ITIL4F ITIL Management Practices Practice Question
You are the IT service manager for a mid-sized e-commerce company. The company has been experiencing intermittent service outages affecting the checkout process during peak hours. The monitoring system shows that the application server's CPU utilization spikes to 95% during these periods. The database server appears healthy. The incident management team has been creating multiple incidents for each outage, but no permanent fix has been implemented. The problem management team has identified that the application server's auto-scaling configuration is not triggering correctly due to a misconfigured threshold. However, changing the threshold requires a change request that must be approved by the Change Advisory Board (CAB), which meets only once a week. The business is losing revenue with each outage. What should you do first to minimize the impact of the issue while a permanent solution is being developed?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'first response' with 'problem management' and choose root cause analysis (Option C), but ITIL emphasizes restoring service as the immediate priority before investigating the underlying cause.
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
✓
Implement a workaround by manually scaling the application server during peak hours to handle the load
Manually scaling the application server during peak hours provides an immediate workaround to handle the load, directly reducing the impact of the misconfigured auto-scaling threshold. This aligns with ITIL's guidance on using workarounds to restore service while a permanent fix is developed. The business is losing revenue with each outage, so the priority is to stabilize the service first, not to wait for a CAB meeting or to analyze the root cause.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Expedite the change request by requesting an emergency change approval from the CAB chair
Why it's wrong here
Expediting an emergency change request, while seemingly fast, still involves formal assessment, authorization by an Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB), and implementation steps. This structured process, even when expedited, may not be immediate enough to prevent significant revenue loss during critical peak hours, as the chair or necessary technical resources might not be instantly available to approve and execute the change. The overhead of the change process itself can introduce delays.
- ✓
Implement a workaround by manually scaling the application server during peak hours to handle the load
Why this is correct
Implementing a workaround, such as manually scaling the application server, directly addresses the immediate symptom of performance degradation and its impact on revenue. This ITIL practice focuses on restoring service functionality as quickly as possible, even if the underlying root cause is not yet resolved. It provides immediate relief, mitigating financial losses and maintaining customer satisfaction while a more permanent solution is developed through formal change management.
- ✗
Conduct a root cause analysis and document the problem in the known error database
Why it's wrong here
Conducting a root cause analysis (RCA) and documenting the problem are essential activities within Problem Management, aimed at understanding the underlying cause of incidents and preventing future occurrences. However, these investigative steps do not provide an immediate solution to an active service degradation causing revenue loss. Prioritizing RCA over a workaround would prolong the service outage and financial impact, as it's a long-term prevention strategy, not an immediate restoration tactic.
- ✗
Increase the priority of all related incidents to ensure faster response from the service desk
Why it's wrong here
Increasing the priority of related incidents primarily signals urgency to the service desk and support teams, potentially leading to faster attention. However, simply elevating priority does not inherently provide a technical solution or a workaround to the underlying performance issue. Without a clear path to resolution or an effective workaround, the service degradation and associated revenue loss would persist, regardless of how quickly the service desk acknowledges the incident.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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