🔦Process Management: "Manage Problem" Process Diagram in ITIL

Process diagrams for IT methodologies like ITIL can be approached in general at a lower level of detail than business processes (see 'Create Product' process diagram) and thus the text blocks can be left out unless further high-level instructions need to be given. Because they are highly standardized, one can find many examples on the internet as inspiration. On the other hand, the processes need to be adapted to an organization's needs. 

Compared with other similar process diagrams, the diagram attempts (1) to highlight also the interfaces with other processes (e.g. Manage Change, Manage Knowledge, etc.), (2) to assure that the User can cycle through the steps, respectively that there's no infinite loop via the solvability question. 

The following definitions apply:

Change: the addition, modification or removal of anything that could have an effect on a servicel

Incident: unplanned interruption or reduction in quality.

Known Error: problem that has a documented root cause and/or a workaround.

Problem: a cause of one or more incidents.

Resolution: action taken to repair the root cause of an incident/problem or to implement a workaround.

Workaround: reducing/eliminating the impact of an incident/problem for which a full resolution is not yet available.

💻IT: Information Technology Information Library [ITIL] (Definitions)

"A series of documents used to aid the implementation of a framework for IT service management (ITSM). This framework defines how service management is applied in specific organizations. Being a framework, it is completely customizable for an application within any type of business or organization that has a reliance on IT infrastructure." (Tilak Mitra et al, "SOA Governance", 2008)

"A framework and set of standards for IT governance based on best practices." (Judith Hurwitz et al, "Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies" 2nd Ed., 2009)

"A framework of supplier independent best practice management procedures for delivery of high quality IT services." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"a set of guidelines for developing and managing IT operations and services." (Bill Holtsnider & Brian D Jaffe, "IT Manager's Handbook" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"A framework and set of standards for IT governance based on best practices." (Marcia Kaufman et al, "Big Data For Dummies", 2013)

"A group of books written and released by the United Kingdom’s Office of Government and Commerce (OGC). ITIL documents best practices organizations can implement to provide consistent IT services. The library includes five books." (Darril Gibson, "Effective Help Desk Specialist Skills", 2014)

"A set of process-oriented best practices and guidance originally developed in the United Kingdom to standardize delivery of informational technology service management." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices", 2014)

"Best practices for information technology services management processes developed by the United Kingdom’s Office of Government Commerce." (Adam Gordon, "Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK" 4th Ed., 2015)

"The IT Infrastructure Library; a set of best practice publications for IT service management." (by Brian Johnson & Leon-Paul de Rouw, "Collaborative Business Design", 2017)

"The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) presents pre-defined processes for IT service management. The fourth edition of ITIL depicts two key elements ITIL Service-Value-System (SVS) and a four dimensions model." (Anna Wiedemann et al, "Transforming Disciplined IT Functions: Guidelines for DevOps Integration", 2021)

"set of best practices guidance" (ITIL)

💻IT: Service Level Agreement [SLA] (Definitions)

"A signed agreement of system service requirements between two parties (such as your company and an ASP or between your department and end users) that defines the guidelines, response times, actions, and so on, that will be adhered to for the life of the agreement." (Allan Hirt et al, "Microsoft SQL Server 2000 High Availability", 2004)

"A contract with a service provider, be it an internal IT organization, application service provider, or outsourcer, that specifies discrete reliability and availability requirements for an outsourced system. An SLA might also include other requirements such as support of certain technology standards or data volumes. An outsourcer’s failure to adhere to the terms laid out in an SLA could result in financial penalties." (Evan Levy & Jill Dyché, "Customer Data Integration", 2006)

"A formal negotiated agreement between two parties. It is a contract that exists between customers and their service provider, or between service providers. It records the common understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantees, and so on, with the main purpose to agree on the level of service." (Tilak Mitra et al, "SOA Governance", 2008)

"An agreement between a customer and a product or service provider that defines conditions under which the provider will offer support or additional services to the customer, and what level of services will be offered under each of those conditions." (Steven Haines, "The Product Manager's Desk Reference", 2008)

"An agreement between a service provider and a service recipient that formally defines the levels of service that are to be provided." (David G Hill, "Data Protection: Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance", 2009)

"A formal negotiated agreement between two parties that usually records the common understanding about priorities, responsibilities, and warranties, with the main purpose of agreeing on the quality of the service. For example, an SLA may specify the levels of availability, serviceability, performance, operation, or other attributes of the service (such as billing and even penalties in the case of violations of the SLA)." (David Lyle & John G Schmidt, "Lean Integration", 2010)

"A written legal contract between a service provider and client wherein the service provider guarantees a minimum level of service." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed., 2011)

"A contracted guarantee of service delivery for a program, transaction, service, or workload." (Craig S Mullins, "Database Administration", 2012)

"The part of a contract between two parties that outlines the delivery of services within defined timeframes." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"A statement to customers or the user community about the service the IT department will provide. It can refer to a variety of metrics, such as performance, up-time, resolution time, and so on." (Bill Holtsnider & Brian D Jaffe, "IT Manager's Handbook" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"An agreement between an IT service provider and a customer to provide a specific level of reliability for a service. It stipulates performance expectations such as minimum uptime and maximum downtime levels. Many SLAs include monetary penalties if the IT service provider does not provide the service as promised." (Darril Gibson, "Effective Help Desk Specialist Skills", 2014)

"The service or maintenance contract that states the explicit levels of support, response time windows or ranges, escalation procedures in the event of a persistent problem, and possible penalties for nonconformance in the event the vendor does not meet its contractual obligations." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices", 2014)

"A contract for formally defined services. Particular aspects of the service (scope, quality, responsibilities) are agreed between the service provider and the service user. A common feature of an SLA is a contracted delivery time of the service or performance." (Thomas C Wilson, "Value and Capital Management", 2015)

"A portion of a service contract that promises specific levels of service." (Weiss, "Auditing IT Infrastructures for Compliance" 2nd Ed, 2015)

"A contract between a service provider (either internal or external) and the end user that defines the level of service expected from the service provider." (Project Management Institute, "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)", 2017)

ITIL: Change Request (Definitions)

"Any request submitted by a customer (buyer or users) for a change to alter the system. These appear in various forms and include software trouble reports (STRs) and baseline change requests (BCRs). BCRs request changes to the system’s specification." (Richard D Stutzke, "Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products, and Processes", 2005)

"Requests to expand or reduce the project scope, modify policies, processes, plans, or procedures, modify costs or budgets, or revise schedules." (Project Management Institute, "Practice Standard for Project Estimating", 2010)

"A document requesting a change for a project." (Bonnie Biafore, "Successful Project Management: Applying Best Practices and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft® Project", 2011)

"An official document requesting modification of existing features, requirements or functions or new ones. Change Request should contain description of the current solution, justification for a change and suggested (desired) solution." (IQBBA, "Standard glossary of terms used in Software Engineering", 2011)

"An appeal to the change review board for a modification to the project by any stakeholder. The request typically includes the justification, relationship of the change to the project goal and objectives, description of the change and deliverables, and effect on project risk." (Bonnie Biafore & Teresa Stover, "Your Project Management Coach: Best Practices for Managing Projects in the Real World", 2012)

"Change management notification for change in current process/environment." (Bill Holtsnider & Brian D Jaffe, "IT Manager's Handbook" 3rd Ed, 2012)

"A formal proposal to modify any document, deliverable, or baseline." (For Dummies, "PMP Certification All-in-One For Dummies" 2nd Ed., 2013)

"1. Written request or proposal to perform a specific change for a development product or to allow it to be implemented. 2. A request to change some software artifact due to a change in requirements." (Tilo Linz et al, "Software Testing Foundations" 4th Ed, 2014)

"Change management notification for a change in current process/environment." (Bill Holtsnider & Brian D Jaffe, "IT Manager's Handbook" 3rd Ed", 2012)

🧭Business Intelligence: Enterprise Reporting (Part XI: Between Products, Partners, People and Processes)

Business Intelligence Series

In the previous post, “BI between Potential, Reality, Quality and Stories”, I was commenting five of the important findings of a study led by KPMG in respect to the state of art in BI initiatives. My comments were centered mainly on the first 3 of the 4Ps (Products, People, Partners, respectively Processes) considered in ITSM (IT Service Management). The connection to IT Service Management isn’t accidental, BI being also an organizational capability. Many of the aspects related to the 4Ps perspectives, reveal the maturity of an organization in leveraging its BI infrastructure.  In this post I would like to consider BI landscape from these 4 perspectives.

Products

Products or technology perspective has within BI context a dual nature. First of all we have to consider the BI infrastructure – the whole set of BI tools we have at disposal for our shiny reports. Secondly, because the BI infrastructure doesn’t stand on itself, we have to consider also IT infrastructure on which BI infrastructure is based upon – a full range of ISs (Information Systems) in which data are entered, processed, transported and consumed before they are used by the BI tools. For Data Quality issues, we often have to consider the broader perspective, and tackle the problems at the source. Otherwise we might arrive to treat the symptoms and not the causes. It’s important to note that the two layers or perspectives are interconnected, the consequences being bidirectional.

A typical BI infrastructure revolves around several databases, maybe one or more data warehouses and data marts, and one or more reporting systems. Within the most basic scenario, the data flow is unidirectional from databases to data warehouse/marts, reports being built on top of the data warehouse/marts or directly on the IS’ databases. In more complex scenarios, the data can flow between the various ISs when they were integrated, and even between data warehouses/marts, within a unidirectional or bidirectional flow.  Unless the reports are based directly on the ISs’ databases, such architectures lead to data duplication, conversions between complex schemas, delays between the various layers, to mention just a few of the most important implications. In some point in time the complexity falls down on you.

One of the problems I met is that a considerable percent of the IS are not developed to address BI requirements. It starts with data validation, with the way data are modeled, structured, formatted and made available for BI consumption. If you want to increase the quality of your data, you have sooner or later to address them. It’s important thus the degree to which the systems are designed to cover the BI needs in particular, and decision making in general. This presumes that BI requirements need to be addressed in early phases of implementations, software design or when tools are consider for purchase.

In addition many ISs come with their own (standard) reports or reporting frameworks, becoming thus part of your BI infrastructure, intended or unintended. Even if such reports are intended to cover basic immediate reporting requirements, they not always so easy to consume, the logic behind them is not visible, are hard to extend, are not always tested, the additional reports built in other tools need to be synchronized with them, etc.

Partners

We gather huge volumes of data, we are drowning in it; we want to take decision rooted in data and get visibility into the past, actual and future state of business. How can we achieve that if we don’t have the knowledge and human resources to achieve that? “Partners” is the magic word – external suppliers specialized, in theory, to provide this kind of services: BI analysts and developers, business analysts, data miners, and other IT professionals work together in order to build your BI infrastructure. One detail many people forget is that BI tools provide potentiality; are the skills and knowledge of those working with them that transforms that potentiality into success. On their capabilities depends the success of such projects. Not to forget that BI projects are similar to other IT projects, falling under same type of fallacies plus a few other fallacies of their own derived from exploratory and complex nature of BI projects.

There is a dual nature also in “partners” perspective – except the external perspective which concerns the external partners and the IT department or the business as a whole, there is also the internal perspective in which the IT department plays again a central role. I heard it often loudly affirmed that the other departments are customers of the IT department, or the reciprocal. I have seen also this conception brought to extreme, in which the IT had no word to say in what concerns the IT infrastructure in general, respectively the BI infrastructure in particular. As long the IT department isn’t treated as a business partner, an organization will be more likely sabotaged from inside. Sabotage it’s a word too strong maybe, though it kind of reflects the state of art.

People

Same as partners, people perspective includes a considerable variety of types: IT staff, executives, managers, end-users and other types of stakeholders, each of them with a word to say, grouped in various groups of interests that don’t always converge, situations in which politics plays a major role. It’s actually interesting to see how the decision for a given BI solution is made, how the solution takes its place into the landscape, how it’s used and misused, how personalities and knowledge harness it or stand in the way. I feel that there are organizations (people) which do BI just for the sake of doing something, copying sometimes recipes of success, without uniting the dots, without clear goals and strategy. There are people who juggle with numbers and BI concepts without knowing their meaning and what they involve. This aspect is reflected in how BI tools are selected, implemented and used.

Having the best tools, consultants and highest data quality, won’t guarantee the success of BI initiative without users’ acceptance, without teaching them how to make constructive use of tools and data, on how to use and built models in order to solve the problems the business is confronted with, on how to address strategic, tactical and operational requirements. The transformation from a robot to a knowledge worker doesn’t happen over night. Is needed to make people aware of the various aspects of BI – data quality, process and data ownership, on how models can be used and misused, on how models evolve or become obsolete, how the BI infrastructure has to evolve with the business’ dynamics. There are so many aspects that need to be considered. It’s a continuous learning process.

Processes

In processes' perspective can be depicted a dual nature too. First of all we have to consider the processes which are used to manage efficiently and effectively the whole BI infrastructure. They are widely discussed in various methodologies like ITIL, whose implementation is thoroughly documented. Secondly, it’s the reflection of departmental processes within the various data perspectives – how they are measured, and how the measurements are further used for continuous improvement. 

Considering that this aspect is correlated with an organization’s capability model, I don’t think that many organizations go/rich that far. Sure the trend is to define meaningful KPIs, growth, health and other type of metrics, but the question is – are you using those metrics constructively, are you aligning them with your strategic, tactic and operational goals? I think there is lot of potential in this, though in order to measure processes accordingly is imperative to have also the system designed for this purpose. Back to technological perspective…

 

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🧭Business Intelligence: Enterprise Reporting (Part X: Between Potential, Reality, Quality and Stories)

Business Intelligence Series

Have you ever felt that you are investing quite a lot of time, effort, money and other resources into your BI infrastructure, and in the end you don’t meet your expectations? As it seems you’re not the only one. The “Does your business intelligence tell you the whole story” paper released in 2009 by KPMG provides some interesting numbers to support that:

1. “More than 50% of business intelligence projects fail to deliver the expected benefit” (BI projects failure)
2. “Two thirds of executives feel that the quality of and timely access to data is poor and inconsistent” (reports and data quality)
3. “Seven out of ten executives do not get the right information to make business decisions.” (BI value)
4. “Fewer than 10% of organizations have successfully used business intelligence to enhance their organizational and technological infrastructures”  (BI alignment)
5. “those with effective business intelligence outperform the market by more than 5% in terms of return on equity” (competitive advantage)

The numbers reflect to some degree also my expectations, though they seem more pessimistic than I expected. That’s not a surprise, considering that such studies can be strongly biased, especially because in them are reflected expectations, presumptions and personal views over the state of art within an organization.

KPMG builds on the above numbers and several other aspects that revolve around the use of governance and alignment in order to increase the value provided by BI to the business, though I feel that they are hardly scratching the surface. Governance and alignment look great into studies and academic work, though they alone can’t bring success, no matter how much their importance and usage is accentuated. Sometimes I feel that people hide behind big words without even grasping the facts. The importance of governance and alignment can’t be neglected, though the argumentation provided by KPMG isn’t flawless. There are statements I can agree with, and many which are circumstantial. Anyway, let’s look a little deeper at the above numbers.

I suppose there is no surprise concerning the huge rate of BI projects’ failure. The value is somewhat close to the rate of software projects’ failure. Why would make a BI project an exception from a typical software project, considering that they are facing almost the same environments and challenges?  In fact, given the role played by BI in decision making, I would say that BI projects are more sensitive to the various factors than a typical software project.  

It doesn’t make sense to retake the motives for which software projects fail, but some particular aspects need to be mentioned. KPMG insists on the poor quality of data, on the relevance and volume of reports and metrics used, the lack of reflecting organization’s objectives, the inflexibility of data models, lack of standardization, all of them reflecting in a degree or other on the success of a BI project. There is much more to it!

KPMG refers to a holistic approach concentrated on the change of focus from technology to the actual needs, a change of process and funding.  A reflection of the holistic approach is also the view of the BI infrastructure from the point of view of the entire IT infrastructure, of the organization, network of partners and of the end-products – mainly models and reports. Many of the problems BI initiatives are confronted with refer to the quality of data and its many dimensions (duplicates, conformity, consistency, integrity, accuracy, availability, timeliness, etc.) , problems which could be in theory solved in the source systems, mainly through design. Other problems, like dealing with complex infrastructures based on more or less compatible IS or BI tools, might involve virtualization, consolidation or harmonization of such solutions, plus the addition of other tools.

Looking at the whole organization, other problems appear: the use of reports and models without understanding the whole luggage of meaning hiding behind them, the different views within the same data and models, the difference of language, problems, requirements and objectives, the departmental and organizational politics, the lack of communication, the lack of trust in the existing models and reports, and so on. What all these points have in common are people! The people are the maybe the most important factor in the adoption and effective usage of BI solutions. It starts with them – identifying their needs, and it ends with them – as end users. Making them aware of all contextual requirements, actually making them knowledge workers and not considering them just simple machines could give a boost to your BI strategy.

Partners doesn’t encompass just software vendors, service providers or consultants, but also the internal organizational structures – teams, departments, sites or any other similar structure. Many problems in BI can be tracked down to partners and the ways a partnership is understood, on how resources are managed, how different goals and strategies are harmonized, on how people collaborate and coordinate. Maybe the most problematic is the partnership between IT and the other departments on one side, and between IT and external partners on the other side. As long IT is not seen as a partner, as long IT is skip from the important decisions or isn’t acting as a mediator between its internal and external partners, there are few chances of succeeding. There are so many aspects and lot of material written on this topic, there are models and methodologies supposed to make things work, but often between theory and practice there is a long distance.

How many of the people you met were blaming the poor quality of the data without actually doing something to improve anything? If the quality of your data in one of your major problems then why aren’t you doing something to improve that?  Taking the ownership over your data is a major step on the way to better data quality, though a data management strategy is needed. This involve the design of a framework that facilitates data quality and data consumption, the design and use of policies, practices and procedures to properly manage the full data lifecycle. Also this can be considered as part of your BI infrastructure, and given the huge volume, the complexity and diversity of data, is nowadays a must for an organization.

The “right information” is an evasive construct. In order to get the right information you must be capable to define what you want, to design your infrastructure with that in mind and to learn how to harness your data. You don’t have to look only at your data and information but also at the whole DIKW pyramid. The bottom line is that you don’t have to build only a BI infrastructure but a knowledge management infrastructure, and methodologies like ITIL can help you achieve that, though they are not sufficient. Sooner or later you’ll arrive to blame the whole DIKW pyramid - the difficulty of extracting information from data, knowledge from information, and the ultimate translation into wisdom. Actually that’s also what the third and fourth of the above statements are screaming out loud – it’s not so easy to get information from the silos of data, same as it’s not easy to align the transformation process with organizations’ strategy.

Also timeliness has a relative meaning. It’s true that nowadays’ business dynamics requires faster access to data, though it requires also to be proactive, many organizations lacking this level of maturity. In order to be proactive it’s necessary to understand your business’ dynamics thoroughly, that being routed primarily in your data, in the tools you are using and the skill set your employees acquired in order to move between the DIKW layers. I would say that the understanding of DIKW is essential in harnessing your BI infrastructure.

KPMG considers that the 5% increase in return on equity associated with the effective usage of BI is a positive sign, not necessarily. The increase can be associated with hazard or other factors as well, even if it’s unlikely probable to be so. The increase it’s quite small when considered with the huge amount of resources spent on BI infrastructure. I believe that BI can do much more for organizations when harnessed adequately. It’s just a belief that needs to be backed up by numbers, hopefully that will happen someday, soon.

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💠SQL Server: SQL Server 2012 is almost here [new feature]

I was quite quiet for the past 3-4 months, and this not because of the lack of blogging material, but lack of time. Instead of writing I preferred reading, diving in some special topics related to SQL Server (e.g. tempdb and security), in the near future following to post some of my notes. For short time I was busy learning for ITIL® v3 Foundation Certification, the topics on Knowledge Management giving me more ideas for several posts waiting in the pipe. I started also the online “Introduction to Databases” course offered by Stanford University, attempting thus a scholastic approach of the topic, of importance being the material on Relational Algebra, material I didn’t had the chance to study in the past.

From my perspective, during this time two  important events related to SQL Server took place – the launch of AX Dynamics 2012 and, more recently, the introduction of SQL Server 2012 at PASS (The Professional Association of SQL Server) 2011.

SQL Server 2012

At PASS Summit 2011 were disclosed 4 of the newest SQL Server Products: SQL Server 2012 (code Denali), Power View (code Crescent), ColumnStore Index (code Apollo) and SQL Server Data Tools (code Juneau). The PASS 2011 streamed sessions are available online with quite interesting materials on SQL Server topics like application and database development, database administration and deployment, BI, etc. If you want to learn more about SQL Server, check the CTP 3 Product Guide, which contains datasheets, white papers, technical presentations, demonstrations and links to videos, or the SQL Server 2012 Developer Training Kit Preview (requires Microsoft’s Web Platform Installer).

Dynamics AX 2012

Because lately I’ve been spending more and more time with Dynamics AX, Microsoft’s ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution, I’d like to include related content in my posts, at least presenting resources if I can’t get yet into technical stuff. As its backend is based mainly on SQL Server, AX is the perfect environment to see SQL Server at work, or to perform configuration and administration activities. In addition, AX material (best/good practices, methodologies, various other papers) related to SQL Server could be extended to other environments. I’m saluting Microsoft’s decision of making available publicly more Technet and MSDN content, previously most of the technical content being accessible mainly though Microsoft’s Partner Network and Customer Network. A good compilation of resources is available on AX Technical Support Blog and Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX blog.

As pointed above, recently was launched Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (see global and local launch events).  It’s interesting to point out that, with this edition, SSRS becomes the reporting platform for AX, a considerable step forward.

Books

In what concerns the free books there are 3 free “new” appearances: Jonathan Kehayias and Ted Krueger’s book Troubleshooting SQL Server: A Guide for the Accidental DBA (zipped PDF), which provides a basic approach to troubleshooting, Fabiano Amorim’s book on Complete Showplan Operators (PDF, Epub), and Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner’s Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (PDF, requires registration).