The New IT Discipline: Best Practices in Applications Support and Maintenance CIPS Ottawa Evening Se

1
The New IT DisciplineBest Practices in
Applications Support and MaintenanceCIPS
Ottawa Evening SeminarOctober 21, 2004Peter
Thompson, President and CEO
2
ASM - In the Headlines
TD Hit by Software Glitch Globe Mail August
25,2004 Workflow software glitch prevents
customers from accessing accounts at more than
500 branches
Pay Hike Not Tested on New System Toronto Star
July 8, 2004 Lack of testing in 500-million
system leaves 670,000 Ontarians without welfare
increases, leads to 20-million fix up bill
CIBC Clients Await Money Fix Toronto Star July
30, 2004 More than 67,000 customers double billed
on personal line of credit accounts due to
software error still awaiting fix
Glitch is Latest EDS Problem Globe Mail
August 24, 2004 Single programming error, made to
live system, grounds hundreds of American
Airlines and US Airways flights
RBC Glitch Post Mortem Computing Canada June
3, 2004 Software error prevents millions of RBC
clients from accessing accounts for three days
TD, CIBC Customers Hit By Computer
Glitch National Post July 30, 2004 A third
Canadian bank has become the latest to be hit by
a string of debilitating computer glitches
3
ASM Severe Consequences

• RBC Software Glitch Example
• 2.5 million customers left without access to
  accounts from May 31 to June 4, 2004
• Caused by routine software upgrade by a single
  programmer
• Total cost of fix gt 9-million
• Bigger cost of fix class action filed in Quebec
  for 500 per customeror 1.25-billion
• Sources Royal Bank, Globe Mail, Toronto Star

4
ASM More than Just Headlines

• Predictable software bugs cost U.S. firms
  60-billion each year
• Up to 90 of enterprise IT budgets spent
  maintaining existing systems
• Unplanned support tasks can add 30-40 to the
  total cost of an application
• Enterprise IT shops increasingly debilitated by
  routine support tasks, lack of governance, etc.

• Sources IDC Canada, META Group, U.S. Dept of
  Commerce

5
Agenda

• Introduction
• Applications Support and Maintenance
• SMART Methodology
• 12 Best Practices in ASM
• QA

6
What is a Discipline?

• Seen in other professions
• Medicine, Engineering, Carpentry
• As a profession, Information technology should be
  no exception
• Three basic ingredients
• Methodologies Set of well-known, well-documented
  rules that all adherents to the discipline must
  follow
• Tools resources to enable professionals to do
  their jobs
• People trained and certified in their profession

7
Who Am I?

• Dr. Peter Thompson, President and CEO
• RIS is The Applications Support and Maintenance
  Company (ASM)
• Supporting, maintaining and enhancing
  mission-critical applications for some of North
  Americas largest, best-run firms
• Founded in 1979
• More than 400 employees globally

8
ASM Defined
Design
Unproven
Transition Knowledge
Build
Technology
Transition People
Enhance
Established
Support Maintain
Decommission
Investment
High
Low
9
ASM - Support vs. Development

• Fundamental Differences
• Development linear, finite, focused on
  delivering applications on time and on budget
• ASM cyclical, infinite, focused on continuous
  application improvement
• Implications
• Differences impact everything from tools and
  procedures to corporate culture
• Lack of clarity around development vs. support
  can lead to significant challenges in
  communications, governance, accountability, and
  more.

10
ASM - Challenges

• Constitutes majority of IT spending, yet
• Lacks established industry standards, best
  practices
• Typically done in-house, on ad-hoc basis or part
  of larger development projects
• Typically reactive, not proactive
• Some of Canadas largest companies learning the
  hard way that ASM
• Has own set of goals, benchmarks constraints
• Requires a disciplined, methodical approach
• Can cost companies 10s of millions in fixes,
  potential billions in class actions if not done
  right

11
SMART Methodology

• Intimidating Common Sense
• The industrys first set of established best
  practices specifically for ASM
• Based on more than 25 years of research,
  development and on-site implementation
• Intended for IT and application managers,
  responsible for ensuring smooth running
  applications in an enterprise
• Details 12 specific best practices from tools to
  corporate culture, including practices around
• Transition Management
• Solution and Support Management
• Change Control, Enhancements and more
• I hear you YAITS! (Yet Another IT Standard)
• but SMART is specific to ASM the NEW IT
  DISCIPLINE.

12
12 Best Practices

• Cyclical Application Lifecycle
• Application Taxonomy
• Benchmarks and Service Levels
• Transparent Black Box Delivery
• ASM Governance
• ASM Tools

• Reporting
• Maturity Levels
• Documentation
• Change Control Security Integrity
• Continuous Improvement Culture
• Problem Ownership Culture

13
1. Cyclical Application Lifecycle
14
Case Study 1 (Lifecycle)

• The Problem
• Large financial service client running large
  suite of applications to process credit card
  transactions
• Existing applications rarely, if ever, reviewed
  for efficiency
• The Solution
• As part of continuous improvement lifecycle, ASM
  team conducted routine, prioritized tests of all
  existing apps in portfolio
• Tests found one particular CPU inefficiency
  problem, subsequently flagged as a maintenance
  requirement for one application
• The Result
• Simple fix of (previously unrecognized)
  inefficiency reduced processing time from 2.5
  hours to 17 seconds
• Cost of application to client reduced from
  31,500 to less than 65 per year (99.8)

15
2. ASM Taxonomy

• Word Taxonomy is from biology meaning
  classification
• Lack of consistent, universally understood app
  classification is major source of confusion,
  duplicated effort, cost, in ASM
• Taxonomy should classify every ASM
• Application
• Task
• Procedure

16
3. Benchmarks Service Levels

• Unlike (e.g.) application hosting, ASM lacks
  accepted industry benchmarks like up-time
• Vendors often use proprietary metrics
• Two of the most fundamental measures are
• Time to Respond
• Time to Resolve
• Easy to track, easy to understand, and indicative
  of ASM teams capabilities

17
3. Benchmarks (contd)

• Typical Example of Service Level
• Mission Critical Application
• High Priority Problem
• Required actionmust
• Respond in 2 hours
• Resolve in 5 hours
• 98.5 of the time

18
4. Black Box Delivery Model
19
Case Study 2 (Black Box)

• The Problem
• Large manufacturing client needed to reign in
  anticipated US120,000 costs of required
  maintenance updates on North America wide
  equipment management application
• Prior to RIS, all ASM done ad-hoc, in-house
• The Solution
• RIS assumed 100 responsibility for application
• Established blended ASM team of on-site,
  nearshore and offshore resources to balance
  cost-savings with best practices
• The Result
• Successful, smooth running application with
  maintenance goals achieved at 40 reduction in
  costs
• To the end user regardless of delivery model
  the application simply ran smoothly with zero
  downtime
• Client re-invested savings in second major ASM
  project with RIS

20
5. ASM Governance

• Tends to get lost in the overall IT picture
• Pillar of proper ASM Governance is Application
  Steering Committee
• Formed for each app or app suite
• Comprised of application owners, end users and
  support team managers
• Charged with prioritizing enhancements, setting
  ASM objectives, serving as point of escalation
• Also requires Taxonomy and Service Chain
• Not unlike governance in a democracy

21
Case Study 3 (Governance)

• The Problem
• Project Managers at large manufacturing firm
  shared ASM responsibility, spent less than 40 of
  time on new applications
• No single point of contact, escalation,
  resolution, etc.
• The Solution
• Application Steering Committee established to
  oversee 2-million in support budget for suite of
  applications
• Steering Committee involved ASM team and
  application owners, established detailed
  ownership, decision making process, etc.
• The Result
• Support tasks delivered now with an internal
  excellence rating of exceeding excellence
  expectations
• PMs now spending more than 80 of their time on
  strategic priorities, new application development

22
6. ASM Tools

• Tools required to digitally codify best
  practices
• Who Intellectual Property Repository (e.g. Time)
• What Application Management (e.g. Track)
• How Documentation (e.g. Docs)
• Where Repository (e.g. Docs)

23
7. Reporting

• Pillar of ASM reporting is the Stewardship
  Report, an annual report card on ASM activities,
  results
• Stewardship Report includes
• Intellectual Capital timesheet, headcount and
  experience data for all apps
• Application Inventory detailed account of all
  apps in the applications portfolio
• Application Performance Analysis analyzing
  factors from response time to call types

24
8. ASM/SMART Maturity Levels
25
Case Study 4 (SML)

• The Problem
• North American retailer seeking to reduce the
  cost and improve the effectiveness of application
  support
• The Solution
• RIS consulting team worked with the client on a
  new organization and focus for ASM
• Changes implemented equivalent to sophistication
  of SML 3 including centralization of ASM
  organization, use of common processes,
  established due diligence for enhancements
• The Result
• Improved governance over change requests from the
  business
• Efficiency improvements in excess of 30 in less
  than 18 months

26
9. Documentation

• Most important documents are tickets generated by
  ASM tasks, showing the health and history of an
  application
• Other documents required include
• Immersion Manual first day questions
• Support Binder all support documentation
• Transition Project Charter defining ASM scope,
  milestones and task components

27
Case Study 5 (Documentation)

• The Problem
• Large financial services client lacked workflow
  diagrams for standard enhancement, support and
  development initiatives
• Result was confusion, starting from scratch, with
  each new project
• The Solution
• As part of its role with one suite of
  applications, ASM team had already developed
  batch-job diagrams, etc. for inclusion in
  Immersion Manual and Applications Support Binder
• Client and RIS recognized these as the template
  on which to address broader documentation
  challenges within organization
• The Result
• Client has begun using RIS documentation as the
  template for all applications in its portfolio
• Enhancement and new development activities now
  have standard, well documented process for all to
  follow

28
10. Change Control Security Integrity

• Governed by six fundamental, basic rules
• Source Code Integrity Rule
• Separate Environment Rule
• Testing Rule
• Backup Recovery Rule
• Separation of Duties Rule
• Remember these rules when considering some of the
  latest headlines in ASM

29
11. Continuous Improvement Culture

• Back to fundamental difference between ASM and
  development a focus on continuous improvement
• CIOs, other IT leaders must instill sense of
  pride in problem solving in often high-stress,
  unpredictable environments
• Must have cyclical methodology for this to work

30
12. Problem Ownership Culture

• Need for sense of problem ownership commitment
  to see problems resolved quickly regardless of
  responsibility
• Recall Black Box Delivery to end-user
• Inputs Capital, Expense Funding
• Outputs Smooth running, low cost applications

31
Summary

• ASM
• is fundamentally different from development
• lacks established best practices, metrics, etc.
• is the newest IT discipline
• SMART Methodology
• is the industrys first set of ASM best
  practices
• is based on more than 25 years experience
• lays out universally applicable best practices
  for any ASM environment

32
For more Information

• Visit RIS web site under Campus/Publications to
• Purchase SMART Methodology
• Download Best Practices White Paper
• View previous presentations on ASM, intellectual
  capital, etc.
• Visit INFORMATICS 2005
• May 29-31, Regina
• Three-hour workshop on SMART Methodology
• Addressing each of best practices in greater
  detail and through planning exercises

33
Thank You

• Dr. Peter Thompson
• President, CEO and Founder, RIS
• 1-800-309-5018
• thompsonp_at_ris.ca