ITIL 4 Direct Plan and Improve Practice Questions (Free Sample)

Free practice sample

Fifteen original ITIL 4 Strategist: Direct, Plan and Improve practice questions, unlocked with no signup and scored instantly. The mix follows the published syllabus weights across all seven sections, so the balance you see here is the balance of the real paper rather than an even sweep. Direct, Plan and Improve is the flattest of the ITIL 4 specialist papers: no section carries more than a fifth of it, and none can safely be skipped.

This is the universal module, and it reads like one. The questions put you in a leadership position and offer two or three improvement, governance or measurement approaches that all sound reasonable, a green dashboard beside rising complaints, forty improvement ideas and capacity for six, a change announced by email that nobody adopted. Exactly one option is best, usually because it addresses the mechanism rather than the symptom. Every explanation names the winning answer and the near miss it beats, which is where most of the learning is.

Scheme status. PeopleCert released ITIL Version 5 in February 2026, and the current plan is to sunset all ITIL 4 modules on 31 December 2027. Direct, Plan and Improve is live and examinable today. A certificate earned now remains valid, renews on the normal three-year cycle, and still counts toward higher modules, passing this exam is not wasted work if the scheme moves on. Confirm current scheme dates with PeopleCert before booking.

Level Ā· Shared Managing Professional / Strategic Leader 40 questions 90 minutes 113 minutes if English is not your first language Pass Ā· 28 of 40 Ā· 70% Multiple choice Ā· closed book Ā· no negative marking Prerequisite Ā· ITIL 4 Foundation, any ITIL v3 certification, or an ITIL 4 Managing Professional certificate Accredited training mandatory Ā· results withheld without proof of completion Renew every 3 years Ā· 60 CPD points From $649 USD exam bundle Ā· list $865
Key concepts of direct, plan and improve Section 1 Ā· 20%
Continual improvement principles and methods Section 4 Ā· 20%
The scope, principles and methods of direction and planning Section 2 Ā· 15%
Communication and organizational change management Section 5 Ā· 15%
Directing, planning and improving value streams and practices Section 7 Ā· 15%
The role of governance, risk and compliance in the service value system Section 3 Ā· 7.5%
Measurement and reporting Section 6 Ā· 7.5%

ITIL 4 Direct, Plan and Improve Practice Questions

  1. Question 1 of 15Key concepts of direct, plan and improve

    A newly appointed leader inherits a department with three artefacts in circulation: a strategy deck, an annual plan, and an improvement register. Each names different priorities, and teams cite whichever one supports the work they are already doing. What is the best first step?

  2. Question 2 of 15Key concepts of direct, plan and improve

    Every team can recite the corporate vision word for word. None of them can say what it means for the work they will do this quarter. What is missing?

  3. Question 3 of 15Key concepts of direct, plan and improve

    A leader wants consistent behaviour across a dozen autonomous product teams without becoming the approval point for their decisions. Which mechanism fits the direct part of the module best?

  4. Question 4 of 15The scope, principles and methods of direction and planning

    A leader must plan a two-year improvement programme in a market where customer demand shifts noticeably every few months. Which planning approach is most appropriate?

  5. Question 5 of 15The scope, principles and methods of direction and planning

    A leader is asked to improve everything about how the organisation delivers services. What is the best first action?

  6. Question 6 of 15The role of governance, risk and compliance in the service value system

    A governing body approves a major improvement programme and thereafter reviews a single monthly report showing the percentage of planned activities completed. What is the most significant problem?

  7. Question 7 of 15Continual improvement principles and methods

    A workshop generates a list of improvement actions, and the team moves straight into delivering them. A colleague objects that a step has been skipped. Which step, and why does it matter?

  8. Question 8 of 15Continual improvement principles and methods

    A leader has forty improvement ideas and capacity for perhaps six this year. Which basis for choosing is most consistent with continual improvement?

  9. Question 9 of 15Continual improvement principles and methods

    An improvement delivered a clear measurable gain six months ago. Performance has since drifted back to roughly where it started, without anyone deciding to reverse anything. What should have happened?

  10. Question 10 of 15Communication and organizational change management

    A significant process change is announced in a single email from the project manager who designed it. Two months later, middle managers have not acted on it and their teams have not changed anything. What is the best correction?

  11. Question 11 of 15Communication and organizational change management

    Staff are visibly resisting a new way of working. The sponsor asks how to overcome the resistance. What should the leader do first?

  12. Question 12 of 15Measurement and reporting

    A monthly dashboard has shown every measure green for a year. Over the same period, customer complaints and escalations have risen steadily. What is the flaw?

  13. Question 13 of 15Directing, planning and improving value streams and practices

    Fulfilling a standard request takes twelve days end to end. A team automates the approval step, which took twenty minutes, and total elapsed time barely moves. What went wrong?

  14. Question 14 of 15Directing, planning and improving value streams and practices

    A customer-facing delay spans four teams, each responsible for a different practice, and each meeting its own targets. A leader must decide where to direct improvement effort. What is the best choice?

  15. Question 15 of 15Directing, planning and improving value streams and practices

    Before committing funding to improving a value stream, a leader wants a defensible view of how much opportunity is really there. What is the best approach?

Untimed, no account needed. Your score appears instantly. Add your email afterwards if you want the explanation for every question and a copy of your results.

Frequently asked questions about ITIL 4 Strategist: Direct, Plan and Improve

How many questions are on the real exam, and how long do I get?

Forty multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes, closed book, with no negative marking. Candidates sitting in a language that is not their first receive 113 minutes rather than 90. Since a blank answer costs exactly what a wrong one does, there is never a reason to leave a question unanswered, confirm current logistics with PeopleCert when you book, since the format is theirs to set.

What score do I need to pass?

Twenty-eight of 40, which is 70%. That leaves room for twelve wrong answers across the whole paper, a tighter margin than ITIL Foundation allows. The Certifym practice sets use the same 70% pass mark, so a passing score here is an honest raw-score equivalent rather than a flattering one.

Why does Direct, Plan and Improve count toward two designations?

It is the universal module: it counts toward both ITIL 4 Managing Professional and ITIL 4 Strategic Leader. That is the main reason candidates pick it. If you are working through Managing Professional it is one of the four required modules, and the same pass also stands as one of the two modules on the Strategic Leader side, leaving only Digital and IT Strategy to complete that designation. For anyone who might want both titles, taking this module early means one exam doing the work of two.

Which sections should I spend the most time on?

This is the most evenly weighted paper in the ITIL 4 specialist range, so the honest answer is that there is nowhere safe to skip. Key concepts of direct, plan and improve and continual improvement principles and methods carry 20% each. The scope, principles and methods of direction and planning, communication and organizational change management, and directing, planning and improving value streams and practices carry 15% each. Governance, risk and compliance and measurement and reporting carry 7.5% each, small, but that is still around three questions each on a paper where twelve wrong answers ends you.

Do I need prerequisites or accredited training?

Both. The entry requirement is ITIL 4 Foundation, any ITIL v3 certification, or an ITIL 4 Managing Professional certificate. Accredited training is also mandatory for this module, and PeopleCert withholds results without proof of completion. The course is part of the credential rather than an optional route to it. Practice questions supplement accredited training here; they do not replace it.

Who is this module actually for?

Anyone who sets direction and then has to make improvement stick: service owners, practice and process owners, improvement leads, and managers who commission work rather than carry it out. The scenarios sit at that level, choosing between plausible improvement approaches, deciding what to measure, working out why a change was announced and never adopted. Candidates with a delivery background often find the communication and organizational change management section the least familiar of the seven.

Should I take ITIL 4 or wait for Version 5?

Both schemes are examinable today. PeopleCert released Version 5 in February 2026 and the current plan is to sunset all ITIL 4 modules on 31 December 2027, so a candidate starting from scratch in 2026 gets a longer runway from Version 5. If you already hold ITIL 4 Foundation, or you are partway toward Managing Professional or Strategic Leader, finishing Direct, Plan and Improve under ITIL 4 is the faster path. The certificate stays valid past the sunset date, renews on the normal three-year cycle, and still counts toward higher modules.

How is this free sample different from the full Certifym bank?

The sample is a fixed 15-question set spread across the seven sections at syllabus proportions, with no account needed and every explanation visible. The full Certifym bank is ten independent 100-question sets, each weighted to the same official percentages and scored at the same 28-of-40 equivalent 70% pass mark. None of the paid-bank items appears in this sample, these fifteen were written separately as teasers.

Trademark notice & independence. Certifym.net is operated by Certifym Exam Services, LLC and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by PeopleCert. ITILĀ® is a registered trade mark of PeopleCert group companies, used here only to identify the certification these study materials are intended for. The ITIL 4 Strategist: Direct, Plan and Improve syllabus and its section weights are the property of PeopleCert; download the current syllabus and confirm exam logistics directly from PeopleCert before scheduling.

All practice questions, answers, and explanations on this page are original content produced by Certifym Exam Services, LLC. They are not actual PeopleCert examination questions and are not represented as such. Exam format, section weights, pricing and scheme dates are set by PeopleCert and may change; verify current details with PeopleCert before booking.