harness software complexity

HARNESS SOFTWARE COMPLEXITY

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CONTENTSCONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 3

A THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION IN IT 4

ITIL: A DRIVER FOR IT DEPARTMENT MATURITY 6

CONCLUSION 12

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INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION

All sectors of activity transition from a manual to an automated era sooner or

later. The IT industry, which we can still consider to be a young industry, is in

the middle of this automation transformation. Best practices models such as

ITIL, CMM, and COBIT are contributing greatly to this general trend toward

professionalization. They offer the way forward by making available to the

public the results of many years of diverse experiences accumulated by a large

number of players, leading to a sort of general consensus.

OBJECTIVES

Provide the main elements that constitute ITIL

Indicate where the ARCAD solutions are relevant

This is the current experience with the ITIL model. It is spreading in a

constantly growing number of companies throughout the world, and has

become a de facto standard.

A particular trait of ITIL is that it is, above all, the basis for a business culture

of service. There are no strict rules. It is up to you to determine the essential

core for your own organization. The purpose of this white paper is to provide

you with the main elements that constitute ITIL, and explain how the ARCAD

solutions are a key element for successful adoption of ITIL.

ARCAD Software’s approach in relation to this model is in no way opportunistic.

ITIL just puts a little more of a spotlight on the entire methodology developed

by ARCAD since the company’s founding 16 years ago.

This document details, point by point, the various sections that make up the

ITIL model, and indicates where the ARCAD solutions are relevant.


THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION IN ITTHE GREAT TRANSFORMATION IN IT Let’s sketch out the major trends that help in understanding the current

success of ITIL.

Before, information was addressed to users. Today, users have become

genuine clients. The day is over when the IT expert could hide behind his

intimidating technology to impose his views on the user. The balance of power

has largely returned to equilibrium. IT specialists must see users as demanding

clients who are owed a satisfactory level of service. Before, IT was centered on its technology, which naturally led laterally to

creating technology for the technology. Now technology is merely a resource at

the service of the user. We must encourage reliability rather than innovations

that are developed too quickly and poorly controlled.

Before, our IT services were constantly in reactive mode. People ran from one

problem to the next, while trying to maximize service. Today, this is

insufficient. We expect people to be proactive; in other words, to plan for problems rather than have to correct them.

Before, we operated machines. Now, we manage services. This change in

viewpoint doesn’t necessarily seem important, but it is essential to really

understanding the spirit of ITIL.


Nothing new under the sunNothing new under the sun

A best practices model is not something that is built overnight. ITIL has existed

for over 25 years, and companies did not wait for ITIL to implement a

minimum level of organization in their IT departments. So what is the

advantage of this type of approach? Simply, to improve the organization by

enabling your IT department to take advantage of the best practices in the

field. There are always other avenues for improvement for an organization, and

ITIL enables an outside perspective and a practical guide to assist you in

improving your processes.

Cultural changeCultural change

If you retain only one word from ITIL, it should without a doubt be "service."

IT exists to provide services to all of your company’s entities, and not to make

technology available. The most striking example is that of a broken printer.

When the system is not ITIL, we will try to repair the printer. From an ITIL

standpoint, the first step is to look for another available printer so that the

user can print his document. This is a service-oriented approach. It is a

genuine cultural shift which, if well assimilated, can trigger a radical change in

the image of your company’s IT department among users.

In ITIL, all of the activities of an IT department are identified as services. This

approach is extremely useful because IT experts always tend to focus more on

technology. However, technology is only the means to an end. It is time to

start thinking above all of the service provided to the user rather than of the

technology that provides this service.

Services management objectivesServices management objectives

The objectives in an ITIL implementation can be numerous, and vary from one

company to the next. However, it is possible to distinguish three fundamental

factors:

The first is certainly aligning IT services with the current and future needs of

the company and of its clients. In the period of economic globalization we are

experiencing, there are more and more decoupling phenomena. Business

requirements impose their constant speed. This is why information technology

must always be more flexible.

The second major objective is to improve the quality of services provided to

the user. If we maintain excessively “manual” methods when faced with the

rising tide of user needs, it is clear that it is impossible to provide quality of

service that will be satisfactory to the user.


The third objective is cost reduction in the medium and long term. A better-

organized IT department is more efficient, and is thus less expensive.

FOCUS

ITIL: A DRIVER FOR IT DEPARTMENT MATURITY

Four steps of progression: -Firefighting -Reactive -Proactive -Predictive

Incident and problem management - Incident management: Re-establish the service as quickly as possible. - Problem management: Minimize the repercussions of incidents, and reduce the appearance of new incidents of the same type. - ARCAD solutions: ARCAD-Customer and ARCAD-Skipper

Configuration, change, and release management - Configuration management: Identify, in a unified manner, all of the components of an IT department. - Change management: Provide a framework for the entire application change process during the development phases. - Release management: Transfer changes to production. - ARCAD Solution: ARCAD-Skipper

ITIL: A DRIVER FOR IT DEPARTMENT MATURITYITIL: A DRIVER FOR IT DEPARTMENT MATURITY The following diagram is of interest. It could be called “the maturity

progression curve for an IT department.”

This curve clearly illustrates the different steps in implementing processes in

order to transition from a reactive to a proactive mode. This transformation is

a prerequisite to ensure that IT in a company will no longer be considered as a

cost center, but as a services center.

Initial steps in adopting ITILInitial steps in adopting ITIL

The first step is documentation. If you are reading this white paper, you are

already on the right track. We make no pretense of providing all of the

information you might need. Our goal is simply to share our experience in this

field with you.

You will find a very substantial amount of information on the site of the

organization responsible for promoting the ITIL model, ITSMF (www.itsmf.fr


http://www.itsmf.fr/

or www.itsmfi.org). The site brings together documentation, events, and

players in this field.

After this documentation step, you will need training, and to train

professionals. In this area as well, there are numerous organizations standing

by to help you.

You can finally get started with ITIL by leveling all of your processes and by

detecting those that appear to be the weakest. It is always a good idea to

recall that the strength of a chain of values is equal to the force of its weakest

link.

ITIL processesITIL processes

ITIL divides IT department processes into two categories:

• Support for services that can be summarized as “everything that ensures

the correct functioning of the services”

• Provision of services concerning all processes related to making services

available under good conditions.

In the services support category:

• Incident management

• Problem management

• Configuration management

• Change management

• Release management

In the service provision category:

• Service level management

• Financial management for IT departments

• Capacity management

• Service continuity management

• Availability management

We suggest that you brush up on, one by one, all of the processes that

constitute the services support section.


http://www.itsmfi.org/

Incident and problem managementIncident and problem management These are unquestionably companies’ most advanced processes in their

implementation of ITIL. Why is this? Because companies have to start

somewhere, and the benefits created by the processes are clear.

• First of all, businesses never start entirely at zero. They have all already

thought about a minimum of formality with their users. Thus it is easier to

start from processes that are already partially established, even if, in this

case, the progress factors are smaller.

• Then, because these processes are highly visible for users, it will be easier

to explain the reasoning behind the company’s ITIL initiative.

The initial idea is to create a single point of contact (SPOC) with the user, to

which all user requests are directed regardless of their nature. These requests

are then dispatched to increasingly specific levels of expertise. This

organization allows highly rigorous tracking of all points of contention.

Incident management

It is important to note that we work in an industry that creates a great many

incidents, whether they are equipment-, or, even more often, software-related.

Faced with this flood, all companies have implemented procedures, more or

less formalized and more or less automated, to manage this flow of requests.

In an ITIL initiative, incident management consists, above all, of re-

establishing the service as quickly as possible. This is not necessarily a

permanent correction of the problem. Here we return to the example of the

out-of-order printer discussed previously.

Problem management

The problem management process consists of minimizing the repercussions of

incidents and reducing the appearance of new incidents of the same type.

When an incident recurs several times, it is no longer an incident – it is a

problem. Its resolution will require deeper analysis and a study of solutions,

which could potentially result in new investments that must be approved.

How can ARCAD’s products help you?

The ARCAD solutions are particularly rich in this area. Our tools are centered

on two suites: ARCAD-Customer and ARCAD-Skipper.

ARCAD-Customer is a solution for managing your technical support activity.

Technically speaking, it is a full Web solution, developed with Java EJB

technology that gives it the following qualities:


• It can be installed on any database. We have clients who use DB2, Oracle,

SQL Server, MySQL, etc.

• It has a client-server type interface, with multi-window capabilities and

other tools

Functionally speaking, it includes:

• Management of requests and of associated attachments

• An incoming e-mail robot enabling tracing of communications relating to

current requests

• E-mail notification and escalation procedures

• Skills management

• An Internet-accessible knowledge base

• A statistics module

ARCAD-Skipper is a software configuration management suite. It also handles

incidents, but from a strictly software standpoint, while ARCAD-Customer

handles all requests, whether they concern software or equipment, and simple

questions and answers.

In ARCAD-Skipper, when an incident is generated, we know that it will first be

attached to a Maintenance Report, and then to a version. Thus, there is

complete traceability, from the user request to the components transferred to

production. Of course, there are links between the two suites. Incidents from the Customer

suite are found in the Skipper suite. Status information is exchanged on both

sides.

Configuration, change, and release managementConfiguration, change, and release management These three processes are intended to improve organization around change

phases. Heaven knows information technology undergoes changes of all kinds,

in terms of equipment, and even more so in terms of software. This constitutes

the main difficulty in automating processes in our line of work. What is the best

way to consolidate an organization when everything is constantly changing

around you? By mastering change.

For obvious reasons, given ARCAD’s business line, we will focus on software

changes, with the awareness that ITIL is not limited to this perimeter.


Here we will discuss one of the main ITIL processes where, unlike for incident

and problem management, companies are going into areas that are

considerably more fallow. With a few exceptions, processes in general are not

formalized and have a number of manual tasks, or are formalized as

procedures, or – as often was the case previously – in the minds of associates.

The exceptions are the companies who have already adopted tools in this field.

Configuration management

This process consists of identifying, in a unified manner, all of the components

of an IT department, whether these components are software, equipment,

network, or other. We will also try to identify all of the inter-relationships

between these components. This will result in the establishment of a

repository. In ITIL, this index is called CMDB (Configuration Management

Database).

Starting from the moment this repository is created, all successive

configuration stages can be managed, controlled, and audited.

Change management Change management provides a framework for the entire application change

process during the development phases. Fundamentally, the need is simple: To

ensure coordination between developers who often work on the same

components at the same time. When performed manually, this task is finicky,

time-consuming, and not very reliable.

The simple initial idea is to create a single code repository from which all new

developments will come, and then to add to it a component allocation system

(the check-in, check-out principle). This mechanism allows a natural dialog to

be established when two developers have to modify the same source code. It

avoids any potential regression situations that could result.

Release management

Change management is the act of changing. Release management is the act of

transferring changes to production. This process can rapidly become extremely

complex in terms of technology, because it often involves different technologies; in terms of security, because care must be taken not to degrade established rules (permissions, ownership); and in terms of organization,

because a number of players are involved:

• Users, who must be informed before and after the execution of transfers to

production. They may need to be trained on this new release;


• Production staff who are responsible for processes, particularly planning, all

while taking operating constraints into account;

• Developers (although in theory their job is already done).

The most worrying aspect in all this is that it is a process that is not easily

100% automated. It is a fact that the less a process is automated, the less

reliable it is.

The most important factor in implementing this process is having an overall

approach, including both technical and non-technical aspects. From this point

of view, a tool makes an indispensable contribution. Ideally, the tool should

cover technical issues (basically, transfer of components to production) as well

as organizational issues. This can be covered by workflow functions.

How can ARCAD’s offer help you?

ARCAD’s solutions operate on both of these levels within a single suite:

ARCAD-Skipper.

ARCAD-Skipper is, above all, a broad “transport” layer, with:

• The ability to transport components simultaneously onto dissimilar

platforms;

• Non-degradation of permissions, ownership, and attributes of the

components in production;

• Security provided by a powerful rollback system.

However, ARCAD-Skipper is also a workflow layer, which enables

personalization of organization around release processes, with:

• Definition of roles and precise responsibilities;

• Validation systems for defined steps;

• Circulation and validation of technical documentation.

All of this is synchronized with the transport layer, which can be piloted directly

from the workflow.

If you have priorities to be defined, it is clear that you must begin with the

technical level. It is this level that will provide the highest gains in quality. The

organizational layer allows increased cooperation of the professionals involved.

It has the advantage of being more visible, and therefore more easily

“sellable.”



What differentiates the ARCAD solutions in this field are the following:

• Their capacity to adapt to the particular characteristics of different

configurations, resulting in a higher level of automation;

• Their capability of processing the “data” dimension of transfers to

production1.

CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION

We live in an exciting time, with companies that are concerned about the

effectiveness of their IT organization. These companies do not hesitate to take

advantage of the best practices of the profession. Certainly, ITIL does not in

itself provide anything that was previously unknown. Nor is ITIL the only best

practices model – but it does exist, and it provides a common language for the

different players. It also has the advantage of not being a strict set of rules,

and it provides factors for improving your organization when and where you

need it.

When you start an ITIL implementation process, it is essential to sound out the

tools. The contribution of tools to each process we discussed is clear. We don’t

claim to provide all the tools needed by every company that adopts ITIL, but

we hope that we have increased your awareness of this tool-based approach,

which is far and away the most effective.

1 See the “DTC” white paper

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