Why are we here in IT

Objectives of the management of information services :

• become more responsive to the customer
• give value for money
• perform as promised
• improve time and cost control
• become more business oriented

In fact, the IT department builds an automated 'nervous system' of the company. Without the data, the company is without knowledge. Without the data access links, the pulses of the company cannot flow. So, we are all working to build an effective and efficient nervous system for the company supporting the company objectives. In commercial markets, those objectives means overcoming the competition. A good IT department is a major weapon for survival.

Service Management

This can be done is via a set of provided services.

The key value in services is that they structure the customer-supplier relations. This facilitates meeting the objectives.

Tasks to be performed for service management:

• Determine architecture for the services (based on requirements) and associated SLAs (Service Level Agreement)
• Develop the services
• Handle change & problems, support the users
• Operate the services in a day to day way
• Phase out services no longer required
• Assess, Monitor, Report and Improve the services

A service is expressed through activities.

Business Architectures

A business or organizational architecture is a blueprint of activities of the organization.

The activities are designed so that they result in meeting the objectives of the organization.

An activity consists of actions and resources.

Describing or designing an organization involves finding the activities needed to be carried out, each detailing the actions and resources (means, entities or components) needed to perform the actions. It is possible that a resource performs or is used by several actions. A resource must be capable of performing its part of the action. In other words, a resource should have a repertoire of capabilities or attributes which fit the needs of the action to be performed.

Thus an organization can be modeled as a series of action objects and a series of resource objects.

Activities are described with the following information:

• Functional operation : purpose or function and associated performance
• Technical operation : input-action-result + other_resources-conditions
• Relations with other activities
• Control or management : self management, outside management, combined management
• Resources needed

Resources (means, entities or components) are described as follows :

• Purpose and associated performance
• Repertoire of actions or attributes
• Actions using the resource
• Composition in terms of sub resources
• Control or management : internally, externally

Description of organizations in terms of:

• Hierarchies of blocs of organizational units
• Organizational units and processes (better view of actual organization)
• Resources (infrastructures and infrastructure components)

Types of infrastructures:

• Information infrastructure
• Human infrastructure
• Financial infrastructure
• Legal infrastructure
• Production infrastructure
• Support infrastructure

The business architecture will then be made of actions and resources delivering services. (This can be read as: ...be made of activities delivering services)

The start of the design of an organization is the strategy for the organization.

A strategy consists of:

• Mission and objective
• Market the organization wants to serve
• Services of the organization
• Required responsitivity - points of flexibility

The strategy is the starting point to determine organizational units, processes and infrastructures. Beginning with the mission, activities are determined which may be detailed and grouped together in organizational units and processes. From the descriptions of the activities it is possible to determine the required resources and group these in architectures. This design effort gives us the business architecture we need.

Information Architectures

The information architecture are lower level architectural layers to the business architecture.

The set of architectures is comprised of :

• user interface architecture
• application architecture
• data (information) architecture
• middleware architecture
• network architecture
• physical architecture

The component view

The component view is a way to represent all means needed in a consistent way. It makes it possible to keep track of and automate the administration of all relevant constituent means, resources, entities and infrastructures as a whole.

Types of components:

• Transmission Media Components
• Network Interface Components
• Transport Control Components
• Network Control Components
• Middleware Components
• Network Services Components
• User Interface / Information / Application Components

The User Interface / Information / Application components provide the functionality for the business process and are also called the business logic.

The 5 standardized functional management areas are :

• Configuration and Change Management
• Faults and Problem Management
• Performance and Availability
• Accounting and Billing
• Security and Auditing

Architectural Functions

Each component makes certain types of service possible :

• User, Access, Processing and Storage services
• Network services
• Distributed processing services
• Logical transport services
• Physical transport services

These services have many traits in common.

The similarity in expressing types of services makes it easier to identify and specify how a user will interface with the information infrastructure.

Central to the approach is the ‘dialog’ which the user or a service conducts with a lower layer of service. Each layer conducts such a dialog with a lower layer, making the design layered. The dialog ‘instantiates’ the services provided at a certain level.

The general format of a dialog is as follows :

• Connection to the layer and get permission to use it
• Selection of a service from a set of services
• Opening of a service
• Collection of input
• Processing of the collected information
• Distribution of results from the processing
• Closing the service
• Deselection of the interface program
• Disconnection from the information infrastructure layer

Using those functionalities, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) may be specified.

Service Management Processes

There are two control levels for an organization:

• Operational management : The control of the operational processes based on the current organizational structure and business strategy
• Strategic management : the control of the organization development with environmental changes as inputs

Those levels can be supported by the following processes :

Four levels can be distinguished :

• Operational level : use and support the structures
• Maintenance level : maintain the structures
• Development level : execute more drastic changes to the structure
• Management level : strategic change to the structure and ensure the the organization is aligned with business goals

This model offers a ‘continuous improvement mechanism’.

So the management, development, maintenance and use of the information architectures are brought together in one integral approach.

Administration

An up to date picture of the architecture and its components is available at any given time.

All the data can be stored in a configuration management database. (Repository). This database can be used as an organization knowledge base. This can be developed using object oriented technology defining functions, processes and infrastructure components as ‘business objects’.

Connection between Architecture and Management Processes

Processes description

Determine requirements

The aim of this process is to determine the architecture's specifications. This occurs by deciding which functions must be carried out to achieve the organization's goals. The process uses input from:

• the manage process, that defines the business goals and translates new management ideas or wishes into requirements
• the assess process, that indicates the required (fundamental) changes based on change requests and assessments during use
• users, who relay their wishes directly to this process

The process consists of the following activities (actions or process steps):

• plan the determination of requirements
• collect data
• determine the functional requirements
• determine the performance and capacity requirements
• determine the reliability and availability requirements
• determine the security and privacy requirements
• determine the management and operational requirements
• determine the financial requirements
• compose a proof-of-concept prototype
• determine the origins of functional requirements
• consolidate all the requirements

Determine architecture

This process receives inputs form the 'determine requirements' process and the 'manage' process and leads to the definition and design of the architecture. The architecture is determined by grouping the necessary functions in the functional architecture, which consists of a hierarchy of functions and can be converted to a process architecture. The process architecture the indicates by means of processes and process steps (activities), how the functions are to be carried out. Each process in the process architecture is then worked out distinctly, regarding the determination of activities and the required infrastructure components. The architecture should be described in general terms, but also detailed enough to enable decisions about changes. The process yields and architectural plan consisting of an organization development plan and an information systems plan. The process consists of the following activities:

• plan the architecture determination
• determine the current architecture (in incompletely documented)
• determine the functional architecture
• determine the process architecture
• determine the user interface architecture
• determine the data architecture
• determine the application architecture
• determine the middleware architecture
• determine the network architecture
• determine the physical architecture
• administer the architecture
• evaluate and plan the architecture

Development

This process comprises the design of functions and processes and ensures that infrastructure components are obtained, developed and/or delivered. For the information infrastructure this means developing or purchasing applications, databases, computers and communication networks. The functions, processes and components can be designed using the basic functionalities of service dialogs. The process yields the required functions, processes and infrastructure components, together with the accompanying documentation. The activities are:

• plan the development
• design functions, processes and components
• describe (specifying and documenting) functions, processes and components
• investigate components
• select and purchase components
• design interfaces
• realize/adapt/test functions and processes
• develop components linearly
• develop components interactively
• test components
• integrate functions/processes and information infrastructure components
• accept (integrated) components
• convert components
• analyze/evaluate the performance of components
• secure components
• adapt and improve components
• document components
• develop user training programs
• develop user support programs
• adapt information systems management
• communicate with IS specialists and users
• quality assurance
• administer the architecture

Handle change requests

This process ensures that requests for changes coming from uses having problems with the use of the functions, processes and components during the execution of the operational business processes, are dealt with adequately ('support'). This process results in proposals for changes to the 'assess' process and reports to the issuers of the requests. The process consists of the following activities:

• receive change requests and problem reports
• analyze change requests and problem reports
• determine the workload
• determine the priorities
• determine how to deal with the requests and problem reports
• report to issuers of the requests and complete the actions

Assessment

In this process, measurments and inspections of the functions, processes and infrastructure components are used to assess their performance or quality. Proposed changes are also evaluated. More drastic changes are passed on to the 'determine requirements' process; smaller changes, that do not fundamentally affect the architecture, are passed on to the 'change' process. The activities of this process are:

• plan the activities
• determine the measuring systems and inspections
• perform measurements and inspections
• assess the user interface infrastructure
• assess the data infrastructure
• assess the application infrastructure
• assess the middleware infrastructure
• assess the network infrastructure
• assess the physical layer infrastructure
• assess functions
• assess processes
• assess the support
• assess the security and availability
• assess the costs and benefits
• assess servicel level agreements
• determine the actions to be taken
• administer the assessments

Change

This process implements the requested improvements or changes by designing, developing and adapting functions, processes and infrastructure components on the basis of a maintenance plan. The process consists of the following activities:

• deal with change requests
• plan the activities
• decide about the progress with the customer
• design changes to functions, processes and components
• realize and test changes to infrastructure components
• realize and test changes interactively
• accept changes
• change documentation
• change functions and/or processes
• consult with users and customers
• optimize use
• quality assurance
• administer the architecture

Installation and deployment

This process aims to install and implement ready-to-use functions, processes and infrastructure components and remove components that are no longer required. As a result of this process, new and improved fucntions, processes and infrastructure components become available for operational use. This usally causes organizational changes. The activities are:

• plan installation and deployment
• set up locations
• obtain, transport and install components
• test compoentns and prepare them for use
• educate and train system managers and users
• implement business functions and processes
• accept functions, processes and infrastructure and remove unnecessary components
• distribute new versions
• administer the architecture

Use/Operate

In this process, the developed and maintained functions, processes and infrastructure components are actually used for the execution of the operational business processes. The process consists of the following activities:

• plan use
• receive and handle inputs
• enter and process inputs
• obtain and handle outputs
• distribute outputs
• audit use
• administer data
• provide back-up and recovery
• measure reliability, availability and security
• measure performance and capacity
• administer the architecture

Support

This process aims to promote effective use of functions, processes and infrastructure components, through providing services to users who have difficulties during operations. It consists of assistance in performing functions and execting business processes and support of the use of infrastructure components (helpdesk). This process results in advice to users and change requests made by users. The activities of the process are:

• plan user support
• receive requests for support
• analyze and assess the requests
• assist users of components
• assist users of functions and processes
• write change requests
• administer requests for support

Management

This process ensures that the architecture is tuned to the business objectives and determines the business and IS organization according to the structuring criteria of the IIM organization paradigm. The process also includes the operational management of the development, maintenance and use of the information infrastructure accoding to the plans. The process is connected to the other IIM processes. The (groups) of activities of this process are:

• determine IS strategy and planning
  • determine IS strategy
  • determine the structuring criteria of the IS organization
  • determine he requirements and architecture of the IS organization
  • plan the IS organization development
  • manage technlogy
• develop and maintain the IS organization
  • develop and implement the IS organization
  • change the IS organization
  • perform internal IS managemement
• manage the development of information facilities
  • manage the determination of requirements
  • manage the determination of the architecture
  • manage the development of information functions, processes and components
• manage the maintenance of infromation facilities
  • manage handling of change requests and problems
  • manage assessments
  • manage changes
  • manage installation and deployment
• manage the use/operation of information facilities
  • manage use
  • manage operations
  • manage user support
• manage support activities
  • manage the architecture administration (configuration management)
  • manage the continuity of information facilities
  • assess the IS organization
  • manage the human infrastructure
  • manage the facilitary infrastructure
  • manage the IS relations
  • perform project management

Administration

This process comprises the administration of the functions, processes and infrastructure components, so that an up-to-date picture of the architecture and its compoents is available at any given time. This includes an up-to-date registration of the configuration of the infrastructure and the specifications of the infrastructure components (configuration management). A version and a state are also indicated for each component. States might be for exemple operational, in developement or planned. This process receives and supplies data from and to the othe processes. The activities are:

• determine and describe functions, processes and components
• plan the activities
• administer the architecture
• administer infrastructure use
• administer change requests and problem reports
• administer help desk activities
• administer installations and implementations
• administer development, maintenance and use activties and coses
• administer, calculate and chager out activities of the IS organization