ITIL4F ITIL Management Practices Practice Question
Which TWO statements about the relationship between IT Asset Management and Service Configuration Management are correct?
⚠ Common exam trap
ITIL4F often tests the misconception that all assets are CIs and vice versa; candidates must remember that the two practices have different scopes and that configuration management adds relationship data.
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
✓
Configuration management provides information about relationships between assets
Option C is correct because Service Configuration Management maintains the CMDB and its relationship records, so it can show how assets/CIs depend on or connect to one another (e.g., an application running on a server, or a server hosted on a hypervisor). Option D is correct because the CMDB is the configuration management repository that holds CI attributes and can include detailed information about IT assets, linking asset data to configuration data. Option A is not correct because configuration management, not asset management, establishes and maintains the configuration baseline. Option B is not correct because the relationship is not universally bidirectional: assets are not always managed as CIs, and CIs are not always financial/physical assets. Option E is not correct because asset management focuses on the asset lifecycle (procurement, deployment, maintenance, disposal), while configuration management focuses on CIs and their relationships.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Asset management maintains the configuration baseline
Why it's wrong here
Asset management primarily focuses on optimizing the value, cost, and risk of IT assets throughout their financial and contractual lifecycle. Configuration baselines, however, define the approved and known state of a Configuration Item (CI) or a set of CIs at a specific point in time. Maintaining the integrity, version control, and adherence to these baselines is a core responsibility of configuration management to ensure service stability and controlled changes, not asset management.
- ✗
All assets are considered CIs, and all CIs are assets
Why it's wrong here
The statement incorrectly assumes a complete one-to-one mapping between assets and Configuration Items (CIs). Not all IT assets, such as a bulk purchase of spare keyboards or a general office printer not critical to a specific service, are necessarily managed as CIs within a Configuration Management Database (CMDB). Conversely, not all CIs, like a logical relationship between two software components, a specific version of an operating system, or a service definition, are considered tangible financial assets in the same way hardware is.
- ✓
Configuration management provides information about relationships between assets
Why this is correct
Configuration management is fundamentally concerned with understanding how different components of an IT service relate to each other to ensure service integrity and operational efficiency. By defining and tracking Configuration Items (CIs) and their interdependencies within the Configuration Management System (CMS), it provides crucial insights into how changes to one asset (represented as a CI) might impact others. This relational information is vital for effective incident, problem, and change management, ensuring service stability and reliability.
- ✓
Configuration management provides the CMDB that includes details of IT assets
Why this is correct
The Configuration Management Database (CMDB), a key component of the Configuration Management System (CMS), serves as a central repository for information about Configuration Items (CIs). Many CIs directly represent IT assets, such as servers, network devices, or software applications, which are essential for service delivery. Therefore, the CMDB frequently stores detailed attributes of these IT assets, including their specifications, location, status, and relationships to other CIs, supporting both configuration and asset management objectives.
- ✗
Asset management focuses on the lifecycle of CIs
Why it's wrong here
Asset management primarily focuses on the financial, contractual, and inventory aspects of IT assets, aiming to maximize their value and minimize costs throughout their economic lifecycle. In contrast, Configuration Items (CIs) are components that need to be managed to deliver an IT service, and their operational lifecycle (from planning to disposal) is a core concern of configuration management. Asset management tracks the financial lifecycle of the *asset*, while configuration management tracks the operational lifecycle and relationships of the *CI*.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This ITIL4F question is part of Courseiva's 805-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam 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 exam blueprint
This ITIL4F practice question is part of Courseiva's free PeopleCert 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 ITIL4F exam.