ITIL Vs PMP

If your profession calls for IT Service management to gain business value through customer services, ITIL is the best option. And if you want to grow in technical leadership or management, then obviously PMP stands as the right option.

ITIL equips you with the skill of service level delivery and PMP gives you the skill of project management.

One of the differences is that PMP (Project Management Professional) applies to projects while ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is service oriented. In addition, ITIL is specific to the IT industry, whereas PMP tools and techniques can be applied to a wide range of industries.

ITIL® v3 Foundation and PMP® are two of the most popular management certifications in the world. Every year, thousands of exam aspirants would prepare and sit for the ITIL® and PMP® exams. Some PMP® Certified Professionals would study for the ITIL® 4 Foundation Exam while some ITIL® holders would aspire for the Project Management PMP® credential. Below are the similarities and differences between ITIL® and PMP®.

Similarities of ITIL® v3 Foundation and PMP®

You will need to pass an exam consisting of multiple choice questions in order to be certified.
ITIL® provide best practices to implement service delivery and PMP® is a professional and systematic approach of doing projects from Initiation to Closing (though ITIL® focuses on service delivery in the Information Technology field).

Differences between ITIL® 4 Foundation and PMP® Certification

PMP® exam is about general project management knowledge while ITIL® is about information technology service management (i.e. for people working in the field of information technology).
There are no pre-requisites for taking the ITIL® 4 Foundation Exam while PMP® exam will require the aspirants to have 35 Contact Hours and at least 36 months /4500 effort hours of working experience in project management over a period of at least 3 years.
The PMP® Exam is much longer and consists of more questions, it is generally considered that the PMP® Exam is much more difficult than the ITIL® 4 Foundation Exam.
ITIL® 4 Foundation Certification will never expire while PMP® certification holders will need to re-certify every three years by accumulating 60 PDUs.
PMP® Certification holders will need to earn at least 60 PDU during every 3-year re-certification cycle in order to be able to renew their PMP® Certification status. Holders of ITIL® 4 Foundation Certification will not need any mandatory continuous education.

IT Service Support includes 6 processes:

Configuration Management
Incident Management
Problem Management
Change Management
Service/Help Desk
Release Management

IT Service Delivery is concerned with the application of principles for ensuring quality of deliverable’s in terms of IT services to the customer.

Service Delivery includes no less than 5 processes:

Service Level Management
Capacity Management
Continuity Management
Availability Management
IT Financial Management

PMI ®, PMP® and the PMBOK® Guide:

The Project Management Institute (PMI ®) conducts the Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification exam on the PMBOK ® Guide.

Almost 80% of the questions in PMP exam till 31st Dec 2020 come from PMBOK® Guide sixth edition. The Guide recognizes 49 processes that fall into five basic process groups and ten knowledge areas that are typical of almost all projects.

As defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) is the sum of knowledge within the emerging profession of project management. This includes knowledge of proven, widely-applied traditional practices, as well as knowledge of innovative and advanced practices.

The Five basic Process Groups in PMBOK Guide® sixth edition:

Project Initiation
Project Planning
Project Execution
Project Controlling
Project Closing

The Ten Knowledge areas in PMBOK Guide® sixth edition:

Project Integration Management
Project Scope Management
Project Schedule Management
Project Cost Management
Project Quality Management
Project Resource Management
Project Communications Management
Project Risk Management
Project Procurement Management
Project Stakeholder Management

Starting 02nd Jan 2021 there will be a major revamp in the PMP exam. The Domains will reduce to three with the percentage questions as follows. The exam will continue to be on PMBOK® Guide sixth edition and 50% weight-age will be given to questions related to Agile and Hybrid methodology. Professionals preparing for the PMP exam will have to additionally refer the Agile Guide.

The three new Domains and percentage questions in exam as per new exam outline pattern.

People: 42%
Process: 50%
Business Environment: 8%