Backlog Management Index (BMI) Evaluation and Improvement An ITIL Approach

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1 Backlog Management Index (BMI) Evaluation and Improvement An ITIL Approach Backlog Management Index is one of the important metrics that is closely monitored in Steady State of Maintenance and Support Projects. In most cases Backlog Management Index provides a very good indication of the success of the project work and an understanding of the stability and control. There is a tendency of BMI to decrease steadily with time in Steady State of Development and Support Projects without adequate controls, processes, checks and balances. The factors affecting BMI may be classified into operational and process related. ITIL is the abbreviation for the guideline IT Infrastructure L i b rar y, d e ve l o p e d by Ce ntral Co m p u ter a n d Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), now the OGC (Office of Governance Commerce) in Norwich (England) developed on behalf of the British government. The main focus of the development was on mutual best practices for all British government data centers to ensure comparable services. Today ITIL is the worldwide de-facto-standard for service management and contains broad and publicly available professional documentation on how to plan, deliver and support IT service features. The aim of this white paper is to illustrate some of the root causes behind BMI reduction in Steady State of Maintenance and Support Projects. The paper then applies the ITIL approach to resolving the issues that cause the BMI to decrease and improve the index.

2 About the Authors Piyush Anand Piyush Anand is an associate with Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCSL) since During his tenure with TCSL Piyush has worked in a variety of roles including Developer, Module and Project Leader and Manger. He has worked with diverse organizations as part of his projects. His experiences include Development, Maintenance, and Support projects. He is currently working as a Project Manager overseeing Application Support and Development Projects. Piyush is ITIL certified and holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi. 1

3 Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction and Relevance BMI Understanding Backlog Management Index Case Study BMI Influencers Factors affecting BMI in Steady State Operational Related Factors Process Related Factors BMI Control and Improvement Strategy An ITIL Approach Operational Related Factors Process Related Factors Case Study on ITIL Approach Conclusion BMI Management with ITIL Approach Further Reading and References 11 2

4 1.0 Introduction and Relevance Backlog Management Index (BMI) definition, its relevance to project management and metrics management are described below. This is followed by a sample case study to illustrate the concepts. 1.1 BMI Understanding Backlog Management Index Backlog Management Index (BMI) is an important metric to manage the backlog of open, unresolved problems in a Software Project. It is typically used extensively in maintenance and Support projects (or phases) to ensure the project remains under control. It is related to both the rate of defect arrivals and the rate with which the fixes to the defects become available. A Backlog of workload is defined as the count of problems that remain unresolved after a particular time span (week/month). BMI= Number of Problems/Service Desk Incidents closed in the month * 100 % Number of Problems/Service Desk Incidents opened in the month If the number of Problems/Service Desk Incidents closed in the month is more than the number of arrivals, the BMI will be more than 100 percent. This will indicate that the Software system and the project for maintaining and supporting it are under control and moving towards more stability. If on the other hand the number of Problems/Service Desk Incidents closed in the month is less than number of arrivals, the BMI will be less than 100 percent. This will indicate that the Software System and (or) project maintaining and supporting it is not stable. In the long term if this condition continues, an intervention from Project Manager, Sponsors, Technical Resources and other Stakeholders may be necessary. In reality most projects experience an oscillatory behavior in relation to BMI over the lifecycle of the project. There are several underlying factors that influence the trend of BMI for the project. The analysis of the BMI Trend is an important aspect of Software Quality Management, Project Management, and Continuous Service Improvements Initiatives which are critical in defining the success or failure of the Project Effort. This whitepaper focuses on identifying the BMI Influencers especially in Steady State of Maintenance and Support Projects. It will then focus on minimizing the negative influence of the factors and suggesting ways to prevent their recurrence. 1.2 Case Study The following is the sample BMI Trend Data as seen in the steady state of a project for Maintaining and Supporting Applications for a Financial Company. 3

5 140 Sample BMI Trend for Application Support Project BMI % January March May July September November January March May BMI Linear (BMI) Time Figure 1: Indicative / Sample BMI Trend in the steady State of a Support Project The BMI Trend Analysis indicates that the project has been moving towards stability and is under control. The relationship between BMI and time is expressed using the following Equation BMI = K1* T + K2 Wherein T represents the Time Interval (in months) after steady state is reached in the Project and K1 and K2 are constants. K1 is the stability factor indicating whether the BMI trend is improving with time. A positive K1 factor (as in the diagram above) indicates that the project is moving in the right direction. A negative K1 factor may require intervention from stakeholders as indicated earlier. K2 is the constant indicating the base value of average BMI at the start of the Steady State Phase of the Project. A value of K2 >= 100 with a positive value of K1 is the ideal condition for a project. The project mentioned in the chart above has the following final equation:- BMI = * T

6 2.0 BMI Influencers There are several factors that influence BMI in the course of project as it moves along different phases. The section below describes the BMI Influencers in the steady state of the project. 2.1 Factors affecting BMI in Steady State BMI may be influenced by a variety of factors during the lifetime of the project. However in the steady state these factors can have a destabilizing effect on the overall health of the project. In the steady state processes have been defined, resource strength has been ramped down, and management is focused on improving efficiency and costs. The factors affecting BMI in steady state of Maintenance and Support projects can be classified as follows: Operational related factors Process related factors Operational Related Factors The operational factors directly affect the daily operations of the project and the metrics generated by the activities. The important operational factors that have an impact on BMI are illustrated below: a. Operating Environment, Industry and Calendar The Line of Business for example Financial, Retail, Banking and so on has a great role in determining the workload pattern. In many sectors there is a period of Change Freeze wherein the workload is reduced only to increase considerably after the freeze. The change freeze also prevents the project from resolving issues by making system changes thus increasing backlog. If the project activities are not customized according to the Operating Environment undesirable effects may reflect in the results. b. Developmental Cycles and Efficiency The steady state of Maintenance and Support projects is routinely interrupted by developmental cycles. This adds to the existing workload and prevents the project from reducing the existing backlog during the transition /handover process. The efficiency of development is not within the control of the project team since many of the effects are revealed in the course of maintenance and support. However tracking issues directly related to new development can be used to improve efficiency. Inefficient Development Cycle Management including shorter Handover/Knowledge Transition can lead to initiation of BMI reduction and instability in the project. c. System Volatility and Workload Pattern Steady State in project generally implies System Stability and a constant workload pattern. However, in most projects, system and process changes routinely introduce System Volatility. In some cases the system continues to generate additional problems and prevents the project team from resolving existing issues. This results in decreasing the BMI and indicates that an intervention may be necessary to address the issues. The workload pattern is also closely related to resource utilization. If additional workload is added to an existing team or some team members are moved from the project (with same project workload) BMI is expected to reduce Process Related Factors Process Management entails sets of policies, best practices and guidelines that are used repeatedly to improve the quality of the product or services. The efficiency and maturity of the processes used in the project have a great impact on the project and it s BMI. 5

7 a. Quality Management Processes The Quality Management Processes followed by the project directly affect on the BMI. If the processes are standardized, repeatable, and matured over time, the BMI is expected to improve. b. Resource Management Resource Utilization is a key factor in controlling and improving the BMI. Resources need to be varied according to changing project requirements. If the resource management at any point in the project is sufficient or not suitably matched, the BMI will continue to steadily decline. c. Knowledge Management Efficiency A project with improper or nonexistent Knowledge Management Processes will lose competency derived from execution of the project.the best practices, repeatable procedures, and stored repository of project artifacts for reuse are vital for a project in order to deliver products/services with optimum quality and in meeting the expectation of the customer.in other words the project team will be engaged in repeatedly analyzing issues leading to wastage of time and effort. Resource Turnover can be a critical issue for such projects since knowledge is mainly retained within the resources themselves and not in a repository. This results in BMI reduction. 6

8 3.0 BMI Control and Improvement Strategy An ITIL Approach BMI control and improvement strategy can be considered a key factor in moving towards successful operation and completion of a project. It can be greatly beneficial in improving the customer satisfaction index and overall goodwill of the project team and performing organization. It can be a very good indicator for future business engagement. ITIL is a worldwide accepted best practice framework the industry and has been proven to be very effective in streamlining IT activities and projects to achieve the goals. The following are the strategies for BMI Improvement: 3.1 Operational Related Factors The set of important operational factors which can help in BMI improvement are described below. a. Operating Environment, Industry and Calendar The Project Management and leadership should be aware of the changes in the workload in relation to the organization calendar. This includes modifying activities depending on the time of the year. As an example the efforts can be directed towards reducing backlog during change freeze (when the workload is expected to be low).resources with appropriate capability may be engaged for the duration. This activity will vary according to Line of Business, Industry Segment and Project Type. The Service Design Methodology in the ITIL Lifecycle provides guidance on Capacity Management, Availability Management and so on.these processes can be applied based on specific nature of the project to improve BMI. b. Developmental Cycles and Efficiency BMI reduction can be significantly controlled if the new workload (brought in by new development) has been properly transitioned to the maintenance and support team. Many projects have seen benefits by engaging the development team for a few weeks (after a release) to ensure that the new workload pattern details are properly understood, bugs in the new code are removed and system knowledge of the project team in enhanced. There should be a clear ownership of issues generated by the new release and the project team should have assurance that the development team will provide assistance on resolving major issues (related to the new release) that are subsequently discovered in the lifecycle. If there are deferred bugs that are introduced care should be taken to assign ownership to the relevant development teams (so that there is no constant backlog added to the project workload).release and Deployment Management process in Service Transition of ITIL Service Lifecycle provides best practices like Release Planning, Rollout Planning, Early Life Support, Managing Development Cycles and so on. These processes lead to an effective control of BMI. c. System Volatility and Workload Pattern If there is a trend of increased System Volatility and increasing workload pattern, the project management should involve the stakeholders to analyze the condition and add resources and/or budget to the project as appropriate. BMI stability is gained by Effective Change and Release Management Processes. 3.2 Process Related Factors The process related issues surrounding Quality Management, Resource Management, and Knowledge can be handled with applying the appropriate Project Management Techniques as fit in the situation. ITIL has been found to be very helpful in improving the BMI over the long run. The details of the applicable ITIL best practices are as follows: 7

9 a. Establishment of Service Desk The Service Desk concept of ITIL ensures that all requests are channeled to one source which forwards them to the project team. This avoids ad hoc requests and provides the management an accurate understanding of the workload. b. Incident and Problem Management The Project Team should utilize the concept of Incidents and Problems to handle recurring issues and create a Known Issues List. The Problem Management process within ITIL provides guidance to avoid multiple open incidents (decreasing BMI) for a single problem. It also provides a suitable platform for launching continuous system improvements, engaging development team, resource management, and so on. The management should ensure that problems are regularly reviewed and assigned to appropriate teams. c. Knowledge Management ITIL methodology provides guidelines related to Knowledge Management.In addition efforts should be undertaken to maintain a knowledge library, reusable templates, Best Practices and a detailed induction process. The available knowledge should be updated regularly and should be available online. This will allow faster resolution of issues thus reducing backlog and improving BMI. d. Effective Change Management Since the only thing constant in a project is change, it is important that the project has control on all change activities that may have a potential impact on the workload, system stability and BMI. Any changes made by the project team should also follow the change management process. e. Continual Service Improvements Continuous Service Improvements is a vital tool in steady state of maintenance and support projects. The list of frequently occurring problems in the systems and their workarounds (as explained in problem management) may need the project team to initiate small projects. This will provide more exposure to the project team members and enable the project to increase BMI. This may also allow the project management to engage development teams for assistance on major issues as opposed to less critical ones. 3.3 Case Study on ITIL Approach The suggested ITIL approach was applied to a support project in the steady state in a financial company. The following figure displays the BMI Tend for indicative purposes:- Sample BMI Trend (Before ITIL Application) BMI % New Release Change Freeze 20 0 July BMI Linear (BMI) August September October Time November December January Figure 2 : Indicative / Sample BMI Trend in the steady State of a Project (Before ITIL Application) 8

10 As seen in Fig 2, the BMI is constantly decreasing indicating that system is unstable.the trend is defined by the following equation:- BMI = * T The negative K1 value indicates BMI decrease. Also indicated are some of the factors that have impacted the BMI in this specific case. The following figure displays the sample BMI Trend after application of ITIL Approach:- BMI % BMI December Sample BMI Trend (After ITIL Application ) January February Linear (BMI) March Time ITIL launched April May New Release Management June Figure 3 : Indicative / Sample BMI Trend in the steady State of a Project (After ITIL Application) The BMI Trend has shown a steady increase indicating improved stability in the system and a general reduction in backlog. The Trend Line is described by the following equation:- BMI = * T The positive value of K1 shows the stability of the trend. Also indicated are some major operational and process related changes that impacted BMI during the period of study. This included launching of ITIL Processes and New Release of Software. The new release significantly increased Backlog during handover/takeover (an expected phenomena as explained earlier) however prolonged engagement with the development team ensured a swift turnaround of BMI Trend. 9

11 4.0 Conclusion 4.1 BMI Management with ITIL Approach The whitepaper describes the evaluation of BMI trend in steady state of maintenance and support projects. While there is no solution to resolve all system and project problems, a set of ITIL guidelines are found to be very effective in controlling and improving BMI Trend.The BMI Trend is also related to other factors such as project management, stakeholders, Quality Processes and so on as seen in the performing organization. The strategy for BMI improvement is described in the figure below:- ITIL Processes Service Strategy Service Design Service Transition Service Operation Continual Service Improvements Project Stakeholders/ Sponsors Development Team End Users / Customers Steady State of maintenance and Support Project Improved BMI, Increased Customer Satisfaction, Increased Project Stability, Better Resource Utilization Project Management Quality Management Resource Transition Knowledge Operation LOB / Industry specific processes Figure 4 : Strategy for BMI improvement in Steady State of Maintenance and Support Projects One of the significant points to be stressed is the importance of modifying or adapting the strategy based on the changing dynamics in the project including identifying and handing special / unknown factors. It also means that BMI evaluation is a continuous process and needs to be done several times during the project lifecycle. Improving BMI may reduce backlog, improve customer satisfaction and may induce customers to provide more business opportunities to 10

12 the performing organization along with other benefits. Based on the above analysis we can conclude that the steady state is as challenging and formidable as other phases of the project. Efficient Project Management and Proactive Leadership will ensure that the project meets its objectives and realizes its goals. 4.2 Further Reading and References The reader may refer to the ITIL core publications including latest developments, processes and guidelines at the ITIL official website:- The reader can also refer to a suitable Quality Management System such as IQMS, ISO standards, CMM, and other models suitable for the industry and line of business, for example The Project Management Institute (PMI) provides guidelines for Project Management which is relevant to all phases of projects and across all business and industry segments 11

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