ITIL4-CDS Create, Deliver and Support Practice Question
An organization is adopting a 'Shift Left' approach to improve its service delivery performance. Which of the following activities best demonstrates the application of this principle?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often select options involving faster testing at the end of development, missing the core 'Shift Left' principle of moving activities to earlier phases like design.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Involving operations and support staff during the design and development phases.
Shift Left focuses on moving tasks and activities earlier in the service lifecycle. By involving operations and testing experts in the early design phases, the organization identifies potential issues before they become expensive or complex to resolve. This improves quality, reduces technical debt, and ensures that the final service is better aligned with operational requirements and user expectations from the very beginning.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Conducting final user acceptance testing only after the code is deployed to production.
Why it's wrong here
Testing in production is the opposite of Shift Left. It delays the identification of critical issues until the service is already live, which increases the cost of fixing defects, risks user dissatisfaction, and hinders the ability to deliver stable services in a rapid deployment environment.
- ✓
Involving operations and support staff during the design and development phases.
Why this is correct
Including operations staff early ensures that design decisions consider maintainability, supportability, and operational stability. This proactive involvement helps prevent issues that would otherwise only be discovered after release, thereby reducing rework and improving the overall service reliability and value delivered to the end-user.
- ✗
Retrospectively documenting all processes after a project has been successfully completed.
Why it's wrong here
Post-project documentation does not contribute to the prevention of issues or the improvement of current service delivery. It is an administrative task that occurs after the fact, providing no benefit to the development lifecycle or the reduction of technical risks during the creation phase of the service.
- ✗
Reducing the frequency of deployments to ensure maximum stability.
Why it's wrong here
Reducing deployment frequency is an operational strategy, not a Shift Left activity. While it may reduce the number of releases, it does not address the underlying quality of the development process. Shift Left aims to improve quality so that frequent deployments remain safe and efficient, not infrequent.
Visual reference
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every ITIL4-CDS question from scratch — 155 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official PeopleCert/AXELOS exam blueprint
This ITIL4-CDS practice question is part of Courseiva's free PeopleCert/AXELOS certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the ITIL4-CDS exam.