ICT Management

- Premanand Lotlikar

2nd September, 2007

 Agenda
• Introduction
• Objective of ICT Mgmt
• Basic Concepts
• Benefits
• Relationship with other processes
• Activities in ICT Mgmt
• Process Control
• Key Performance Indicators
• Cost
• Possible Problems
Introduction
 Objectives
• Align ICT organization with business
• Reduce the overall TCO
• Availability of stable ICT infrastructure
 Benefits
• Business benefits
– Better co-ordination b/w business plans and activities
– Quicker and better ICT response to new needs
– Lower TCO
– Planned procurement, dev and deployment
– Better mgmt of projects, changes and roll-outs
• ICT benefits
– Increased effectiveness of ICT personnel
– Proactive development and improvement
– Lower risk of service failure
– Better control of suppliers
 Relationship with other processes
• Introducing change
• Providing agreed availability, performance
and support in accordance with SLA
• Providing agreed capacity
• Securing systems
• Undertaking recovery actions
• Providing know errors
 Activities
• Designing and Planning
– Designing and maintaining ICT strategies and
processes
• Deployment
– Typically as individual projects having their own
individual phases
• Operations
– Routine day-to-day management
• Technical Support
– Providing structure for ICT support processes
 Designing and Planning
• Balancing the business requirements with the
cost of ICT services
• Striking a balance b/w risk and cost of innovation
and the resulting competitive advantage
• Interfacing with the infrastructure of the partner
organization
• Complying with relevant standards
• Co-ordination b/w ICT planners and business
planners
• Strategic control of all projects in conjunction
with Service Mgmt
 Deployment
• Creates or modifies an ICT solution
• It should be implemented as a project in close
co-ordination with Change Mgmt
• It should ensure that all stakeholders approve
the plan
• Sub-phases in the process are:
– Design phase
– Build phase
– Acceptance test phase
– Roll-out phase
– Handover phase
 Design Phase
• Consider the existing common infrastructure
services (compatibility)
• Functional design developed from inputs from
users and business plans
• Consider the organizational aspect of ICT
solution (interface with other processes)
• Technical design of ICT solution:
– Platforms
– Configurations
– Component sizes
 Build Phase
• Advisable to have different environments:
– Development
– Test
– Production
• Documentation necessary for handover
• Training at various levels:
– In-depth for specialists
– Particular functions for users
 Acceptance Test Phase
• Testing conducted during the dev phase
• Test environment with data and ICT facilities
similar to prod is setup
• Information for setting up the test environment
must be recorded in CMDB
• Following test must be carried out:
– Functional testing
– Performance and volume testing
– Documentation testing
• Test reports are input for Problem Mgmt
 Roll-out Phase
• Developing a roll-out strategy
– Big bang or staged transition
• Writing the roll-out plan
– Migration plan, Risks, Back-out plan
• Testing the roll-out
– Testing migration & back-out plan
• Implementing the roll-out
• After care period
– Project team is still around to provide support
 Hand over Phase
• Documentation and operating instructions
are handed to technical disciplines
• Post hand-over the project is evaluated,
signed-off and closed out
• Lessons are fed to CSIP
 Operations
• Sometimes referred to as “back-office” of
ICT organization
• Concerned with the business-related
performance rather than technical
 Operations
• Includes the following mgmt processes:
– Mgmt of infrastructure events
– Operation control of services, components
and configurations
– Monitoring the work load, job scheduling,
resilience testing
– Mgmt of the storage capacity, back-ups and
service recovery
– Security Mgmt
 Mgmt of infrastructure events
• Event monitoring
• Event detection
• Event logging
• Event assessment and filtering
• Event handling
• Event resolution
• Event closure
• Event reporting
• Event life cycle mgmt
 Operation control of services,
components and configurations
• Installation
• De-installation
• Distribution
• Housekeeping and preventive maintenance
– Deleting log, temporary files
– Cleaning operational equipments
– User, file, authorization mgmt
– Preventive mgmt
– Operational reporting
 Workload monitoring, job
scheduling & resilience testing
• Workload planning, job scheduling
• Distribution and management of data and
media
• Resilience and fail-over arrangement
testing
 Storage, back-ups and service
recovery mgmt
• Storage mgmt & storage allocation
• Systems back-ups and restores
• Information mgmt
• Database mgmt & administration
 Managing security
• Security Mgmt
• Security control
 Technical Support
• Business as Usual (BaU)
– Specialist support for incidents and problems
– Creating and maintaining knowledge base
– In depth analysis to support Availability Mgmt
– Training and Development
• Projects
– Designing and maintaining test environments
– Supporting infrastructure deployments
– Undertaking feasibility studies
 Critical Success Factors
• Infrastructure activities are planned effectively
• Infrastructure is monitored
• Deployments are covered by roll-out plans
• Work load is monitored
• Storage capacity is managed
• Bask-ups are managed
• Events are detected, recorded, actioned and achieved
• Security is monitored and controlled
• Operations are audited
• Improvement actions are initiated and completed
 Costs
• Greater management time and attention
for resource planning
• More personnel, training and facilities
• More overhead in processes, procedures
and documentation
• Procurement of tools
• Implementing cultural changes
 Possible Problems
• Lack of mgmt commitment
• Inadequate resources, budgets and time
• Lack of business strategies and plans
• Lack of awareness of impact on business activities
• Great diversity of technology and apps
• Poor communication and co-operation b/w ICT and
business
• Inadequate training
• Overloaded personnel
• Unrealistic expectations
Thank you!