Configuration Management - The Operations Managers View
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The document discusses the importance of change, configuration, and release (CCR) management from an operations manager's perspective, highlighting the need for effective IT service management to enhance business productivity. It emphasizes the significance of integrating CCR processes to improve IT service delivery and presents various operational rules and requests. The summary concludes with a call for better processes that support operational staff in delivering high-quality services efficiently.
Configuration Management - The Operations Managers View
- 1. The Operations View…An Operation Manager’s perspective on Change, Configuration and Release Management(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 2009114/06/2009
- 2. Who am I and Who are you?Why are we here today?How Ops see you...Some “Ops Mgr Rules”...Some Operations Requests...Some examples of toolsSummaryQuestions?14/06/2009(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20092Agenda
- 3. Stephen Thair MBCS CITP MBA19 years IT experience in Australia (9yrs) and UK (10yrs)Development, Support, Technical Architecture etc3 yrs as Operations Manager for Totaljobs Group1 yrs as Operations Manager for TSL EducationSeriti Consulting – web operations and performance consulting14/06/2009(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20093Who am I?
- 4. Who are you? Hands up...Who is a Change / Configuration / Release (CCR) Manager?Who is a Operations Manager?My definition of "Operations Manager“..."the person who gets it in the neck when the servers/applications/systems go down"(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 2009414/06/2009
- 5. Why are we here?The 3 Conference Objectives...getting more from what you’ve got!cost and risk of not controlling environments (virtualised, end-to-end, testing, etc.)how the benefits of being in control can be measured and communicated to the organisation.The ITIL Objectives...“ITIL is a top-down, business driven approach to the management of IT Services that specifically addresses the strategic business value generated by the IT organisation and the delivery of high quality IT services. ITIL is designed to focus on the people, processes and technology issues that IT organisations face.” – ITIL Official Website(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 2009514/06/2009
- 6. Why are we here? (2)But why do we have Change / Configuration / Release Management at all?The Answer as always is CIA ConfidentialityIntegrityAvailabilityWe have these disciplines to help the Operational staff do their job better and to deliver a better service to the business so that the business can be more productive and make more profit(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 2009614/06/2009
- 7. How “we” see “you”...Are you a hurdle we have to jump?Or are you the lubricant that makes everything run smoothly?Or worse...(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 2009714/06/2009
- 8. The worst case scenario...14/06/2009(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20098
- 9. Part of the problem or part of the solution?What happens if you are seen negatively?We will ignore or workaround the CCR processesAnd we'll get away with it for two reasonsAs long as we are delivering on the service and we don't mess up a change, all we are going to get is a slap on the wrist (unless it's a high-security environment) And unless you have automated configuration management tools you probably won't even know...(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 2009914/06/2009
- 10. Ops Manager rule #1“CCR without automated configuration management is “optional””How much “Hidden Change” goes on inside your organisation?(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20091014/06/2009
- 11. The Four Quadrants of ChangeUnsuccessfulAuthorisedUn-AuthorisedSuccessful(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20091114/06/2009
- 12. Rules #2, #3, #4...No-one likes someone watching over their shoulder... AKA the “Big Brother” RuleYou get the marketing wrong... AKA the “FUD Marketing” RuleWhere are you when we need you?AKA the “Dial 999 rule”(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20091214/06/2009
- 13. Rule #2 – “Big Brother”No-one likes someone looking over their shoulder – that’s just a fact of life...Ops people interpret it as "you guys don't trust us to do our jobs properly so we have to get everything approved"Which is arrogant because everyone makes mistakes...Especially someone who is "less technical" than they are...(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20091314/06/2009
- 14. Rule #3 – “FUD Marketing”FUD MarketingFUD will get your budget signed offBut all the Ops people will hear is "blah blahblah"Marketing 101Tailor your message to the audienceYou need to sell the vision just as much to the Operations people as to the IT Executive... and you can't use the same slide deck...(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20091414/06/2009
- 15. Rule #4 – “Dial 999”Ask yourself the question...When something goes wrong does your change / release / configuration management system help your front line staff fix the problem?And if not, why not?(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20091514/06/2009
- 16. Some Operations Requests...Always ask yourself "How does this help us deliver better IT services to our Customers?"And NOT "How can I implement a Change / Release / Configuration Management Process“A set of processes and tools that help us do our job betterHelp us transition changes into Production, not stand in the wayHelp in dealing with the business sponsorsGetting it approved and signed-offHelp in translating Tech speak to Business14/06/2009(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 200916
- 17. Help us with Information!Can you answers these questions quickly and easily?What changed on server XYZ today?What fixes where in the release last week (down to the file level?)If something has gone wrong on server XYZ what applications are affected and who do I need to notify (RACI Matrix?)?Can I get a up to list of all the servers running IIS in my data center with their CPU, RAM, Disk, OS version and patch level in under 30 secs?If I want to roll out Change XYZ across 100 servers how do "your" processes help me do that?What changes are planned on the Bank Holiday Monday in August?(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20091714/06/2009
- 18. Standard Changes Rule! Work on the “standard change” list!ITIL has the concept of a standard change but rarely have I seen it implemented effectivelyIf it is something that has been done successfully many times and/or will incur no service impact (due to redundancy etc) then make it a standard change and let people get on with the job!"If this change goes wrong will it have a material impact on the service to customers?"If the answer is no - make it a "standard change"(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20091814/06/2009
- 19. Integration...Change, Configuration and Release should work together smoothly...ANDBe integrated with Incident / Problem!Can I go from an Incident to a Change and updating the CMDB in 2-3 clicks?ANDBe integrated with the configuration/CMDB automation“Closed loop change”(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20091914/06/2009
- 20. Some concrete examplesConfiguration ManagementConfiguresoft ECMService Managementwww.service-now.comClosed-Loop Change(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20092014/06/2009
- 21. Configuresoft ECM14/06/2009(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 200921
- 22. Why I like ECMComprehensive depth of coverageDatabase-driven = fast reportsAgent-basedOnly delta’s sent over the wire = less network trafficWeb UI – all I need is a browserLots of pre-canned templates for different compliance regimes = ECM-driven change remediation = “fix the ones that are different”14/06/2009(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 200922
- 23. Service-Now.com14/06/2009(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 200923
- 24. Why I like Service-NowSaaSno infrastructure to worry aboutAccess it from anywhereWeb UIEasy customisation from the UINo hordes of developers required“One stop stop” – ITIL in a boxIntegrated CMDB...14/06/2009(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 200924
- 25. The “Holy Grail”14/06/2009(c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 200925
- 26. SummaryWhat matters is Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability... To deliver IT services to the Business so that the business can deliver service to its customers & clientsOperations are the people who ultimately have to deliver that serviceSo please make sure that your Change, Configuration and Release processes enable us to do our jobs BETTER (c) Seriti Consulting – BCS CMSG 20092614/06/2009
- 27. Any Questions?14/06/2009(c) Seriti Consulting - TextExpo27
- 28. If you have any questions around Web site operations & managementWeb Performance TuningNear-shore development & functional testingEmail me – Stephen.Thair@SeritiConsulting.comConnect with me on LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenthair Contact Details – Seriti Consulting14/06/2009(c) Seriti Consulting - TextExpo28
Editor's Notes
- #4: My wife is also the test manager at EMI Music, so I get this stuff at home, too.
- #6: So our AIM is to deliver “High Quality IT Services”
- #7: So how exactly does CCR fit into this?We can’t deliver High quality services without ensuring CIA...Because best-practice says that “doing it this way will improve the quality of the service you deliver”...
- #10: We will ignore & work around it... Because we can...And we’ll get away with it...
- #11: If you don’t know what gets changed... Why should we tell you? The way I like to see it is as 4 quadrants
- #12: Authorised & successful = managed change – everyone is happyAuthorised & unsuccessful = rollback – still no problemsUn-authorised and unsuccessful = generally means an incident will be raised because something goes wrong...Successful and un-authorised = hidden change that you might never know about... How big is the “Hidden Change” quadrant in your organisation... And how would you go about finding out...
- #13: 3 more rules we can discuss...
- #14: Shoulder to Shoulder – not “over the shoulder”...Which leads neatly onto #2 and why the Compliance approach immediately sets up the wrong message...
- #15: BASEL II,
- #16: The first question we ask ourselves (or the user) is “has anything changed”? But rarely do (in my experience) do the CCR systems help...Some Defences...Prior Planning Prevents (P***)-Poor PerformanceThe process helps stop errors before they occurBut from the Ops Guys perspective "You slow me down all the time but when I really need your help the process is useless"..."But we make them have a rollback plan...“ is pretty weak
- #20: So lets talk about some concrete examples of the sort of tools/systems that make an Operations Manager happy...
- #26: Tell me what’s changed, help me to change it, prove that I changed it correctly...
- #27: We’ve talked about how we see CCR managersThe Four Ops Mgr rulesThe importance of Automation and “hidden change”The “big brother rule” – shoulder to shoulder, not over the shoulder...The FUD marketing rule – different audience, different marketing strategy please!The Dial 999 rule – how can you helpOperations requirementsHelp us deliver customer serviceSmooth the transition to Production!Deal with the businessHelp us with informationStandard changes – if it ain’t risky, pre-approve itIntegration rulzSome example toolsECMService-Now.com
- #28: Ok, here is one for you – (compliance to one side) – “if you threw out all the change, configuration and release processes that you currently have in place at your organisation do you think that there would be a significant impact on the service delivery of IT to your business”? – and how long would that take to eventuate?
- #29: Email Steve – Stephen.Thair@SeritiConsulting.com