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ITIL 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver and Support (CDS) is PeopleCert's module on how teams build, run and support IT services, and one of the four certifications behind ITIL 4 Managing Professional. It's still on sale after the February 2026 launch of ITIL (Version 5), and PeopleCert's current plan retires every ITIL 4 module on December 31, 2027. This guide covers the exam, the weighted syllabus, the prerequisites and your route to Version 5.
ITIL 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver and Support (CDS) is a PeopleCert certification that tests how you organize teams, tools and value streams to build, deliver and support IT services. It's one of the four modules that make up the ITIL 4 Managing Professional designation.
By ITIL standards the syllabus is practical. Two worked value streams sit at its center, one for designing and transitioning a new service and one for user support, and the exam asks how a dozen named practices (from service design and release management to incident and problem management) feed into them. Around those sit the people side of the work (team structures, culture, workforce planning, shift-left), the tooling side (integrated toolsets, automation, AI, CI/CD) and the business of prioritizing work and deciding what to buy or build.
CDS has two prerequisites: ITIL 4 Foundation (or another qualifying ITIL certificate) and training through an Accredited Training Organization or ITIL Official eLearning. It's issued by PeopleCert, and as of October 2026 it's sold alongside the new ITIL (Version 5) modules.
Team structures, culture, competencies, workforce planning and the shift-left approach.
Integrated toolsets, automation, AI and machine learning, CI/CD and information models.
One for a new service and one for user support, with six practices behind each.
Managing work as tickets, prioritizing it, buy versus build and SIAM.
Four things worth knowing before you book CDS in late 2026, roughly 14 months ahead of the planned ITIL 4 sunset.
The other three Managing Professional modules deal with stakeholder engagement, high-velocity digital work, and direction and improvement. CDS is about the work itself. It covers how teams are built and equipped with tools and automation, and how a service gets from design into production and then gets supported once users depend on it. If your week is tickets, changes and releases, this is the module that describes it.
CDS is one of the four modules for ITIL 4 Managing Professional. It's also the fixed module in ITIL 4 Practice Manager, paired with either five individual practice certifications or one bundled module (Monitor, Support and Fulfil, Plan, Implement and Control, or Collaborate, Assure and Improve).
PeopleCert still sells CDS as of October 2026. Its current plan is to sunset all ITIL 4 modules on December 31, 2027, with voucher validity dates still to be announced. Our breakdown of what changed in ITIL (Version 5) covers the wider transition.
PeopleCert says existing ITIL certifications keep their value as the framework changes, and it accepts ITIL 4 certificates as prerequisites for every higher-level ITIL (Version 5) certification. A CDS certificate can also be renewed by passing any ITIL (Version 5) exam, because all ITIL certificates sit in one product suite.
CDS is a service management credential. PeopleCert doesn't claim a DoD 8140 listing for it, so don't count on it to meet a cyber-coded position requirement.
The certification, the exam and the transition dates, checked against PeopleCert's pages and the official syllabus in October 2026.
CDS is one step on the ITIL 4 path. Where it leads depends on the designation you want and how much of it you can finish before the end of 2027.
ITIL 4 Managing Professional needs Drive Stakeholder Value, High-velocity IT, and Direct, Plan and Improve as well as CDS. Each has the same 40-question, 90-minute, closed-book format and the same mandatory training rule.
The practice-focused ITIL 4 designation. It's awarded for CDS plus five individual practice certifications, or CDS plus one bundled module covering a group of practices such as service desk, incident and problem management.
Once you hold ITIL 4 Managing Professional, the ITIL Managing Professional Transition (Version 5) module upgrades it to ITIL Managing Professional (Version 5) with two open-book exams. PeopleCert has no current plans to sunset that transition module.
CDS sits after Foundation and before the designations. Finish all four Managing Professional modules and a two-exam transition module carries you into ITIL (Version 5).
The prerequisite
Four ITIL 4 modules
Professional level
Two questions to answer before you commit: can you sit it, and should you take an ITIL 4 module now that Version 5 is on sale. Here's a straight answer to both.
ITIL 4 Foundation, any ITIL v3 certification, or ITIL 4 MP.
Those are the three options PeopleCert lists for CDS. ITIL Foundation (Version 5) isn't on that list, so if it's the only ITIL certificate you hold, confirm your eligibility with PeopleCert or your training provider before you pay for the course.
Self-study alone won't release your result.
You must train through an Accredited Training Organization or ITIL Official eLearning, and PeopleCert won't release exam results without proof of completion. That's why PeopleCert sells the exam-only bundle for re-sits only. The paper itself leans on application, with Bloom's level 3 (application) criteria behind 25 of its 40 marks.
PeopleCert lists these among the roles CDS holders move into. Every one of them runs or supports live services.
Owns how services perform against what was agreed. CDS covers the two value streams this role manages week to week, getting a new service into production and getting users working again, along with the service level management and change enablement practices inside them.
Coordinates the teams and suppliers that get services to customers. The syllabus sections on team structures, sourcing options, buy versus build and service integration and management (SIAM) line up closely with this job.
Runs the people who resolve incidents and fulfill requests. Workforce planning, managing work as tickets, prioritization and the shift-left approach are all CDS topics, and together they cover how a support team's workload gets organized.
Leads the first point of contact for users. The user support value stream in CDS takes service desk, incident, problem and knowledge management and shows how work passes between them.
Ships changes through automated pipelines. CDS treats CI/CD, deployment management, release management and service validation and testing as parts of one value stream, which gives engineers a shared vocabulary with the operations side.
Accountable for healthy live services and effective teams behind them. Results-based measuring and reporting, integrated toolsets, monitoring and event management and a culture of continual improvement are the CDS topics this role leans on most.
If service delivery is your work and you're picking an advanced ITIL module in 2026, these are the three you're most likely weighing. Here's how they line up.
| ITIL 4 CDS | ITIL Service (Version 5) | ITIL Product (Version 5) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Framework Body | PeopleCert | PeopleCert | PeopleCert |
| Status | ITIL 4 module, sunset planned Dec 31, 2027 | Current Version 5 module | Current Version 5 module |
| Focus | Teams, tools and value streams for creating, delivering and supporting services | Service levels, operational reliability and continual improvement | Digital products as value streams, from discovery to support |
| Prerequisites | ITIL 4 Foundation, any ITIL v3 cert or ITIL 4 MP | Any ITIL 4 cert, ITIL Foundation (Version 5) or the Bridge | Any ITIL 4 cert, ITIL Foundation (Version 5) or the Bridge |
| Training | Required (ATO or official eLearning) | Required (ATO or official eLearning) | Required (ATO or official eLearning) |
| Exam | 40 items, 90 min, closed book | 40 items, 90 min, open book | 40 items, 90 min, open book |
| Passing Score | 70% | 70% | 70% |
| Counts Toward | ITIL 4 Managing Professional and Practice Manager | ITIL Managing Professional (Version 5) | ITIL Managing Professional (Version 5) |
| PeopleCert eLearning Bundle | US$1,338 | US$1,338 | US$1,338 |
| Best For | Finishing an ITIL 4 designation before 2027 | Service and support roles starting fresh | Product and delivery roles starting fresh |
Prices are PeopleCert's US store prices for official eLearning plus the exam, as of October 2026, and vary by country. The Version 5 Managing Professional path also needs ITIL Experience and ITIL Transformation. Our ITIL Foundation (Version 5) guide covers the start of that path.
Certification Matchups: the published facts, strengths and weak spots of 33 certifications, side by side.
Our 4-day CDS boot camp is live and instructor-led, online or in person, and uses official PeopleCert courseware. It includes the CDS exam voucher, a PeopleCert Take2 re-sit, a CDS handbook, a study guide, prep questions, a mock exam and 180 days of one-on-one coaching after class. Certification is awarded by PeopleCert on passing the exam.
The ITIL® 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver and Support course on this page uses official PeopleCert courseware. ITIL certificates are issued by PeopleCert, not by Training Camp.
ITIL is a registered trademark of PeopleCert International, used under the permission of PeopleCert International. All rights reserved.
The Version 5 changes, how value streams work in practice, and how to study for a syllabus-driven exam like CDS.
What moved between ITIL 4 and Version 5, from the new product and service lifecycle to the new qualification scheme, and why finishing an ITIL 4 track you have already started can cost less than starting over.
Value streams sit at the center of the CDS syllabus. This piece looks at what happens when ITIL governance meets automated DevOps pipelines, starting with change management.
A practical primer on the framework and its certification tracks, including where Managing Professional and Strategic Leader fit above Foundation.
Why service management and security discipline belong together, and how pairing an ITIL credential with a security one plays out in practice.
The CDS syllabus assigns marks to every assessment criterion. This guide explains how to read an official exam specification and turn it into a study plan.
How an instructor reads a mock exam result, starting with the topic breakdown rather than the total, and what a given score suggests about your next step.
Certifications work as a screening mechanism, and the strongest stacks tell a coherent story. Useful context before you add a second or third ITIL module.
The CDS exam is built from three learning outcomes and ten assessment criteria, each worth a fixed number of the 40 marks. Outcome 2, the two value streams and the practices behind them, carries 16 marks, one more than the people and technology material in Outcome 1. Click any criterion for what it covers.
The concepts and challenges of running teams across the service value system (SVS): organizational structure, integrated and collaborative teams, team capabilities, roles and competencies, team culture and differences, working to a customer-oriented mindset, employee satisfaction management and the value of positive communications. Tested at Bloom's level 2, so you explain the ideas rather than apply them.
The shift-left idea of moving work closer to the user, toward self-service and first-line support, and earlier in the lifecycle. Three marks for a single idea makes it one of the most concentrated topics on the paper.
Team collaboration and integration, workforce planning, results-based measuring and reporting, and building a culture of continual improvement. A Bloom's level 3 criterion, so expect scenarios where you pick the right action for a team.
The use and value of technology across the SVS: integrated service management toolsets, integration and data sharing, reporting and advanced analytics, collaboration and workflow tools, robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence and machine learning, continuous integration and delivery or deployment (CI/CD) and information models.
Using a value stream to design, develop and transition a new service, from the first demand through to a service running in production. Tested at Bloom's level 3, which the syllabus defines as applying the concepts rather than describing them.
How six practices contribute to that new-service value stream: service design, software development and management, deployment management, release management, service validation and testing, and change enablement. Tied for the heaviest criterion on the exam.
Using a value stream to provide user support, following a user's request for help through to resolution. Like 2.1, it's a Bloom's level 3 criterion.
How six practices contribute to the user support value stream: service desk, incident management, problem management, knowledge management, service level management, and monitoring and event management. Also worth 5 marks.
How to coordinate, prioritize and structure the work of creating, delivering and supporting services, including managing work as tickets and the techniques for deciding what gets done first.
The use and value of buy versus build decisions, sourcing options and service integration and management (SIAM) across the service value system. Tested at Bloom's level 2.
Learning outcomes, assessment criteria and marks come from the ITIL 4 Create, Deliver and Support candidate syllabus (December 2019, v1.0). Confirm the current published syllabus with PeopleCert or your training provider before scheduling.
The questions candidates ask most often when researching ITIL 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver and Support.
ITIL 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver and Support (CDS) is a PeopleCert certification in the ITIL 4 scheme. It tests how you organize teams, tools and value streams to build, deliver and support IT services, including practices such as incident management, change enablement and release management. It's one of the four modules that make up the ITIL 4 Managing Professional designation.
Yes. PeopleCert released ITIL Foundation (Version 5) in February 2026 and still sells the CDS exam and eLearning as of October 2026. Its current plan is to sunset all ITIL 4 modules on December 31, 2027, and it says exam voucher validity dates for ITIL 4 will be announced in due course.
PeopleCert hasn't named a one-for-one replacement. In ITIL (Version 5), the Managing Professional designation is built from ITIL Foundation plus four modules: ITIL Product, ITIL Service, ITIL Experience and ITIL Transformation. ITIL Service and ITIL Product cover the closest ground to CDS, and PeopleCert recognizes ITIL 4 certificates as prerequisites for all higher-level Version 5 certifications.
The exam has 40 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes, and it's closed book. Each question is worth one mark, there's no negative marking, and you need 28 correct answers (70 percent) to pass. The syllabus uses standard, negative and list questions at Bloom's levels 2 and 3, so many questions ask you to apply a practice to a situation. You take it with a PeopleCert online proctor, in one of nine languages.
PeopleCert requires ITIL 4 Foundation, any ITIL v3 certification, or the ITIL 4 Managing Professional certificate. You also need training through an Accredited Training Organization or ITIL Official eLearning, and PeopleCert won't release your result without proof you completed it. ITIL Foundation (Version 5) isn't on PeopleCert's prerequisite list for CDS, so check with PeopleCert or your training provider first if that's the only ITIL certificate you hold.
As of October 2026, PeopleCert's US store sells CDS with official eLearning and the exam for US$1,338, or US$1,647 with a mock exam and a free re-take added. The exam-only bundle is US$865, but PeopleCert sells it for re-sits only because training is mandatory. Prices vary by country. Training Camp's CDS boot camp includes the exam voucher in the course fee.
PeopleCert awards ITIL 4 Managing Professional once you hold four certifications: Create, Deliver and Support, Drive Stakeholder Value, High-velocity IT, and Direct, Plan and Improve. CDS also counts toward a second designation, ITIL 4 Practice Manager, which pairs CDS with five individual practice certifications or one bundled practice module.
If you're close to finishing ITIL 4 Managing Professional, PeopleCert recommends completing it and then taking the ITIL Managing Professional Transition (Version 5) module. If you hold only Foundation and no higher ITIL 4 modules, the Version 5 route to Managing Professional takes four exams, while the ITIL 4 route takes four module exams plus two transition exams. If you do take CDS, leave room before December 31, 2027 for a re-sit.
PeopleCert lists a three-year renewal cycle for CDS. You can renew by logging 60 Continuing Professional Development points through PeopleCert Plus (20 a year for three years), by passing another certification from the same product suite, or by retaking the same exam. All ITIL certificates sit in one product suite, so passing any ITIL (Version 5) certification renews an ITIL 4 certificate.
PeopleCert lists roles such as IT Service Manager, Service Delivery Manager, IT Support Manager, Service Desk Manager, DevOps Engineer and Head of IT Operations among the positions CDS holders move into. It's most useful in jobs that run or support live services, where incident, problem, change and release work happen every day.
PeopleCert offers Take2, a re-sit option that has to be bought before your first attempt. If you don't pass, you schedule and sit the re-sit within six months of the original exam date. Training Camp's boot camp includes a Take2 re-sit, so a second attempt is already arranged. Take2 gives you a second sitting of the same exam, and you still need 28 marks to pass it.
It's worth it if you're completing ITIL 4 Managing Professional or ITIL 4 Practice Manager, or if an employer names CDS specifically, and you can test well before the planned December 31, 2027 sunset. If you're starting the advanced ITIL modules from scratch, the Version 5 modules are the better long-term bet, because they're where PeopleCert is building the scheme from now on.
Weighing CDS against the Version 5 modules, planning the rest of Managing Professional before the 2027 sunset, or arranging ITIL training for a team? Tell us where you are and we'll help you map out the right path.