- Risk & control
- Finance
- SAM or ITAM Teams
Software asset management spans through the new v.3 ITIL Infrastructure setting in real detail and as such there are many areas of IT that require good SAM knowledge.
Prerequisites
Candidates with a reasonable knowledge of software asset management can attend this Foundationlevel course. This course does not require you to hold previous certifications, although any introduction into ITIL as a framework would be helpful.
Course Objectives
After completing this course, students should have learnt:
- Describe the objectives and major activities required to implement SAM within an organisation
- Explain and use SAM techniques and processes
- Be aware of the support tools and techniques available for the implementation of SAM and be able to indicate how possible improvements can be made
- Manage software assets through the stages of their lifecycle
- Prepare and distribute SAM reports and plans throughout the organisation
- Understand and explain the interdependencies between SAM and other IT & Service Management processes
- Make more efficient use of software licenses within an organisation and define, produce and analyse measurements and metrics
- Assist organisations develop effective SAM processes in line with evolving SAM standards
- Justify and sell the benefits of a SAM initiative
- Understand the impact of software ownership, legal risks and non compliance
Structure
The course is delivered in a classroom using PowerPoint slides. The 3 days of training will consist of lectures, practical sessions, team workshops as well as question & answer sessions.
A mock exam will also be given to the candidates on the third day, which will help them emphasize on ambiguous topics prior to the exam. The tutor will be available during the evenings for extra tuition and guidance on all SAM related subjects.
Sylllabus
The course covers all aspects of the ITIL SAM book including:
Introduction to SAM:
- Wide introduction to all aspects of SAM ranging from compliance to history of publisher activities. Description of risks associated with software and its usage.
- Understanding the special characteristics of software assets & software licenses, software compliance & Intellectual Property.
The Business case
- Obtaining the appropriate information in order to produce a comprehensive SAM business case, including business benefits, costs, timescales, approach and templates
- Producing a business case
Roles & responsibilities:
- A guide through all roles associated with good Software Asset Management. Including understanding skills and responsibilities required to carry out specific roles such as audit, reconciliation work and contract management.
Policies and processes:
- Overall management processes, core asset management, logistics processes, verification and compliance and relationship processes.
Implementing SAM:
- Understanding and identifying all cyclical stages of implementing SAM:
- Preparation
- Getting there
- Staying there
- Proving you can stay there
- Understanding different resource requirements for project and business as usual activities.
Tools & techniques:
- Understanding all methods & technical applications available to support any SAM system.
- Distinguishing between types of SAM tools and their usage.
- Selecting and procuring the appropriate tool
- Managing and maintaining SAM information.
SAM Reporting:
- A look at the kind of reports and their content in order to support the business requirements I.e.: financial, compliance or operational. Identify and produce regular and ad-hoc SAM related reports.
- Defining measurements, metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), analyzing and acting on reports.
Mapping SAM to ITIL:
- A closer look at how SAM as a subject links to other areas of ITIL and the overall importance of running strong inventories when setting up an ITIL framework. This aims to identify and describe the interfaces and dependencies that SAM has with other IT and Service Management processes.
Training booklets comprising of the course slides will be distributed during the training; in addition to this, each candidate will be provided with the ITIL Software Asset Management book from the OGC.
Exam:
After taking the course delegates will be able to sit a formal 1 hour examination set by BCS ISEB. The examination will comprise of 40 multiple choice questions and candidates will need to obtain a pass mark of at least 26/40 to pass the examination.