On Wednesday, the blog for the internet registry body APNIC published an article relevant to ITIL training and to online information technology training more generally. It is part of an ongoing series of articles on ITIL training and implementation, and it dealt specifically with the topic of cyber security and how this is an apparent shortcoming of most existing ITIL training programs and procedures.

This is not to say that the article implies that online ITIL training or relevant IT certification programs are anything other than useful for careers in cyber security. When one pursues such a career, it is still important that she be able to build her cyber security responsibilities into an institutional structure that is grounded in her ITIL training. It just that she cannot expect that structure or the institution as a whole to have many answers about how to approach cyber security problems as they arise.

ITIL training provides a groundwork for fulfilling any number of IT-related tasks in dedicated information technology firms. And so do various other forms of professional development or online information technology training. The essential takeaway of the APNIC blog post should be that it is important to be able to draw on supplemental forms of information technology training when one’s ITIL training appears to be insufficient to fully address the problems at hand.

The post doesn’t say this explicitly. It only refers to ITIL training by name, but it does also mention some key words and phrases that point to such alternative programs as certified scrum master training and certified business analyst training. The author makes it clear that she believes a cyber security professional should learn how to build department-specific solutions into the overarching ITIL framework. And it should be clear to the reader that doing so requires a high degree of expertise.

On one hand, this expertise can be drawn simply from past experience and the frequent utilization of ITIL training and infrastructure. But the process of acquiring that expertise can be greatly accelerated by adopting other training programs such as CBAP and CSM. In the first place, online business analyst training or business systems analyst training may give you the tools you need to recognize institutional vulnerabilities and implement effective policies in response. Cyber security may not be the explicit domain of this sort of training, but you might be amazed by the considerable overlap between that field, CBAP training, and ITIL training.

In the second place, CSM training provides department leaders in a variety of different IT fields with essential tools for implementing the solutions that they’ve arrived at through their assessments and analysis. It trains professional managers in how to set goals in such a way as to facilitate collaborative but ultimately self-directed action in service of fulfilling those goals. The recipient of certified scrum master training is likely to be able to help subordinates and other department heads to build on their ITIL training in an effective way even if CSM is not part of the particular institutional culture. When it comes to addressing problems in a new IT role, institutional culture is important as a basis for action, but employees and managers must recognize when it is not sufficient on its own, but requires supplementary training.