IT Configuration Management: Approaching Best Practices

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ITIL CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT: Approaching Best Practices.

So you have the honor of sorting out the approach to ITIL Configuration Management?  Lucky YOU!!  This is an exciting opportunity that can make such a huge difference for other ITIL Efforts.. Done well, Configuration Management can tell your stakeholders with easy referenceability, "What is running where, and Who owns it."..

Seems like a simple question, and yet, WHO is asking the question and WHAT they need to answer it, might be a little harder to get at.  Configuration Management takes a lesson in learning that we are more connected than most businesses might traditionally define, "Need to Know" basis.

WHAT do we need to manage? 
HOW do we need to structure the data, and WHAT key ITIL Process disciplines, might manage, measure and IMPROVE the quality of data for now, and the future?

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES TO CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT? 

1. KNOW THYSELF AND THY BUSINESS:  We know configuration management is at the heart of IT Change, what is the most logical starting scope of what is running where and who owns it? What are we trying to do now, and how does this effort support that aim?  
2. DEFINE SCOPE AND MILESTONES TO START:  When trying to improve the quality of information, it is important to start somewhere, and improve over time.  so picking the scope and milestones that will support your business and present business challenges should drive the scope and milestones decision.  IN ITIL best practices, sometimes the approach, particularly for configuration management is driven by the business, other times by technology or outsourcing, or consulting.     SOME levels of change communications approach activity can do a great job, in setting the stage for what must be completed, rather than trying to buy a project and then "implement ITIL" as a reason to justify.  This does not in any way mean to suggest that a Product can not DRIVE an ITIL practice, but it does mean that the ITIL Best Practices work regardless of approach, and whatever your approach, the desired and needed levels of change should be put before the decision to "do ITIL".
3. ROADMAP YOUR CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT PATH OF EXCELLENCE: What works for you for now, and Phase 2, and Phase 3, should be getting you closer to better service management, change management, problem and incident management, etc.  Each Phase being able to deliver clarity and a great story of improvement from BEFORE and AFTER the change, of WHAT is referenceable, and HOW it solves a key problem, and WHERE you are going to go next.  If we build our ITIL Configuration Practice with a logic that we start some where, Define, Measure, Manage, Improve and Control that data effectively, we will have a better configuration for change agility.  This translates into efficiencies for all of the ITIL disciplines, if you work on the logic that configuration management is at the heart of all change, and Service Management and Configuration management are part of a wheel of IT Service Delivery.

KNOWING THYSELF:  How do I begin?  The exercise of organizational instrospection on configuration management is improved by awareness and alignment on what the key points to be addresssed are kept in focus while we plan for what configuration management must do.  I found myself appreciating Hank Marquis approach: "Configuration Management for the Rest of Us".  Hank is EVP of Knowledge Management at Universal Solutions Group, and Founder and Director of NABSM.ORG 

• Planning - Purpose, scoping, description of CI and Services, Timeline, Supporting documentation, policies, organization, maintenance, critieria for selection, frequency and distribution, control, reporting.
• Identification - The selection and identification of CIs and their relationships. Considers regulaltory, criticality, changes and modifications to technology being relfected, interfaces to other CIs, procurement conditions (new change sources), support and service ownership and considerations.
• Control - Procedures that ensure no change to any CI without controlling documentation such as an updated service or product specification, or a RFC. Defines how you will produce the document, authority, the procedures for change to the CI or ownership, and how changes to records are communicated.
• Status Accounting - Process groups that become part of the reference, consider the importance and relationship to status accounting for changes to CIs throughout their lifecycle. Include methods to track CIs from ordering to depreciation. Unlike Control, Status Accounting seeks to maintain a historical record for the CI. This includes baselines, linked Incident, Problems, Known Errors, etc.
• Verification and audit - Data improves on time with routine use, and planned improvement.  A series of reviews to verify the presence and configuration of CIs with their respective records within the CMDB. Includes planned audits, key procedures, IT Change Authorizations, Description and expected content, configuration item 'change', care, feeding, and improvement over time.

OVERVIEW OF CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT:

Nice Video from Charles Sturt University: CSU: ITIL v3 Configuration Management System 

 

CASE STUDY FROM EXPERIENCE:

We approached using an ITIL/ SIX SIGMA. We thought we had systems for tracking configurations, in fact we had 20 - 30 some references of systems, processes, and people, should be simple right? In KNOWING ourself, we came to realize that while we did have many systems, what we needed was to emerge a system that managed and delivered results to reduce complexity and save money..

We used Six Sigma methdology to define the steps above, started with a DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve Control) to a DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify) Results.   

As we had a good Problem and Incident Management Database for Applications, Network and Server, our Phase 1 Project Produced an aggregated view of what is running where and who owned it from Network, Server, Application, and ownership to produce a system of record with Planning, Identifications, and Controls.  Phase 2 was a project collaboration to simplify and improve costs using Status Accounting, Verification, and Audit Methods.  This is where the meat of configuration management started to take control:

• Identifying resources that were duplicative in nature and combining or repurposing.
• Identifying underutilized or legacy systems that were not adding value and removing them.
• Optimizing Data and Service Center Costs

• BEST PRACTICE APPROACH METHODS
• Carnegie Mellon: Software Engineering Institute: Configuration Management: A Framework for Software Product Line Practice, Version 5.0
• UCalgary IT Lean Six Sigma Approach Presentation with ITIL focus.
• TECH REPUBLIC: IT Leadership: What goes in an IT Configuration Management Plan
• Case Studies Projects that showcased best practices tied to industry trends:
• VTT: 3 Case Studies of Implementation Approaches to Configuration Management
• Journal of Computer Information Systems: Implementing IT Service Management: a Case Study focussing on critical success factors.
• Tool and Measures:
• ITIL/ITSM Tools List
• Service Asset and Configuration Management Definitions
• 25 Configuration Management and Change Management Metrics you Cant Miss

YOUR TURN: What was YOUR IT Implementation experience?

1. How did your organization approach Configuration Management Implementation?
• Process first then integrate into projects?
• Integrate with a project initiative?
• Identify a project with well defined configuration item groups to start with?
• Start easy with a few disciplines, then expand? 
• Start with a problem area and define the configuration references that can solve it?  
2. Did you use a specific Project Method to define the approach?
• Was it platform/application agnostic, or defined as part of a software solution deployment?
• Did you use Six Sigma, Lean Sigma, CMMI, or CAP elements in your deployment?
3. What worked?
4. What didnt?
5. Any other case studies or ITIL Leadership articles that helped?

We will offer overviews of the concepts, and perhaps blog more on application, with your involvement, expand our possibilities. If you have ideas, let us know.

Dawn C Khan: ~ about.me | twitter | linkedin | facebook |