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Title: Processes: Auditing, Analysing and Implementing


1
Processes Auditing, Analysing and Implementing
Dennis Adams
a s s o c i a t e s
  • An approach for implementing Appropriate
    Management Processes into IT Production

Dennis Adams Associates LimitedConsultancy for
IT Production Managementwww.dennisadams.net
2
Introduction MOPS for IT Production
  • There are four key elements which we consider are
    necessary for Strategic- Proactive- Management
    of IT Production
  • METRICS
  • OPERATIONAL TOOLS
  • PROCESSES AND PROCEDURES
  • STANDARDS
  • This presentation will cover how we would
    approach the topic of Processes and Procedures,
    in the context of IT Production Management.
  • Many of these techniques are based on ISO 9000
    Guidance.
  • ISO 9000 Introduction and Support Package
    Guidance on the Concept and Use of the Process
    Approach for management systems (ISC/TC 176/SC
    2/ N544R2)

3
MOPS Auditing
M
  • MOPS auditing involves systematically looking
    at the Organisational structure of an IT
    Production team, and measuring its viabiliy
    against the MOPS criteria
  • METRICS
  • OPERATIONAL TOOLS
  • PROCESSES AND PROCEDURES
  • STANDARDS
  • This presentation will concentrate on the
    Processes and Procedures side of a MOPS audit.
  • NOTE This is not a manual on how to do a MOPS
    Process Audit. It covers the general Approach.
    See other documentation for
  • Criteria for appropriate Processes within IT
    Production
  • Specific questions to ask
  • How to do Gap Analysis

O
P
S
4
Agenda
  • What is meant by Process ?
  • Types of Processes
  • The Process Approach to Auditing
  • Auditing the Processes within IT Production
  • Analysing the Processes within IT Production
  • MOPS Questions
  • Gap Analysis
  • Implementing New Processes within IT Production
  • Evaluating the Success
  • Processes in the context of MOPS

5
Agenda
  • What is meant by Process ?
  • Types of Processes
  • The Process Approach to Auditing
  • Auditing the Processes within IT Production
  • Analysing the Processes within IT Production
  • MOPS Questions
  • Gap Analysis
  • Implementing New Processes within IT Production
  • Evaluating the Success
  • Processes in the context of MOPS

6
What is meant by Process ?
  • The ISO 9000 guidance defines a process as a set
    of interrelated or interacting activities which
    transform inputs into outputs
  • Inputs and Outputs could be
  • tangible (equipment, materials, components)
  • intangible (energy, information).
  • Some Outputs could be unintended (waste,
    pollution).
  • Each process has customers or other interested
    parties who may be internal or external to the
    organisation.
  • Are affected by the process, and
  • Define the required outputs according to their
    needs and expectations
  • All processes should be
  • Aligned with the objectives of the organisation
  • Designed to add value relative to the scope
    complexity of the organisation.

7
Agenda
  • What is meant by Process ?
  • Types of Processes
  • The Process Approach to Auditing
  • Auditing the Processes within IT Production
  • Analysing the Processes within IT Production
  • MOPS Questions
  • Gap Analysis
  • Implementing New Processes within IT Production
  • Evaluating the Success
  • Processes in the context of MOPS

8
Types of Processes
  • The ISO Guidelines identify the following types
    of processes
  • Realisation Processes
  • Processes which provide the intended output of
    the organisation
  • Processes for Management of an organisation
  • E.g. Strategic Planning, establishing Policies,
    setting Objectives, providing Communication,
    ensuring Availability of resources needed,
    Management reviews.
  • Measurement, Analysis and Improvement processes
  • Processes to measure and gather data for
    performance analysis and improving effectiveness
    and efficiency. E.g. Measuring, monitoring,
    auditing, corrective preventative action.
  • Processes for managing Resources
  • For provision of resources that are needed for
    any of the above

9
Agenda
  • What is meant by Process ?
  • Types of Processes
  • The Process Approach to Auditing
  • Auditing the Processes within IT Production
  • Analysing the Processes within IT Production
  • MOPS Questions
  • Gap Analysis
  • Implementing New Processes within IT Production
  • Evaluating the Success
  • Processes in the context of MOPS

10
Organisation and Process
  • Organisations are usually hierarchically
    organised vertically by Functional units
  • E.g. Unix/Window Engineers, DBAs, Network,
    HelpDesk etc.
  • Actions are usually focused on the function of
    the unit.
  • Problems that occur at the interface between
    units are often given less priority than the
    goals of the unit itself.
  • The end customer is not always visible to all
    involved.
  • E.g. a problem application arrives at Help Desk,
    and is passed between each team in turn, all of
    whom pass it on as not a problem from my
    perspective
  • One solution is to create a multi-discipline SWAT
    team to address the problem holistically.
  • The Process Approach introduces horizontal
    management.

11
The Process Approach
Functional Organisation
Process Approach
The Process Approach introduces horizontal
management, crosses the barriers between
different functional units and unifying their
focus to the main goals of the organisation.It
also improves management of process interfaces.
12
Using the Process Approach
  • The Performance of an organisation can be
    improved through the use of the process approach.
    The processes are managed as a system, by
    creating and understanding a network of the
    processes and their interactions. (ISO 9000
    Introduction and Support Package)
  • The consistent operation of a network of
    processes and their interactions is often
    referred to as the system approach to
    management
  • (Not to be confused with the management of
    systems !)
  • Outputs from one process may be inputs to other
    processes and interlinked into the overall
    network of processes.

13
Agenda
  • What is meant by Process ?
  • Types of Processes
  • The Process Approach to Auditing
  • Auditing the Processes within IT Production
  • Analysing the Processes within IT Production
  • MOPS Questions
  • Gap Analysis
  • Implementing New Processes within IT Production
  • Evaluating the Success
  • Processes in the context of MOPS

14
Auditing the Processes within IT Production
  • The ISO 9000 guidelines suggest the following
    steps can be followed to identify the processes
    within an organisation
  • (5.1.1) Define the purpose of the organisation.
  • (5.1.2) Define the policies and objectives of the
    organisation.
  • (5.1.3) Determine the processes in the
    organisation.
  • (5.1.4) Determine the sequence of the processes.
  • (5.1.5) Define process ownership.
  • (5.1.6) Define process documentation.
  • (Numbers in brackets are from N544R2 guidance)
  • In detail..

15
Define the Purpose of the organisation.
  • Identify the customers and other interested
    parties
  • Their requirements, needs and expectations
  • Define the organisations intended outputs.
  • Gather, analyse and determine customer and other
    interested parties requirements, and other needs
    and expectations.
  • Communicate frequently with customers and other
    interested parties to ensure continual
    understanding of their requirements, needs and
    expectations.
  • Determine the requirements for different
    management disciplines within the organisation
    (quality, environmental, health safety,
    business risk, social responsibilities)

In IT Production, our customers are the
business and other IT departments. We need to be
clear on their requirements, needs and
expectations.
16
Define the Policies and Objectives of the
organisation.
  • Based on analysis of the requirements needs and
    expectations, establish the organisations
    policies and objectives.
  • Top management should decide which markets the
    organisation should address and develop relevant
    policies.
  • Based on these policies, management should then
    establish objectives for the intended outputs.

An IT Production division does have the ability
to scope its market to some extent. Some
activities (e.g. desktop support) may already be
outsourced, or could usefully be. If the business
intends to expand into new physical locations,
will the current IT Production be given
responsibility for these?
17
Determine the Processes in the organisation.
  • Identify all the processes that are needed to
    produce the intended outputs.
  • Determine the processes needed for achieving the
    intended outputs. The process types are
  • Realisation
  • Management
  • Measurement
  • Resource
  • Identify all process inputs and outputs
  • Identify all suppliers, customers, and other
    interested parties.

Many IT Production organisations have implicit
processes, embedded in the culture. If these can
be identified, they are a strong basis for
building on.
18
Determine the Sequence of the processes.
  • Determine how the processes flow in sequence and
    interaction.
  • Define and develop a description of the network
    of processes and their interaction.Consider the
    following
  • The customer of each process.
  • The inputs and outputs of each process.
  • Which processes are interacting.
  • Interfaces and what are their characteristics.
  • Timing and sequence of the interacting processes.
  • Effectiveness and efficiency of the sequence.
  • E.g. a Realisation process will interact with a
    Management, Measurement or Resource Process.
  • Block diagrams, matrix and flowcharts !

Looking at the Sequence of Processes within IT
Production (e.g how and when we Measure the
Realisation processes) can bring valuable insight
into how efficiently we are achieving our
objectives.
19
Define process Ownership.
  • Assign responsibility and authority for each
    process.
  • Management should define individual roles and
    responsibilities for ensuring the implementation,
    maintenance and improvement of each process and
    its interactions. (The Process Owner)
  • To manage process Interactions, it may be useful
    to establish a process management team that has
    an overview across all the processes, and which
    includes representatives from each of the
    interacting processes.

The is considerable benefit to an IT Production
team in making implicit (cultural) processes
explicit, and assigning someone to be responsible
for them. External consultants who understand IT
Production may be in a position to help do this.
20
Define process Documentation.
  • Determine those processes that are to be
    documented and how.
  • Processes already exist within an organisation,
    and the initial approach should be limited to
    identifying and managing them in the most
    appropriate way. There is no necessity for a
    massive global catalog of processes.
  • The main purpose of documentation is to enable
    the consistent and stable operation of the
    process.
  • Determine which processes are to be documented
    based on
  • Size of the organisation and the type of its
    activities
  • Complexity of the processes and their
    interactions
  • Criticality of the processes
  • Availability of people to do the documentation !
  • Graphical designs, written instructions,
    checklists, flowcharts, visuals interactive web
    sites.

21
Auditing - Summary
  • Auditing Steps
  • Define the Purpose of the organisation.
  • Define the Policies and objectives of the
    organisation.
  • Determine the Processes in the organisation.
  • Determine the Sequence of the processes.
  • Define process Ownership.
  • Define process Documentation.

The result of this activity would be a Process
Landscape, which would show us what processes
are already in place, and help us identify the
gaps. From an IT Production perspective, we
should have a clear understanding of our purpose,
policies and objectives, so we need to
concentrate on the Gap Analysis
22
Agenda
  • What is meant by Process ?
  • Types of Processes
  • The Process Approach to Auditing
  • Auditing the Processes within IT Production
  • Analysing the Processes within IT Production
  • MOPS Questions
  • Gap Analysis
  • Implementing New Processes within IT Production
  • Evaluating the Success
  • Processes in the context of MOPS

23
MOPS Questions
  • A key part of the MOPS approach is to implement
    solutions based on a pragmatic understanding of
    the real issues in IT Production.
  • Process implementation needs to focus on the
    Objectives of IT Production.
  • Typically, this involves efficiency and
    effectiveness.
  • At the same time, it may be possible to look at
    Operational Tools as a means of automating the
    processes.

24
WHERE do we WANT to be ?
  • Visibility of Activity to identify the "problem
    applications" that take a disproportionate
    percentage of support effort.
  • This enables the Business as a whole to
    understand the true lifecycle costs of all
    Applications.
  • Predictable Cost growth (such as headcount), and
    Infrastructure costs (such as CPU, memory, disk
    storage etc.)
  • so that resources and infrastructure can be
    purchased in good time, with appropriate cost
    savings.
  • Clear Infrastructure Standards and Service Levels
  • So that IT Development can understand what
    technologies can be supported by IT Production,
    and at what costs.

25
THE DREAM of Strategic IT Production
  • Smooth deployment of Projects, as a result of
    clear handover procedures to IT Production, and
    IT Production's involvement with Projects at
    Initiation side, to ensure that Support is
    viable.
  • Justify the IT Production Budgets against clearly
    agreed Performance Metrics.
  • Engage with the Business sponsors, and
    successfully argue the case for increasing IT
    Infrastructure Investment, rather than fighting
    up-hill budget reduction policies that don't take
    into account Infrastructure needs.
  • Function as a Managed Team, rather than just
    event-driven "fix-it ".

Using a Strategic Approach, IT Production
Managers can make their teams more Pro-Active
more Client-focused, and be in a better position
to justify IT Infrastructure Investment
26
PROCESSES and PROCEDURES should
  • Facilitate the day-to-day running of IT
    Production, and it's relationship with the
    Business Sponsors and IT Development
  • Facilitate rapid Deployment of Projects to live,
    upgrade, change controls processes etc.
  • Enable changes to Production Standards (hardware
    O/S upgrades etc.) and procedures to ensure
    that IT Development work and Business Sponsorship
    is visible to the IT Production team.
  • Enable a clear interface with Development
    Projects at the earliest possible phase.

Dont overload your teams with Procedure. Use a
pragmatic common-sense approach.
27
The BEST WAY to Implement ITIL Service
Management?
Service Desk
Incident
Problem
Change
Release
Configuration
Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
28
or MORE LIKE THIS ?
Service Desk
Incident
Problem
Change
Release
Configuration
Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
29
Gap Analysis
  • Once we have identified the current processes, we
    can use the ITIL framework (or BS 15000 or CMMi)
    to identify the gaps.
  • Note, however, that we should concentrate on the
    overall IT Production department as a whole.
  • It is important that we understand where the
    inputs and outputs of IT Production exist.
  • Problems with Process typically arise in the
    Interfaces to those processes, not the processes
    themselves.

30
PROCESSES / PROCEDURES to IMPLEMENT
  • ITIL Service Management provides a valuable
    framework within which to define your processes
  • Service Desk, Incident and Problem Mangaement,
  • Change and Release Management
  • Configuration (Asset Management)
  • In Addition, it is important to highlight the
    Process INTERFACES between IT Production and the
    outside world.
  • Project Deployment, Handover.
  • Involvement with Production at Project
    Initiation, linked to Standards
  • Sponsorship of RD within the Production team.

31
INTERFACING PROCESSES
Initiation
R D
Configuration
Build
Release
Standards
Change
AGILE
Problem
Deploy
Handover
Incident
Support
Service Desk
32
Reminder Advantages and Disadvantages of
PROCESSES
  • Advantages of Process
  • SOX, CMMI, ISO 9001, ISO 10000-3
  • Reduction in Costs
  • Predictable, Repeatable, Auditable, Verifiable
  • Disadvantages
  • Can become onerous
  • Not always reflecting the need to be highly
    responsive.
  • Conclusion
  • Deploy Processes which deliver value-add to IT
    Production and its clients.

33
Agenda
  • What is meant by Process ?
  • Types of Processes
  • The Process Approach to Auditing
  • Auditing the Processes within IT Production
  • Analysing the Processes within IT Production
  • MOPS Questions
  • Gap Analysis
  • Implementing New Processes within IT Production
  • Evaluating the Success
  • Processes in the context of MOPS

34
Implementing New Processes within IT Production
  • The ISO 9000 guidelines suggest the following
    steps can be followed to plan a new process
    within an organisation
  • (5.2.1) Define the activities within the process.
  • (5.2.2) Define the monitoring and measurement
    requirements.
  • (5.2.3) Determine the resources needed.
  • (5.2.4) Verify the process and its activities
    against planned objectives
  • (Numbers in brackets are from N544R2 guidance)
  • In detail..

35
Define the Activities within the process.
  • Determine the activities needed to achieve the
    intended outputs of the process.
  • Determine the required Inputs and Outputs of the
    process.
  • Determine the activities required to transform
    the inputs into the required outputs.
  • Determine and Define the Sequence and Interaction
    of the activities within the process.
  • Determine how each activity will be performed.
  • (In some cases, the customer may specify the way
    the process is to be performed)

It is helpful to think of IT Production Processes
as Transformations from an input (a support
call) to an output (a satisfied end-user)
36
Define the Monitoring and Measurement
requirements.
  • Determine where and how measuring and monitoring
    should be applied. This should be both for
    control and improvement of the processes, as well
    as for the intended process outputs.
  • Determine the need for recording results.
  • Identify the measures and and monitoring criteria
    for process control and process performance, to
    determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the
    process, taking into account
  • Conformity with requirements
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Supplier performance
  • On time delivery
  • Lead times
  • Failure rates
  • Waste
  • Process costs
  • Incident frequency

37
Determine the Resources needed.
  • Determine the resources needed for the effective
    operation of each process.
  • Examples of resources include
  • Human Resources
  • Infrastructure
  • Work Environment
  • Information
  • Natural Resources
  • Materials
  • Financial Resources.

There may be Resource Trade-offs
IT Production Service Support may be manpower
intensive. Provision of a test lab environment
for reproducing problems could reduce manpower
costs drastically.
38
Verify the process and its activities against
planned objectives
  • Confirm that the characteristics of the process
    and its activities are consistent with the
    purpose of the organisation.
  • Verify that all the requirements identified
    earlier are satisfied.
  • If not, consider what additional processes may be
    required.
  • How can the process be improved?

Our objective as an IT Production team is to
deliver the best possible support function to the
end-users. Appropriate Processes can be a
valuable means to this end.
39
Additional Factors when Implementing Processes
  • When implementing new Processes, you should also
    consider how to address the following
  • Communication of the new Processes
  • Awareness
  • Process Training for the actors
  • Change Management
  • How to change the current processes (if any) into
    the new ones.
  • Management Involvement
  • Review Activities after the processes have been
    implemented.
  • Are the appropriate Measurement, Monitoring and
    Controls in place ?

40
Implementing - Summary
  • Implementation Steps
  • Define the activities within the process.
  • Define the monitoring and measurement
    requirements.
  • Determine the resources needed.
  • Verify the process and its activities against
    planned objectives
  • Additional Factors

In practice a Small number of Simple processes,
communicated, understood, adhered to and
maintained, are of more benefit than A Large
number of Complex processes not communicated, not
understood and never followed !
41
Agenda
  • What is meant by Process ?
  • Types of Processes
  • The Process Approach to Auditing
  • Auditing the Processes within IT Production
  • Analysing the Processes within IT Production
  • MOPS Questions
  • Gap Analysis
  • Implementing New Processes within IT Production
  • Evaluating the Success
  • Processes in the context of MOPS

42
Evaluating the Success
  • Before embarking on work to audit and implement
    new processes, it is important to have
    pre-defined success criteria.
  • Evaluate the process data (obtained from the
    Monitoring and Measuring processes!) to quantify
    process performance.
  • Compare the results of process performance
    measurements with the defined requirements of the
    process
  • Confirm process effectiveness efficiency
  • Any need for corrective action
  • Identify process improvement opportunities based
    on process performance data.
  • Report to Management on the performance of the
    Process.

IT Production can enhance its visibility and
credibility by reporting on process improvements
it has implemented.
43
Improving the Processes
  • As well as implementing new processes, we should
    also define a method for implementing corrective
    actions / improvements.
  • If the process is not working what are the root
    causes?
  • Human errors?
  • Defect in the process itself?
  • Insufficient process control?
  • Once the process requirements are achieved, focus
    efforts on improving them !
  • Define a method for improving processes
  • Process simplification
  • Enhancement of efficiency
  • Improvement of effectiveness
  • Reduction of process cycle time.
  • Verify the effectiveness of the improvement.

44
Risk Analysis
  • Risk Analysis techniques can be used to identify
    potential problems with our new process
  • Identify the root cause(s) of these potential
    problems
  • Address the root causes.
  • This may prevent occurance in other processes
    with similarly identified risks.

IT Production can enhance its visibility and
credibility by reporting on process improvements
it has implemented.
45
PDCA methodology
  • Plan
  • Establish the objectives and processes necessary
    to deliver results in accordance with customer
    requirements and the organization's policies
  • Do
  • Implement the processes
  • Check
  • Monitor and measure processes and product against
    policies, objectives and requirements for the
    product and report the results
  • Act
  • Take actions to continually improve process
    performance

Plan What to do and how to do it.
Act How to improve next time?
Check Did things happen according to plan?
Do Do what was planned
46
Dont Forget the Human element
The man of system seems to imagine that he
can arrange the different members of a great
society with as much ease as the hand arranges
the different pieces upon a chess-board he does
not consider that the pieces upon the chess-board
have no other principle of motion besides that
which the hand impresses upon them but that, in
the great chess-board of human society, every
single pieces has a principle of motion of its
own, altogether different from that which the
legislator might choose to impress upon it.
Adam Smith The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part
VI, Section II, Chapter 2
47
BETTER a FEW Procedures that ARE followed THAN
Most IT organisations have processes and
procedures for how services are delivered for
both projects and operations. Often these
processes and procedures are codified but not
maintained or actively policed...
Iain Parker, The Boxwood Group Source Computing
1 September 2005
48
Agenda
  • What is meant by Process ?
  • Types of Processes
  • The Process Approach to Auditing
  • Auditing the Processes within IT Production
  • Analysing the Processes within IT Production
  • MOPS Questions
  • Gap Analysis
  • Implementing New Processes within IT Production
  • Evaluating the Success
  • Processes in the context of MOPS

49
Processes in the context of MOPS
M
  • Implementing the correct Processes and Procedures
    is only one part of the total MOPS solution.
  • In order to be effective, Processes need to be
    backed up by appropriate Operational Tools.
  • Processes need to be created for defining and
    updating Architectural IT Production Standards.
  • Monitoring of Processes requires techniques for
    collecting Metrics, some of which may be
    published to the clients.

O
P
S
50
HOW could we get there ?
  • ANALYSE existing IT Production under the
    following headings
  • Metrics
  • Operational Tools
  • Processes and Procedures
  • Standards
  • IDENTIFY the gaps
  • under each of these headings
  • PRIORITISE
  • from IT Production perspective, but also.
  • ENGAGE with Sponsors and Business
  • Talk about what we are doing, and why
  • CREATE an IT Production Strategy
  • owned by all stakeholders
  • INCREMENTALLY role out changes to the way the
    department works

Where do you want to go Tomorrow?
51
Processes Auditing, Analysing and Implementing
Dennis Adams
a s s o c i a t e s
  • An approach for implementing Appropriate
    Management Processes into IT Production

Dennis Adams Associates LimitedConsultancy for
IT Production Managementwww.dennisadams.net
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