ITSM Solutions – The Wide Angled Infrastructure and Service Management

Information technology is critical to any organization because of its ability to deliver value to its customers. IT dependent organizations retain a competitive edge over their counterparts. But with technological innovations catching up globally, it becomes very necessary for the organizations also to upgrade their IT strategy to meet the demands of the marketplace. IT Service Management (ITSM) is a new concept in infrastructure management representing improvement opportunities for business profitability. By the implementation of ITSM solutions and strategy, IT services of the organization can be aligned and integrated with their business processes to increase business efficiency as well as make it more agile. This will ensure rapid deployment and delivery of new business services.  

Based on implementation of new IT innovations to the organizational strategy, will help reduce cost while improving customer satisfaction, retention and faster business movement. Well-planned ITSM solutions will provide a workflow based global platform for implementing ITSM processes across organizations in multiple geographic locations.

Effective ITSM solutions are web based with multiple solutions on a single data repository, with multiple input methods accessible globally, irrespective of the device. A number of functional applications that form a part of the ITSM solutions are:

·         ITSM Service Desk is an IT Help Desk solution and Service Desk which manages the complete Service Requests functions including handling request, tracking the progress of solution, updating customers and interfacing with other ITSM process.

·         Incident Management solution provides support and restores normal service operation with a quick turnaround time thus reducing the adverse effects on business operations.

·         Problem Management determine and solve the root cause of a problem and hence prevention of incidents.

• Change Management tracks changes and allows making additions, modifications and schedule future changes through maintenance activities.

IT Release Management solution works towards deployment and software and hardware up gradations while ensuring environment protection. Utilizing the integration technology, it is possible to integrate other management applications such as Portfolio Management, Contact management, and Accounts management into IT Service Management solutions and paves way for integrating the best available tools from the external environment with the existing internal tools thus creating a seamless ecosystem.

Click here for more on Application lifecycle management & ITSM solutions

Application Lifecycle Management – The Changing Trend

Globalization, new technology and customer demands have bought about innovative methods for delivering modern solutions for complex business applications. The Application Lifecycle management (ALM) system is a continuous process to monitor, develop, maintain and mange the lifecycle of any applications. Being a collaborative effort of business management and software engineering, the other tools that facilitate the proper working of the system include software architecture, coding, testing systems and release management through proper enforcement of processes spanning the activities.

The application lifecycle management enhances productivity, improves quality standards & delivery mechanisms through global teams.  It breaks through boundaries between teams and developers through effective collaboration and smooth flow of information. Further, it helps to cut down maintenance time through effective synchronization simplified integration of application and design.

ALM is the bond between the various threads of the development cycle with integration as its keyword.  The strength of ALM lies in its integrated tool of process automation, traceability and reporting analytics. This system is not a collection of various tools used in the business process; instead it connects the existing tools in the business management process in a customized format.

The key feature that makes Application Lifecycle management solutions a desirable one is its automated management, ability to incorporate both traditional and agile methods.  Supporting nearly seventy plus application environments, it can handle large-scale teams.  Implementing any software development cycle or process comes easy with ALM solution. It provides the IT giants with a rich and configurable, global platform to work with irrespective of time and place. The Application lifecycle Management solution includes a number of interconnected tools such as Requirement Management tool, Test management tool, Issues management, Risk management, release management and Project management.

This web based application solution allows accessibility of project goals and deliverables to diverse teams across boundaries. With multiple input methods, one can import files from Word document, Excel spreadsheet, a corporate web portal, or even through email.  Besides input, this system works to provide one with a range of output too.   This gives one the option to collect reports from simple documents to multiple reporting options in HTML, Excel worksheets, custom formatted reports with built-in-Crystal reports, Graphical, tabular or charts as well as real time reporting through dashboards.

The customer being the focal point of any business, ALM solution provides a critical Customer Product Management tool to every organisation. This helps them to capture customer inputs and to create a competitive edge and improve their business and market share.

Learn more about: - ALM Software, integration bus & change management

Process Tool Functionalities to look for in ITSM and Software Development

Not many tools can be categorized as software development process Management tools, as most of the process tools are included as a part of the development and management point tools. There are few generis process tools that are focused on different development and IT processes within the same tool. These can be broadly classified into Methodology specific and Methodology Agnostic.  Designed around a specific methodology, methodology specific tools have little room to incorporate deviations from the methodology it originally intended to implement. It has a shorter shelf life. On the contrary, the Methodology Agnostic Process implements a wide range of methodologies. Organizations following a proprietary or a modified methodology, can adopt the Methodology Agnostic Process, as it is the best option. It is capable of accommodating changes in the business and technology scenarios, and an investment in this process tools goes a long way. The following are the general features and functionalities in a generic Methodology Agnostic process.

●        Diverse Independent processes

Multiple process support is necessary for a few specific applications. It is simpler to design, develop and manage different processes in a more ordered way, especially for tools that support numerous independent processes for a single application.

●        Process Designer with visual drag and drop facilities

A visual drag and drop interface aids a process designer to visualize the process as it is being created. Consequently this enables it to be faster and easier to create a process.  It is vital that to decide on visual interfaces that have enough flexibility to execute convoluted processes. the process maintenance overhead is fairly high, as there IT resources need coding even the minimum changes.

●        Assign single activity to multiple owners.

It should be possible to assign tasks to numerous users based on policies. It is necessary to have ways to support queuing of tasks, load balancing, task sharing by multiple owners and independent owners of a single task among others.

●        Conditional Branching

Although a fundamental requirement of a process tool, this is absent from many tools in the market.

On the basis of complex conditions defined in terms of various variables of a particular item, a conditional branching in full form allows automatic selection of the next activity. These steering needs to be automatically executed based on the field values.

●        Union with quorum based forwarding policy

Synchronization of multiple parallel activities in a process needs to be combined for a process to move forward. When pre-defined percentages of the previous activities are completed, a quorum based merging allows the process to move forward.

●        Process Modification

As the old process continues to be running for the existing items, process modification should be possible, as it facilitates easier managing of the process changes.

●        Recommence process without repetition

It may be necessary to restart the current items running with this new process, especially in the event of a process change. With advanced tools it is possible to start at a particular step within the new process rather than at the ‘Start’, ensuring no repetition.

●        In built versioning

Process versioning is needed for any organization that needs to execute CMMI  Process or similar compliance processes. Just like any change management, it is necessary to track the changes in the process by tracking the versions. A good choice is tool which has built-in versioning for the process.

●        Coordination among various processes

In the tools that allow the execution of multiple applications like Requirements Management tools, Issues Management, Test Management, and Release Management, the need for this feature is critical.

Before making a final selection of the tool for your Application LifeCycle Management, it is necessary to some time thinking and discussing the process needs with vendors, thereby avoiding the investment in a wrong tool.

Learn more about :- service request management  & issue management tools

How to get the best out of your ALM tool?

Every enterprise needs an ITSM solution that can provide the best technology vale proposition irrespective of the needs of the specific application. You can get the best of your Application Lifecycle Management tool if you opt for the right kind of tool in the first place. Here’s a check list of what an ALM tool needs to be equipped with to provide your enterprise the best.

·         Firstly ensure that your set of integration tools  especially your ALM tool is a purely web based architecture that can effortlessly support multiple major browsers with no requirement of side software installations etc.

·         It should be a tool that is armed with drag and drop codeless configurable entities that allows for easy configurations for desired applications. This feature makes it a feasible and flexible long term investment with very high ROI.

·         It should be a task based tool that has process capabilities that can be added to any application

·         The ALM tool should facilitate for easy integration for any third party tool or software via thin adaptors that can easily allow for bidirectional data transfer between the tool and the 3^rd party software. This ensures that all of this is done in a single repository to enable best technical, management or reporting abilities.

·         The ALM tool should be able to offer optimized interconnectivity and data transferability for optimized point integrations.

·         An enterprise would do well to engage such a tool that can offer maximized integrations and ensure significant savings in both development and maintenance costs for upgrades for new version of tools.

·         Opting for a tool that is easily open for open to any type of software from any vendor including home grown tools or data bases for integrations can be a definite advantage to an enterprise.

·         If the ALM tool comes with a “Tools Class API” it can easily integrate with other tools relatively easy once the APIs for other tools are available, making it quite an advantage for the enterprise.

·         Also the tool should be able to improve upon the capabilities of other tools using its own built in tools that may not have a process engine.

·         The tool should be able to ably fill in the gaps that may arise from point tools

In today’s multi locations as well as outsourced development environment, enterprises realize that it is important that an Application Lifecycle Management tool especially a requirements management tool if based in Boston should be able to communicate with a Test tool based in Bangalore with ease, therefore enterprises need to ensure they get the best from their ALM tool. Hopefully the aforementioned check-list can help you choose the best integrated ALM tool solution available for your enterprise.

Learn more about: - requirements management here.