ITIL 4 Digital and IT Strategy for Digital Transformation Training Course
| Course code | SD-DT-023 |
|---|---|
| Duration | 5 days |
| Level | Intermediate to Advanced |
| Category | Digital Transformation |
| Delivery | Classroom or live online |
| Language | English |
| Certificate | Certificate of completion |
Course overview
Digital transformation programmes often stall between executive intent and operational execution. Technology leaders must decide where digital investment will create measurable value, reshape legacy operating models without disrupting critical services, and govern a portfolio of products, platforms, suppliers and data capabilities. This ITIL 4 Digital and IT Strategy course addresses the practical decisions behind transformation: linking strategic objectives to digital capabilities, defining target operating models, prioritising investment, managing uncertainty and measuring realised value.
Participants apply the ITIL 4 Digital and IT Strategy guidance to formulate, communicate and govern a digital strategy. The course covers the ITIL Service Value System, digital product and service strategy, strategic planning, environmental analysis, innovation and disruption, governance, sourcing, risk, organisational change and measurement. Participants learn to use methods including PESTLE, SWOT, stakeholder mapping, value-stream analysis, capability assessment, strategic portfolio prioritisation and balanced scorecards to make transformation choices defensible.
Instructor-led sessions combine worked examples with a continuing transformation case study. Teams assess a fictional organisation’s strategic context, identify capability gaps, shape a target digital operating model, evaluate investment options and define governance and performance measures. Each participant leaves with a practical Digital Transformation Strategy Canvas and a 90-day application plan that can be adapted for their own organisation, business unit or technology portfolio.
The course is suited to experienced IT, digital, architecture, service management and transformation professionals who contribute to strategy or are accountable for translating enterprise priorities into executable digital initiatives. It is particularly valuable where leaders need a shared ITIL 4 language for balancing innovation, resilience, value, risk and organisational change.
Course objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Analyse a digital transformation context using PESTLE, SWOT and stakeholder-mapping techniques
- Apply the ITIL 4 Service Value System to connect strategic objectives, value streams and digital services
- Define a target digital operating model covering capabilities, roles, governance and sourcing decisions
- Prioritise a digital investment portfolio using value, risk, feasibility and strategic-alignment criteria
- Create a digital capability heat map that identifies transformation gaps and sequencing dependencies
- Design governance controls for digital products, platforms, data and third-party service providers
- Specify outcome-based measures and a balanced scorecard for tracking transformation value realisation
- Produce a Digital Transformation Strategy Canvas and 90-day implementation plan
Benefits of attending
For you
- Gain a recognised ITIL 4 strategy vocabulary for discussions with executives, architects, product leaders and service managers
- Build confidence in framing transformation proposals around value, risk, capability gaps and measurable outcomes
- Learn to challenge technology roadmaps that lack operating-model, governance or value-realisation evidence
- Create portfolio and governance artefacts that strengthen applications for IT strategy, transformation and leadership roles
- Leave with reusable analysis templates for strategic context, capability assessment, investment prioritisation and metrics
For your organisation
- Improve alignment between corporate objectives, digital initiatives, service portfolios and technology investment decisions
- Reduce wasted transformation spend by testing initiatives against value, feasibility, dependencies and risk before commitment
- Establish clearer governance for digital products, platforms, data assets and strategic suppliers
- Create more credible transformation roadmaps through capability-gap analysis and phased implementation planning
- Strengthen value-realisation reporting with outcome measures that leaders can use for portfolio steering
Target competencies
Who should attend
- CIOs and Heads of IT — who must turn enterprise priorities into an investable and governable digital strategy
- Digital Transformation Leaders — who coordinate change across technology, operations, data and customer-facing teams
- IT Strategy Managers — who need a repeatable ITIL 4 method for analysing, prioritising and communicating strategic choices
- Enterprise Architects — who align target capabilities, operating models and technology roadmaps with business outcomes
- Service Management Leaders — who must evolve service portfolios and value streams while protecting operational performance
- Product, Portfolio and Programme Managers — who need to select, sequence and measure digital initiatives against strategic value
Requirements and prerequisites
Participants should have practical experience in IT service management, digital delivery, enterprise architecture, portfolio management or transformation work. Familiarity with core ITIL 4 concepts, especially service value, value streams, guiding principles and continual improvement, is strongly recommended; ITIL 4 Foundation knowledge is useful but not mandatory. Participants should be comfortable discussing business cases, service portfolios, operating models and organisational stakeholders. No coding, data science, specialist cloud certification or prior use of enterprise architecture software is required. The course explains the strategy tools used and provides templates for the exercises.
Training methodology
The five-day programme uses facilitated ITIL 4 strategy briefings, instructor demonstrations and a single evolving transformation case study. Participants work in small groups to complete PESTLE and SWOT analysis, map stakeholders and value streams, assess digital capabilities, compare investment options and design governance measures. The instructor critiques each artefact against ITIL 4 principles and practical transformation constraints. Individual end-of-course planning converts the case-study method into a focused 90-day action plan for the participant’s own organisation.
Course outline
Day 1: Digital strategy context and the ITIL 4 foundation
- Digital transformation drivers, disruption patterns and strategic response options
- ITIL 4 Service Value System and its role in strategic decision-making
- Service value chain activities as a basis for digital operating decisions
- ITIL guiding principles applied to transformation trade-offs
- PESTLE analysis for external digital business conditions
- SWOT analysis for internal technology and organisational readiness
- Stakeholder mapping and strategic influence assessment
Workshop: Teams produce a strategic-context pack containing PESTLE, SWOT and stakeholder maps for the transformation case organisation.
Day 2: Value, customers and digital capabilities
- Customer and stakeholder value definition in digital services
- Digital product and service portfolio segmentation
- Value-stream mapping for customer journeys and operational outcomes
- Business capability mapping and capability heat-map construction
- Current-state versus target-state capability gap analysis
- Digital platform, data and automation capability dependencies
- Prioritisation criteria for capability uplift initiatives
Workshop: Participants map a priority value stream and create a capability heat map that identifies the case organisation’s transformation gaps.
Day 3: Operating models, governance and sourcing
- Target digital operating model components and design choices
- Product-oriented versus project-oriented delivery models
- Decision rights, accountabilities and governance forums
- COBIT 2019 governance objectives in a digital strategy context
- Strategic sourcing models for cloud, managed services and partners
- Supplier relationship governance and service integration controls
- Risk, resilience, security and regulatory considerations in transformation
Workshop: Groups design a target operating model with decision rights, supplier controls and governance checkpoints for a digital platform programme.
Day 4: Investment choices, innovation and strategic execution
- Digital investment cases and outcome-based funding logic
- Portfolio prioritisation using value, risk, feasibility and dependency criteria
- Innovation management, experimentation and hypothesis validation
- Managing legacy technology, technical debt and modernisation sequencing
- Scenario planning under uncertainty and disruptive market change
- TOGAF architecture roadmaps and transition architecture concepts
- Organisational change impacts, adoption risks and communications planning
Workshop: Participants score competing initiatives, select a sequenced transformation portfolio and defend the investment rationale to a steering group.
Day 5: Measurement, value realisation and strategy application
- Outcome measures, leading indicators and lagging indicators
- Balanced scorecards for digital and IT strategy performance
- Benefits mapping and value-realisation accountability
- Continual improvement model applied to strategic transformation
- Strategic risk monitoring and management review cadences
- Digital Transformation Strategy Canvas structure and evidence requirements
- Ninety-day implementation planning and executive communication
Workshop: Each participant completes and presents a Digital Transformation Strategy Canvas with measures, governance actions and a 90-day application plan.
Tools & standards covered
ITIL 4 Service Value System, ITIL 4 Digital and IT Strategy, COBIT 2019, TOGAF Standard
A typical training day
| 08:30 – 10:30 | First session |
| 10:30 – 10:45 | Refreshment break |
| 10:45 – 12:30 | Second session |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch and networking |
| 13:30 – 15:00 | Third session |
| 15:00 – 15:15 | Refreshment break |
| 15:15 – 16:30 | Workshop and daily review |
Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.
What the fee includes
- Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
- Full course workbook and materials
- Exercise files, templates and case studies
- Certificate of completion
- Refreshments and lunch (classroom deliveries)
- Post-course application plan
- Facilitator follow-up on request
- Group rates from five participants
How you can take this course
Classroom
Scheduled sessions in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, Dubai and Cape Town.
Live online
The same facilitator and materials, delivered live for distributed teams and individuals.
In-house
Delivered privately for your team, at your offices or a venue of your choice, tailored to your context. Request a proposal.
Certification
Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.
Frequently asked questions
Upcoming sessions
New dates are being scheduled. Ask us about the next session or an in-house delivery for your team.
Ask about datesGroup of 5+?
Request in-house delivery or group rates →Related courses in Digital Transformation
Industry 4.0 Digital Transformation for Manufacturing Training Course
Manufacturing leaders and technical professionals are under pressure to improve throughput, quality, traceability and energy performance whi…
Salesforce CRM for Digital Customer Transformation Training Course
Digital customer transformation programmes often stall because Salesforce is configured as a contact database rather than designed as the op…
Prosci ADKAR Change Management for Digital Transformation Training Course
Digital transformation programmes often fail not because the target platform is weak, but because employees do not understand why new proces…
Digital Transformation in Public Sector Service Delivery Training Course
Public-sector service teams are under pressure to improve access, speed and consistency while operating within statutory duties, legacy tech…