ITIL Capacity Management

Description

The Business-Focused, Best-Practice Guide to Succeeding with ITIL Capacity Management

Using ITIL® capacity management processes, IT organizations can eliminate waste and overbuying, reduce both equipment and staffing costs, drive more value from existing investments, and consistently provide the right resources to meet the needs of the business. Now, in this comprehensive, best-practice guide, leading ITIL expert Larry Klosterboer systematically explains how to manage capacity using the ITIL framework and techniques.

Drawing on his extensive ITIL experience, Klosterboer covers all facets of ITIL-based capacity management, and offers proven solutions to the challenges IT organizations encounter in implementation. He presents expert guidance on accurately projecting demand and growth, planning and staffing, tool selection, process implementation, and much more.

This book's practical insights will be invaluable to every IT leader who wants to leverage ITIL's best practices for capacity management, and for every business and technical manager who wants IT to deliver greater value, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Coverage includes

* Making the business case for capacity management
* Establishing specific goals for capacity management
* Mastering ITIL capacity management terminology
* Predicting capacity in dynamic, fast-changing organizations
* Implementing systems that help you anticipate trends
* Defining capacity plans, staffing capacity management teams, and implementing ongoing processes
* Linking capacity with performance management and with other ITIL processes
* Selecting the right capacity management tools for your environment
* Integrating capacity issues into your IT project management discipline
* Using business capacity planning to help the entire business become more agile

CONTENTS:

Preface xxi

Acknowledgments xxv

About the Author xxvii

Part I Concepts in Managing Capacity 1

Chapter 1 Introduction to Capacity Management 3

The ITIL Life Cycle 4

     The Overall Library 4

     The Service Management Life Cycle 4

The Purpose and Goals of Capacity Management 6

     The Major Purpose 6

     Other Purposes 7

     General Goals for Capacity Management 7

     Defining Specific Goals for Your Organization 8

Interfaces to and Dependencies on Other ITIL Processes 8

     Capacity Management and Service Continuity 9

     Capacity Management and Configuration Management 9

     Capacity Management and Release Management 9

     Other Interfaces 9

The Business Case for Capacity Management 10

     Cost Avoidance 10

     Business Agility 11

     A Great Start for Financial Management 11

Important Risks to Consider 12

     Missing Business Capacity Data 12

     Inconsistent Component Capacity Data 12

     Lack of Analysis Skill and Tools 13

Summary and Next Steps 14

Chapter 2 The Geography of Managing Capacity 15

Capacity Pools and Component Capacity Management 15

     Defining Capacity Pools 16

     Boundaries of Capacity Pools 16

     Granularity of Capacity Pools 17

     Managing Capacity Pools 19

Capacity Streams and Service Capacity Management 19

     Defining Capacity Streams 19

     Confluences and Shared Capacity 20

     The Value of Capacity Streams 21

     Managing Capacity Streams 22

How Virtualization Affects Capacity Management 22

     Virtualization Creates Subpools 23

     Managing Virtual Capacity Pools 23

     Sharing Virtual Resource Pools Between Streams 24

     Over-Subscription and Risks of Virtualization 24

Summary and Next Steps 25

Chapter 3 Understanding Capacity Demand 27

Trend-Based Forecasts 27

     Component-Based Trends 27

     Service-Based Trends 29

     Business-Based Trends 29

Portfolio-Based Forecasts 30

     Business-Driven or Top Down Portfolio 30

     IT-Driven Portfolio 31

     Innovation-Driven Portfolio 32

Business Event Forecasts 32

The Blended Capacity Forecast 33

Using the Forecast for Cost Management 35

     Cost Avoidance Through Increased Utilization 35

     Cost Reduction Through Decommissioning and Recovery 35

     Projecting and Tracking Cost Avoidance and Cost Reduction 36

Summary and Next Steps 36

Chapter 4 Dimensions of Capacity Growth 39

Grow the Base 39

     Growth by Demand 40

     Growth by Refresh 40

Grow the Business 42

     Project-Based Growth 42

     Service-Based Growth 45

Summary and Next Steps 45

Part II Best Practices in Capacity Management 47

Chapter 5 Establish the Capacity Management Information System 49

Purpose of the Capacity Management Information System 49

     Repository of Capacity Information 49

     Interface to Integrated Service Management 50

     Reporting and Decision Making 52

Contents of the Capacity Management Information System 52

     Utilization Data 52

     Capacity Data 54

     Capacity Plans 56

First Steps to Implementation 57

     Define Requirements 57

     Select Tools 58

     Gather Data 58

     Implement Processes 59

     Train Staff 59

Using the Capacity Management Information System 60

     Forecasting Capacity Needs 60

     Making Capacity Decisions 60

     Integrating Service Management 60

Summary and Next Steps 61

Chapter 6 Define and Manage Capacity Plans 63

Scope of a Capacity Plan 63

     Service Capacity Plans 63

     Component Capacity Plans 64

     How Many Plans? 65

Format of a Capacity Plan 66

     The Essential Elements 66

     The Right Level of Detail 69

Maintaining Capacity Plans 69

     Periodic Reviews 70

     Coping with Major Changes 71

Storing Capacity Plans 72

     Format of the Plans 72

     Maintaining Version Control 73

Summary and Next Steps 74

Chapter 7 Staff the Capacity Management Team 75

Implementation Roles 75

     Capacity Process Owner 76

     Capacity Management Information System Designer 77

     Process Engineer 78

     Project Manager 79

Operational Roles 81

     Capacity Service Owner 81

     Capacity Analyst 82

     Capacity Data Manager 83

     Capacity Planner 85

A Word About Skills 86

     Skills, Roles, and Staffing 86

     Developing Capacity Management Skills 87

     Skill Maturity and Team Composition 87

Summary and Next Steps 88

Chapter 8 Implement the Capacity Management Process 89

The High-Level Process 89

     The ITIL Process 90

     Adopting and Configuring a Process 91

     Attributes of a Good High-Level Process 93

Defining and Documenting Capacity Policies 94

     Capacity Monitoring Policies 95

     Capacity Acquisition Policies 96

     Policy for Capacity Incidents and Changes 97

     Policy for Capacity Planning on New Projects 98

Creating Capacity Procedures 98

     Process Steps Create Procedures 98

     Procedures for Capacity Reviews 99

     Procedures for Improving Capacity 100

     Procedures for Capacity Planning 100

Managing Capacity Process Assets 101

     Document Format and Storage 101

     Reviews and Process Approvals 102

     Making Updates and Tracking Revisions 103

Summary and Next Steps 103

Chapter 9 Relate Capacity and Performance 105

Performance Is Capacity in a Moment 105

     Definition of Performance Management 106

     Time Scale for Performance Testing 106

     Performance Management in the Capacity Management Process 107

Expand Capacity to Improve Performance 109

     Techniques to Measure Performance 109

     Techniques to Improve Performance 110

     Diagnosing Performance Problems 111

Understanding Peaks and Valleys 113

     Creating a Performance Profile 114

     Measuring Performance Trends 116

     Integrating Performance into the Capacity Plan 116

Virtualization's Impact on Performance 117

     How Hypervisors Improve Performance 117

     How Virtualization Automates Performance Management 117

Summary and Next Steps 118

Chapter 10 Choose Capacity Management Tools 119

Tools to Track Component Capacity 119

     Specific Requirements in This Class 120

     Available Tools 121

     Specialized Tools Approach 122

     Generalized Tools Approach 123

Tools to View Service Capacity 123

     Specific Requirements in This Class 124

     Available Tools 124

     Build or Buy 125

Performance Management Tools 125

     Specific Requirements in This Class 126

     Available Tools 127

Tools for a Capacity Management Information System 128

     Specific Requirements in This Class 128

     Available Tools 129

How to Choose the Best Tools 129

Summary and Next Steps 131

Chapter 11 Produce Capacity Reports 133

Capacity Reports 133

     Component Exception Reports 134

     Component Trending Reports 135

     Service Trending Reports 136

Capacity Management Reports and Process Metrics 138

     Measuring Capacity Trend Accuracy 138

     Tracking Capacity-Related Incidents 139

     Evaluating the Completeness of Capacity Plans 140

Summary and Next Steps 141

Part III Common Issues in Capacity Management 143

Chapter 12 Business Capacity Planning 145

The Scope of Business Capacity Planning 145

     Defining Business Capacity 146

     How to Measure Business Capacity Utilization 147

     Predicting Business Capacity Needs 149

The Challenge of Planning Business Capacity 150

     Effort Versus Benefit 150

     Getting Agreement on Measurements 151

     The Place of Business Capacity Planning in Business Strategy 152

Integrating Business Capacity Planning with IT Capacity Planning 153

     The Business Component Hierarchy 153

     The Line Between IT Services and Business Processes 154

     Integrated Utilization 155

     Integrated Capacity Plans 155

Managing IT Capacity without Business Capacity Information 155

Summary and Next Steps 156

Chapter 13 Smoothing the Order Cycle 157

Establishing Capacity Buffers and Reorder Levels 157

     Determining Capacity Buffers 157

     Establishing Reorder Levels 158

     First Guesses and Fine-Tuning 159

Factors Affecting Reorder Levels 159

     Deployment Time 160

     Process Maturity 160

     Vendor Packaging 160

     Virtualization Standards 161

     Cost-Containment Efforts 162

Ordering the Right Amount 163

     Ordering Individual Units 163

     Ordering Hardware for Virtualization 163

     Volume Ordering 165

     Finding the Right Balance 165

Reclaiming Capacity Instead of Reordering 166

     How Reclaimed Capacity Affects Capacity Demand 166

     How Reuse Affects Reorder Levels 166

     Creative Ways to Reuse Capacity 167

Summary and Next Steps 167

Chapter 14 Capacity Management in a Project Context 169

Capacity Plans as Project Deliverables 169

     Adding Capacity Requirements in Project Definition 170

     Considering Capacity and Performance in the System Architecture 171

     Defining and Executing Capacity Test Cases 172

Building the Capacity Plan at Project Time 173

     Testing and Estimating Capacity Utilization 173

     Architecting for Capacity Growth 174

     Engaging Capacity Management in the Project 175

Turning the Capacity Plan Over to Operations 177

     When Capacity Management Has Been Engaged 177

     When Capacity Management Was Not Engaged 178

     Essentials of Operational Turnover 179

Summary and Next Steps 179

Chapter 15 Integrating Capacity Planning with IT Processes 181

Integrating with Availability Management 181

     Process Linkage 182

     Data Linkage 183

     Benefits of Integration 183

Integrating with Configuration Management 183

     Process Linkage 184

     Data Linkage 184

     Benefits of Integration 185

Integrating with Change Management 185

     Process Linkage 186

     Data Linkage 187

     Benefits of Integration 187

Integrating with Incident Management 187

     Process Linkage 188

     Data Linkage 188

     Benefits of Integration 189

Integrating with Service Continuity Management 190

     Process Linkage 190

     Data Linkage 191

     Benefits of Integration 192

Integrating with Release and Deployment Management 192

     Process Linkage 192

     Benefits of Integration 193

Chapter Summary 193

Index 195