Capacity & Demand Management Processes within the ITIL 2011 Update

Capacity & Demand Management Processes within the ITIL 2011 Update Andy Bolton CEO Abstract The 2011 Edition of ITIL, released in July, is billed as resolving errors and inconsistency that were in the previous version, while improving easy-of-use. As with the 2007 version (often called Version 3) it uses the lifecycle approach to service and features Capacity Management and Demand Management as prominent and important processes. This presentation is aimed at providing an overview of Capacity and Demand Management within ITIL 2011 edition. B4A-2

Agenda Introduction ITIL V3/2011 Structure ITIL V3/2011 and the Lifecycle Strategy Design Transition Operation Continual Improvement Criticisms of ITIL A holistic view of Capacity Management Conclusion B4A-3 ITIL V3/2011 Structure Five separate core books to represent the service lifecycle: Strategy Design Transition Operation Continual Improvement There is a recognition that services are created, used, revised and eventually retired and that each process varies in context with the stage of the lifecycle. For example capacity at the service design phase is more about application sizing, whereas at the service operation phase it is about regular capacity planning. B4A-4

Continual Improvement ITIL V3 Structure The Model Operation Strategy ITIL Design Continual Improvement Transition Figure Crown Copyright 2007 B4A-5 ITIL V3 Structure The Lifecycle Strategy Design Transition Operation Continual Improvement Lifecycle B4A-6

ITIL V3 Structure the Application Lifecycle Strategy Design Transition Operation Continual Improvement Concept Development Live Phase-out Feasibility Require Design Coding Testing Roll-out Live Changes End-of-life Plan for de-commissioning requirements including any transient capacity required for migration to new platform Assess all software release changes to the application to ensure they will not affect system Business-as-usual capacity ensuring systems can meet demands upon them based on current and future work Provide capacity assurance assessment that transient capacity requirements can be met Review perform-ance testing results for any problems Provide design guidance to avoid perform-ance antipatterns Review design for perform-ance problems, costs and scalability Review if require-ments are achievable within budget Need to produce an approximate cost of system to meet specified performance Software Application Lifecycle B4A-7 Strategy (SS) Strategy contains several important business-facing processes: Strategy for IT services portfolio Financial for IT services Demand Business relationship Following ITIL V3 s release in 2007 there were lots of criticisms of this book within the industry. Many of these criticisms were unjustified as it rightly recognised that service strategy was a key component to aligning IT with the business and therefore delivering value to the business. The book has been heavily revised for the 2011 update to make its concepts more accessible. V3 introduced new diagrams into the ITIL world in 2007, a few of which have been deleted and some new additions included in the 2011 update. B4A-8

Strategy (SS) Contains a section on Demand Management (4.4 12 pages) which covers it and its relationship to capacity. It starts: Demand is the process that seeks to understand, anticipate and influence customer demand for services and the provision of capacity to meet these demands. Demand is a critical aspect of service. Poorly managed demand is a source of risk for service providers because of uncertainty in demand. Excess capacity generates cost without creating value that provides a basis for cost recovery. Customers are reluctant to pay for idle capacity unless it has value for them. It defines the scope of demand as: Identifying and analysing patterns of business activities (PBA) Identifying user profiles and analysing service usage patterns Identifying, agreeing and implementing measures to influence demand together with capacity It recognises the main value to the business of demand is to achieve a balance between the cost of a service and the value of the business outcomes it supports. B4A-9 Strategy (SS) The section on demand recognises the inherent importance of balancing demand and supply. It identifies the objectives of demand as: Identify and analyse patterns of business activity Define and analyse user profiles Ensure services are: designed to meet the PBA; and have the ability to meet business outcomes Work with capacity to ensure that resources are available to meet demand Anticipate and prevent or manage situations where demand exceeds capacity Gear the utilisation of resources to meet the fluctuating levels of demand There is a recognition of overlapping scopes of demand and capacity, as they both intend the same business outcomes whilst optimising investment. ITIL Strategy suggests that demand focuses on the business aspects and capacity focuses on resourcing and technology. This has interesting organisational and process implications. B4A-10

Strategy (SS) Present Demand Customer assets assets consumption produces demand utilisation consumes capacity Respond with supply Figure Crown Copyright 2007 B4A-11 Strategy (SS) Demand pattern Pattern of Business Activity Business Process Belt Process Capacity Management Plan Delivery schedule Figure Crown Copyright 2007 Demand Management B4A-12

Design (SD) Design contains the following design-related processes, and the bulk of the capacity process documentation (sec. 4.5 21 pages): Design Coordination catalogue level Availability Capacity IT service continuity Information security Supplier ITIL identifies the purpose of the capacity process is: to ensure that the capacity of IT services and the IT infrastructure meets the agreed capacity- and performance-related requirements in a cost-effective and timely manner. It notes that capacity is concerned with meeting both the current and future capacity and performance needs of the business. B4A-13 Design (SD) ITIL identifies the key objectives of capacity as: Produce and maintain an appropriate capacity plan Provide advice and guidance to business and IT on all capacity- and performancerelated issues Ensure service performance is achieved by managing performance and capacity of both services and resources Assist with diagnosis and resolution of performance- and capacity-related incidents and problems Assess the impact of all changes on the capacity plan and the performance and capacity of all services and resources Ensure proactive service performance improvement measures are implemented wherever cost-justifiable to do so Importantly ITIL identifies the capacity process as the focal point for all IT performance and capacity issues covering short-, medium- and long-term business requirements and all areas of technology for all IT technology components and environments, including space planning and environmental systems capacity. B4A-14

Design (SD) Capacity Management has the following benefits to the business: Improving the performance and availability of IT services by reducing capacity- and performance-related incidents. Ensuring required capacity and performance are provided in the most cost-effective manner Contributing to improved customer satisfaction levels by ensuring service levels are met Supporting the efficient and effective design and transition of new or changed services Improving the reliability of capacity-related budgeting* through the use of a forwardlooking capacity plan based on business needs and plans Improving the ability of the business to follow an environmentally responsible strategy** using green technologies and techniques It does this by: Balancing costs against resources needed Balancing supply against demand * One of the few places that links capacity and financial. ** By optimising asset utilisation this should ensure more environmentally effective use of power and space in data centres. B4A-15 Capacity Management Sub Processes Business capacity Strategic capacity Component capacity Tactical Operational Iterative activities Demand Modelling Application sizing Storage of capacity data Capacity sub-processes Production of the capacity plan Figure Crown Copyright 2001 Covering all aspects of capacity CMIS B4A-16

Capacity Management Sub-Processes Portfolio Business requirements Business capacity SLA/SLR IT service design Review current capacity and performance Improve current service and component capacity Capacity information system (CMIS) Capacity and performance reports capacity Assess, agree and document new requirements and capacity Forecasts Component capacity Capacity tools Plan new capacity Capacity plan B4A-17 Design (SD) ITIL documents several process activities, methods and techniques involved within the capacity process: Business capacity capacity Component capacity Design-related activities The on-going iterative activities of capacity (see next slide) Demand in capacity Modelling and trending Baselining Trend analysis Analytical modelling Simulation modelling Application sizing B4A-18

Ongoing Iterative Capacity Management Activities Tuning Implementation Threshold and control Response time monitoring Analysis Monitoring Resource thresholds thresholds Capacity information system (CMIS) exception reports Resource utilisation exception reports Figure Crown Copyright 2001 B4A-19 Design (SD) Triggers of Capacity Management: New and changed services requiring additional capacity Capacity- and performance related service breaches, events and alerts (inc. threshold exceptions) Exception reports Requests from SLM for assistance with capacity and/or performance targets and explanations of achievements Periodic trending and modelling Periodic revision and reviews of: forecasts, reports and plans business and IT plans and strategies designs and strategies SLAs, OLAs, contracts and other agreements B4A-20

Design (SD) ITIL specifies that the following processes that interface with Capacity Management are: Availability level IT Continuity Management (ITSCM) Incident and problem Demand Ideally this list should also include: validation and testing (within Transition) Request fulfilment B4A-21 Design (SD) Inputs to Capacity Management: Business, service and IT information Component performance and capacity information performance issue information and service information Financial information* Change and configuration information Performance and workload information Outputs of Capacity Management: Capacity Management Information System (CMIS) The Capacity Plan performance information and reports Workload analysis and reports Ad-hoc capacity and performance reports Forecasts and predictive reports Thresholds, alerts and events B4A-22

Design (SD) Capacity Management Information System (CMIS) contains: Business data data Component utilisation data Financial data* This data is used to drive the following reports: Component based reports based reports Exception reports Predictive and forecast reports B4A-23 Design (SD) Critical success factors: Accurate business forecasts Knowledge of current and future technologies Ability to demonstrate cost-effectiveness Ability to plan and implement the appropriate IT capacity to match business need Risks associated with capacity include: Lack of commitment from the business Lack of information from business on future plans Lack of commitment to resourcing and budget Too much focus on technology (component capacity ) and not enough on services (service capacity ) or the business (business capacity ) Reports too bulky or technical and not appropriate B4A-24

Design (SD) The service design book contains an example of a capacity plan. Its suggested contents are: Introduction Management summary Business scenarios Scope and terms of reference of the plan Methods used Assumptions made summary Resource summary Options for service improvement Costs forecast Recommendations B4A-25 Transition (ST) Transition contains the following processes: Transition planning and support Change asset and configuration Release and deployment validation and testing Change evaluation Knowledge Within Change Management, like Request Fulfilment, there exists a bi-directional relationship: Many changes involving capacity will originate from capacity. These will often be driven by proactive capacity plans or reactive threshold alerting and will be raised as RFCs through the change process. Many changes will have a performance or capacity impact, especially on shared platforms, so should be reviewed and/or approved by capacity. Change information will be used to assess impacts on capacity plans and SLAs. It notes that capacity has an important role in assessing proposed changes not only individual changes but the total impact of changes on service capacity. B4A-26

Transition (ST) Transition also documents examples of how capacity is involved in service validation and testing, although it is severely lacking in information on performance testing. design manageability checks: Are designers aware of the capacity approach, how should operations and performance be measured, is modelling being used to ensure design meets capacity needs? Build and test manageability checks: Has service been built and tested to ensure it meets the capacity requirements, has capacity information been tested and verified, are stress and volume characteristics built into the services? Release deployment manageability checks: Is capacity involved in the deployment process so it can monitor deployment resources? Operating manageability checks: Is capacity information being monitored and reported on as the service is used and is this information provided to capacity? CSI manageability checks: Is capacity feeding information into the optimisation process? An important output of capacity are capacity plans and the CMIS. These are included as components of knowledge. B4A-27 Operation (SO) Strategy contains several key operational processes: Event Incident Request fulfilment Problem Access Within Event Management there is a recognition that the exact targets and mechanisms for monitoring should be specified and agreed during the availability and capacity processes as capacity and availability are critical in defining what events are significant, what appropriate thresholds should be and how to respond to them. Event should report events when they occur and responding to them appropriately. Within Incident Management there is a recognition that it "provides a trigger for performance monitoring where there appears to be a performance problem. Also Capacity Management may develop workarounds for incidents. It also recognises the need for specialist processes for evidence preservation if the incident is performance- or capacity-related so that the incident can be routed to the capacity team. B4A-28

Operation (SO) Although Request Fulfilment exists within this section there is no mention of its relationship to, or interfaces with, capacity. This is strange for in reality there is a bi-directional relationship, similar to change : Many service requests to increase or alter capacity, or migrate to a more performant platform, will originate from capacity. These will often be driven by proactive capacity plans or reactive threshold alerting. Many service requests will have a performance or capacity impact, especially on shared platforms, so should be reviewed and/or approved by the capacity function. Within Problem Management there is a recognition that some problems will require investigation by capacity and that"capacity will also help in assessing proactive measures. B4A-29 Operation (SO) The majority of capacity activities are covered in the Design book, but there are some that are recognised to naturally sit within Operation: Capacity and performance monitoring. Handling capacity and performance incidents Capacity and performance trends Storage of capacity data Modelling and applications sizing Similarly the majority of demand activities are covered in the Strategy book, but it is recognised that day-to-day demand (i.e. of service demand rather than the over-arching process) sits within Operation. These activities would include: Rescheduling a particular service or workload Moving a service or workload from one location to another Limiting or moving demand B4A-30

Continual Improvement (CSI) Continual Improvement does not contains any specific IT processes but instead reflects the methods and processes needed to make improvement across all the ITIL processes and across all IT services supported by the organisation. The only process is the seven step improvement process. It does however list the ways that availability and capacity support the data processing activities of continual service improvement: Providing significant input into monitoring and data collection activities Being accountable for the actual infrastructure monitoring and data collection Being accountable for ensuring tools are in place to gather data Being accountable for ensuring that the actual monitoring and data collection activities are consistently performed Being responsible for processing the data at a component level and translating to service level data Processing data on KPIs such as performance measures Analysing processed data for accuracy B4A-31 Continual Improvement (CSI) Continual Improvement also includes several pages on capacity divided into the following: Capacity (sec. 5.8.2) Business capacity (sec. 5.8.3) capacity (sec. 5.8.4) Component capacity (sec. 5.8.5) Workload and demand (sec. 5.8.6) Iterative activities of capacity (sec. 5.8.7): Trend analysis Modelling Analytical modelling Simulation modelling Baseline models Some of this is repeated from the Design section. B4A-32

Criticisms of ITIL ITIL Version 3 and its closely associated 2011 update is a strong foundation for establishing service within an organisation, using a common glossary and process structure, with its associated benefits. However, we believe that there are still some shortcomings from a performance and capacity perspective. Although there is considerable material on the day-to-day (reactive, tactical or operational) capacity activities and some good coverage on the long-term (proactive, strategic or capacity planning) activities there is a large gap on performance related activities, such as performance testing and end-to-end service performance measurement. This should be covered better in Validation and Testing (within Transition) and Event Management (within Operation). This is the greatest technical shortcoming of ITIL with respect to capacity and performance currently. Another area that capacity frequently is involved in within a service organisation is financial. This is because an effective capacity function generating accurate capacity plans can use those to derive budget forecasts. This is the greatest business shortcoming of ITIL with respect to capacity and performance currently. Ideally all of the demand, capacity and service validation processes should reside within the control of one central performance and capacity team. B4A-33 Conclusions ITIL Version 3 has been updated in 2011 to resolve errors and inconsistencies, with some useful changes (mainly within Strategy). ITIL is a powerful framework for building a comprehensive and cohesive service organisation. While we, as subject matter experts in the performance and capacity arena, are bound to find some shortcomings with its capacity coverage, it does offer considerable value to its users. As ITIL continually improves with its iterative update process it is up to us experts within the industry to influence its development. B4A-34

Questions & Answers AndyBolton@Capacitas.co.uk www.capacitas.co.uk B4A-35 Strategy Demand Management Provider Suppliers Customers Business customers Business relationship mgmt portfolio manager REJECT REWORK Capacity Business relationship mgmt level Availability COMPARE Work Procedures COMPARE Input initiatives Customer & service portfolios Charging models SIP opportunities Entrance Criteria Level Objectives Triggers request from customer Utilisation rates causing SLA breaches Exception to forecast PBA Standards Level Agreements portfolio Output User profiles Patterns of business activity Demand policies Demand exception policies Exit Criteria Analysed PBAs Analysed user profiles Appropriate service designs Capacity interface Demand exception processes B4A-36