Learning Outcomes

ITIL is a well established framework which helps in- and external IT service providers to become more service-oriented and adaptive to needs of their customers as well as to manage and organize service processes and assets more cost-effective. In order to benefit from these advantages by implementing ITIL, service providers must seek broad organizational support and overcome resistance to change. Given this, Fort Fantastic is an ideal approach to persuasively demonstrate the benefits of the ITIL framework for customers and executives as well as service operations staff which may have to fundamentally change their day-to-day operational behavior. Integrated into the change management strategy the simulation provides important light-bulb moments which facilitate practical understanding of the current challenges of IT service management.

The hands-on simulation in an environment far away from the daily routine of IT operations allows to gain first experiences and encounters with ITIL without reservations. The scenarios offered by Fort Fantastic cover the most important best practice processes as defined by ITIL V3.

A unique characteristic of FortFantastic is that the simulation refrains from using any IT terminology. In other words, Fort Fantastic is an ITIL simulation that is not build around an IT environment. Instead the scenario is grounding on the task of managing a theme park. Nevertheless, one of the underlying goals of the game is to highlight the advantages of working in structured processes and to demonstrate the value that a best-practice process framework such as ITIL has to offer.

Subsequently aspects of the game and their association with ITIL processes are outlined.