Architecture and Patterns for IT Service Management, Resource Planning, and Governance: Making Shoes for the Cobbler's Children (eBook)

Charles T. Betz (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2006 | 1. Auflage
424 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
978-0-08-048834-9 (ISBN)

Infos

How would you feel if you visited your financial planner's office and saw past-due credit card notices on their desk? Would you trust an auto mechanic whose car backfires and produces black smoke? A dentist with bad teeth? A banker in shabby clothes? An interior designer whose offices are a shambles?

This is the position of the IT capability in many large organizations. The designated custodian of critical business processes and data does not manage its own processes and data reliably. A response in the form of Enterprise Resource Planning for Information Technology is emerging from major companies, research firms, and vendors, they are labeling these offerings ERP for IT, IT Resource Planning, and related terms.

This groundbreaking, practitioner-authored book provides an independent examination of and response to these developments. An analysis of the large scale IT capability, with specific attention to business processes, structured data, and enabling systems, it is essentially a comprehensive systems architecture, not for the business capabilities IT supports, but for IT itself.

Features
The book presents on-the-ground coverage of enabling IT governance in architectural detail, which you can use to define a strategy and start executing. It fills the gap between high-level guidance on IT governance, and detailed discussions about specific vendor technologies. It is a next-step book that answers the question: OK, we need to improve the way we run IT - now what? It does this through:

* A unique value chain approach to integrating the COBIT, ITIL, and CMM frameworks into a coherent, unified whole
* A field-tested, detailed conceptual information model with definitions and usage scenarios, mapped to both the process and system architectures
* Analysis of current system types in the IT governance and enablement domains: integration opportunities, challenges, and evolutionary trends
* Patterns for integrating the process, data, and systems views to support specific problems of IT management.
* Specific attention throughout to issues of building a business case and real-world implementation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Charles Betz is a Senior Enterprise Architect, and chief architect for IT Service Management strategy for a US-based Fortune 50 enterprise.

He has held consultant and architect positions for Best Buy, Target, and Accenture, specializing in metadata, configuration management, IT governance, enterprise application integration, and ERP systems. He holds a summa B.A. in Political Science and a Master of Science in Software Engineering, both from the University of Minnesota. Charlie is an active member of the professional community, belonging to the IT Service Management Forum, IEEE, ACM, and Data Management Association (DAMA). He presents frequently both locally and nationally to professional associations and conferences.

He is the sole author of the popular www.erp4it.com weblog.

Are you in the thick of sorting out how to make ITIL and COBIT work, and trying to make sense of the dozens of vendors clamoring to help?

Are you puzzled over how the ITIL vision for Change Management fits into the reality of your current processes? And how it relates to Enterprise Architecture and Portfolio Management?

Is the concept of configuration management and the CMDB giving off more heat than light for you? How can you make it real?

Have you found yourself wondering whether you really need an IT portfolio management tool, an enterprise architecture repository, a metadata repository, a service management tool, and a configuration management database (CMDB)? And if you have them, are you wondering if they should be related somehow?

The book presents on-the-ground coverage of enabling IT governance in architectural detail, which you can use to define a strategy and start executing. It fills the gap between high-level guidance on IT governance, and detailed discussions about specific vendor technologies. It is a next-step book that answers the question: OK, we need to improve the way we run IT - now what? It does this through:

* A unique value chain approach to integrating the COBIT, ITIL, and CMM frameworks into a coherent, unified whole

* A field-tested, detailed conceptual information model with definitions and usage scenarios, mapped to both the process and system architectures

* Analysis of current system types in the IT governance and enablement domains: integration opportunities, challenges, and evolutionary trends

* Patterns for integrating the process, data, and systems views to support specific problems of IT management.

* Specific attention throughout to issues of building a business case and real-world implementation.

Among the specific topics addressed are:

* ITIL recommendations from a practical systems implementation point of view
* Configuration management: challenges, misconceptions, myths, and realities. Business justification for. Support for compliance and regulatory goals.
* Interrelationships between IT portfolio planning, solutions development, and IT operations
* The relationship between application development and hosting (infrastructure) organizations
* Business intelligence, performance management, and metrics for the IT capability itself
* Detailed, actionable clarification of the vague concept of IT Service and all its permutations and implications
* IT portfolio degradation through complexity
* Detailed models of IT information
* The various classes of systems used internally by large scale IT organizations
* The concept of repository and its relationship to the Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
* Process roles and responsibilities. Closed-loop, self-reinforcing processes for IT data management.
* Application as critical control point and portfolio entry. Clarifying relationship between application and IT service. Application portfolio management: process, data structures, and systems.

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Architecture and Patterns for IT Service Management, Resource Planning, and Governance: Making Shoes for the Cobbler's Children provides an independent examination of developments in Enterprise Resource Planning for Information. Major companies, research firms, and vendors are offering Enterprise Resource Planning for Information Technology, which they label as ERP for IT, IT Resource Planning and related terms. This book presents on-the-ground coverage of enabling IT governance in architectural detail, which can be used to define a strategy for immediate execution. It fills the gap between high-level guidance on IT governance and detailed discussions about specific vendor technologies. It provides a unique value chain approach to integrating the COBIT, ITIL, and CMM frameworks into a coherent, unified whole. It presents a field-tested, detailed conceptual information model with definitions and usage scenarios, mapped to both process and system architectures. This book is recommended for practitioners and managers engaged in IT support in large companies, particularly those who are information architects, enterprise architects, senior software engineers, program/project managers, and IT managers/directors.

Inhalt

Front Cover 1
Architecture and Patterns for IT Service Management, Resource Planning, and Governance 4
Copyright Page 5
Contents 8
Table of Figures 11
Table of Tables 15
Foreword 16
Boxes and Lines 19
Preface 20
Acknowledgments 28
Part I: The IT Value Chain 32
Chapter 1. Introduction: Shoes for the Cobbler’s Child 34
1.1 The Achievements of IT 34
1.2 The Problems 35
1.3 The Proposed Solutions 42
1.4 The Business Case 61
1.5 Making It Real 62
1.6 Chapter Conclusion 63
1.7 Further Reading 63
Chapter 2. The IT Value Chain: A Process Foundation 66
2.1 Frameworks, Frameworks Everywhere 67
2.2 A Value Chain Framework 73
2.3 Primary IT Activities 82
2.4 Supporting IT Activities 102
2.5 Relationship between Primary and Supporting Processes 123
2.6 Major Framework Issues 124
2.7 The Functional Viewpoints 129
2.8 Nonfunctional Requirements 131
2.9 Process Maturity 136
2.10 The Business Case 136
2.11 Making It Real 137
2.12 Chapter Conclusion 137
2.13 Further Reading 138
Part II: Supporting the IT Value Chain 140
Chapter 3. A Supporting Data Architecture 146
3.1 Metrics: Gateway from Process to Data 146
3.2 A Conceptual Data Model 150
3.3 IT Process Entities 155
3.4 The Configuration Item and Its Subtypes 175
3.5 Process and Workflow: A Data Perspective 230
3.6 General IT Data Architecture Issues 235
3.7 The Business Case 253
3.8 Making It Real 254
3.9 Chapter Conclusion 255
3.10 Further Reading 255
Chapter 4. A Supporting Systems Architecture 258
4.1 Systems and Families 263
4.2 Cohesion and Coupling 266
4.3 Systems for Planning and Controlling 267
4.4 Systems for Solutions Delivery 283
4.5 Cross-Boundary Build–Run Systems 292
4.6 Systems for Service Support 301
4.7 Information-Centric Systems 310
4.8 General Issues 326
4.9 The Ideal Architecture 329
4.10 The Business Case 332
4.11 Making It Real 333
4.12 Chapter Conclusion 334
4.13 Further Reading 335
Chapter 5. Patterns for IT Enablement 338
5.1 Why Apply Patterns? 338
5.2 Core Value Chain Patterns 340
5.3 Configuration Management Patterns 351
5.4 Supporting IT Process Patterns 374
5.5 Chapter Conclusion 394
5.6 Further Reading 395
Part III: Conclusion 396
Chapter 6. Epilogue 398
6.1 Human Constraints of IT Enablement 399
6.2 The Next-Generation IT: MDA, SOA, BPM, Portals, and Utility Computing 400
6.3 In Closing 402
Appendix A. Architecture Methodology Used in This Book 404
Appendix B. Some Thoughts on the Professionalization of Enterprise IT 409
Appendix C. IT Professional Organizations 412
Endnotes 414
References 428
Index 438
About the Author 448

Textauszug

Preface

Technology made large populations possible; large populations now make technology indispensable.

—Joseph Wood Krutch1

TECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) are among the few assets humanity can count on in the face of our myriad challenges. Although technology cannot by itself remedy the human condition, or point the direction toward peace, it has repeatedly shown itself to be a great servant and enabler.

Virtually all organizations—small, medium, and large, across the world—depend to some degree on technology. Software development and systems administration are skills sought worldwide as gateways to greater economic security. And worldwide investment in IT continues apace, into the hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars.

Would you trust a banker dressed in shabby clothes?

With all this importance and investment, it is ironic that the activity of managing IT itself continues to be one of the most troubled areas in today’s large organizations. IT teams and their sponsors rely on rumor, impression, and educated guesses when faced with critical decisions. Project and security failures abound. There is little visibility as to how and where the IT dollar is spent and what (if any) the measurable results are, and there is less understanding of the complex dependencies present in what seem not like engineered systems but like organically grown ecologies of information processing.

Would you trust a banker dressed in shabby clothes? An auto mechanic whose car backfires and emits black smoke? How would you feel if you visited a financial planner’s office and saw past-due credit card notices on her desk?

Perception is reality. An IT organization that appears to not know what it is managing does not inspire confidence, no matter how resilient the core system operations may be or how pleased individual project sponsors are. Culturally and psychologically, society’s expectation is that IT will be organized, rational, and measurable—the dot-com bubble notwithstanding.2 IT is who society turns to when it needs to organize complexity. If IT cannot solve its own problems, how can it be entrusted with the burdens of its customers?

Of course, this is overgeneralized, unfair, and harsh. That’s the brutal reality of perception.

Therefore, the business case for investing in improved management infrastructure for IT is self-evident. The cost of not doing so is simply too high. If the IT organization can no longer support its internal operations with undocumented processes, disparate data, and manual tools, then investments in more robust platforms must be made. The alternative is to be the shabby banker, and although an internal IT organization with a monopoly on IT services may get away with this for some time, in today’s fluid business environment with multiple sourcing alternatives it is a risky strategy.

The Internet spreads rumors and urban legends with alarming speed, but it has also proved to be the death of many long-cherished myths. Among these is the old story that a frog placed in slowly heated water will not react and will boil to death.3

Myth or not, it’s a compelling metaphor for where enterprise IT management finds itself in the early 21st century. Starting in the middle of the last century in the equivalent of cool water—comparatively limited operations, simple technologies, and minimal expectations—IT as an enterprise capability has languished in the increasing heat, not effectively reacting to the gradual but cumulatively dramatic changes in its circumstances. Much analysis has been devoted to why; this book proposes some concrete actions. It’s time for a leap.

Why, How, and For Whom This Book Was Written

We always, it seems, are provided with a glut of material on the next big thing, and not enough on how to make the last big thing actually work.

—Alec Sharp4

This book is intended as a bridge between theory and practice in large-scale IT management.

This book is meant to provide a coherent, architectural overview of the enterprise IT landscape, identifying the major aspects of the large IT organization and how they interact—with specific attention to process, data, and enabling systems.

It is intended for computing and information systems professionals working for large corporations. These are professionals employed in IT and information systems as a support function, not as a primary line of business; that is, I am talking not about Intel’s microchip engineers or Microsoft’s software architects but about the people running those companies’ sales, human resources, and accounting systems. Particularly, the book is aimed at the managers and staff of internally facing IT capabilities:

This book will be useful to anyone going through ITIL or COBIT training.

IT strategic planning

Service management and support

Enterprise architecture

IT portfolio management

Project management office

It’s also aimed at IT outsourcing firms, whose primary value chain is the provision of IT services. (Whether you are an internal or external provider, the book’s framework encourages you to think in terms of IT as a coherent business entity.)

It will benefit those concerned with IT governance in its various aspects, especially IT directors and group managers receiving general direction from their senior leadership to “make it so.” It will be useful to anyone implementing an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)5 or Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT)6 initiative or being trained in those frameworks. (Some familiarity with, and/or access to, these frameworks is recommended to obtain maximum value from this book.) Anyone participating in any form of IT process improvement may find value here.

It will also be of interest to detail-oriented senior executives, who may not read the whole book but can provide it to their staff as evidence that the problem is becoming better understood and some implementation road maps are emerging. The book is a workable template that will help reduce redundancy and increase IT agility and transparency. It can be read cover to cover or be used simply as a desk reference. (We spent quite a bit of time on the index.)

It is a next step book for those saying:

“Okay—let’s ‘run IT like a business.’ Now what?”

The book moves horizontally through the IT value chain and vertically from the high-level objectives of IT governance down to the specific process, data, and system architectures enabling it. It fills the gap between general guidance on IT governance and detailed discussions about the specific tools and technologies that support and enable IT governance. It is a step toward a more “off-the-shelf” standard set of approaches.

Why Another Book?

In many cases, the I/S [information system] data situation can be compared with the mechanic who never fixes his car because he is too busy servicing others.

—IBM7

There is much high-level guidance emerging on the subject of IT governance, but because this guidance comes from a variety of sources and can be highly general, it presents the would-be user with challenges.

This book is a response to the lack of concrete guidance in the major process frameworks, such as ITIL.

Major frameworks such as ITIL, Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), and COBIT require substantial interpretation before implementation and in the United States in particular are still underappreciated. As will be seen, they also are overlapping and inconsistent, and no one framework can claim comprehensive coverage of IT yet.

There is no end of material available from vendors discussing detailed particulars about emerging trends and products, but this material is, of course, written to serve their interests.

Commercial research firms do excellent work but are focused on partitioning and decomposing the IT market—this book is focused on overlaps and synergies across the IT problem domain.

Large consulting firms may have rich and powerful integrated methods, but they are proprietary and expensive. Smaller firms may not have sufficient depth of understanding; this is an active market with many new entrants. Caveat emptor.

Finally, many authors are joining the fray, most with fine ideas, but they are often focused on higher-order questions and less concerned with some of the nuts-and-bolts issues encountered when seeking an integrated IT capability and especially in achieving alignment across diverse IT functions.

PowerPoint is not a system of record.

The consequences of this are apparent in most large IT organizations: lack of process understanding that leads to uncoordinated initiatives to purchase tools from vendors who have a strategy of never admitting they compete against one another (“Oh, we don’t do what they do; we can interoperate with them.”). Redundant IT governance and enablement applications require interfaces that are risky to build and expensive to run, and in many cases such integration is overlooked or bypassed. Consulting firms may be brought in with a...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 17.11.2006
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik ► Datenbanken
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Finanz- / Wirtschaftsmathematik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Buchhandel / Bibliothekswesen
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft
• ISBN-10: 0-08-048834-X / 008048834X
• ISBN-13: 978-0-08-048834-9 / 9780080488349