ITIL v3 professionals have four routes to transition to ITIL 4.

Route 1: ITIL v3 Foundation candidates and less than five ITIL v3 credits

The recommended approach is to take ITIL 4 Foundation in order to transition to the new certification scheme. There is a large amount of new material in ITIL 4 Foundation, therefore a new single exam is required to assess end learner’s knowledge of the new ITIL 4 Foundation guidance.

However, professionals may also want to consider continuing their accumulation of ITIL v3 credits to be eligible for the ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition module, in line with their career goals.

Route 2: ITIL v3 candidates with six to 10 credits, including ITIL v3 Foundation (worth 2 credits)

Candidates who have achieved six to 10 credits would benefit from continuing their ITIL v3 journey, in order to collect 17 credits and be eligible for the ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition module. 

However, they may also want to consider starting their ITIL 4 journey and working their way through the certification scheme, in line with their career goals.

Route 3: ITIL v3 candidates with 11+ credits, including ITIL v3 Foundation (worth 2 credits)

Candidates with 11+ v3 credits can consider collecting ITIL v3 credits, to reach the required 17 credits to be eligible for the ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition module. 

This enables them to fast track to the ITIL 4 Managing Professional designation. 

Route 4: ITIL v3 Experts or candidates with 17+ v3 credits, including ITIL v3 Foundation (worth 2 credits) ITIL Experts and experienced ITIL v3 candidates with 17+ v3 credits are automatically eligible for the ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition module, enabling them to fast track to the ITIL 4 Managing Professional designation. 

After achieving the ITIL 4 Managing Professional designation, candidates would only need to complete the ITIL 4 Leader: Digital and Strategy module to achieve the ITIL 4 Strategic Leader designation.

Once candidates have obtained both designations, they are eligible to move towards ITIL 4 Master.

For routes two and three, candidates can also take ITIL 4 Foundation as a contribution to the pre-requisite criteria for ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition, while it remains available. 

The ITIL 4 scheme itself does not provide any credits but if a candidate has ITIL 4 Foundation then they will only need 15 credits from ITIL v3 to be eligible.

In this case, the 15 ITIL v3 credits must be made up of:

• ITIL v3 Foundation (worth 2 credits) and/or
• A combination of ITIL v3 Intermediate and Practitioner modules (totalling 13 credits)