ITIL Change Management Revised Final

8/8/2019 ITIL Change Management Revised Final

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A Comprehensive Approach toPracticing ITIL Change Management

A White Paper Prepared for BMC SoftwareNovember 2008


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Table of Contents

Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................................................1

The Problem ........................................................................................................................................................................................1

The Solution ........................................................................................................................................................................................2ITIL Approach to Change Management ..................................................................................................................................2

Integrating Batch Processing With ITIL-Based Change Management ...............................................................................2

BMC SoftwareDelivering Batch-CMDB Integration .........................................................................................................3

EMAs Perspective ...............................................................................................................................................................................4

About BMC Software .........................................................................................................................................................................4


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2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Executive SummaryBatch processing is a critical part of most enterprises. Itis a foundation technology for applications including e-

commerce, accounting, stock and inventory control, en-terprise resource planning, customer service, and manymore. Any disruption to mission-critical batch process-ing can cause extensive impact to the business through

downtime, lost revenue, contract penalties, and more.

However, change management processes, even those

based on recognized best practices such as ITIL, rarelytake into account the batch environment when planningfor change. Systems are shut down, removed, rebuilt,and updated without any concern for the impact such

changes may have on critical batch processing, and thebusiness services that depend on it.

An emerging solution for this problem is to inte-grate batch service denitions into a Conguration

Management Database, or CMDB. In ITIL best prac-tices, the CMDB serves as a single source of truth

for recording the conguration of devices, operating

systems, databases, middleware, applications, etc. Thisprovides (among many other things) a single point of

reference to determine the scope and impact of anychange to any IT system throughout the enterprise.Integrating batch process denitions with the CMDB

extends this single source of truth to include mission-

critical batch services also. This ensures the assessmentof the scope and impact of any change can now betruly universal.

BMC Software is providing a solution to this require-ment, by integrating their batch process automation so-lution, BMC CONTROL-M, with their CMDB solution,

BMC Atrium. This innovative solution based on ITILbest practices directly addresses the problems of inte-grating change management and batch processing. BMC

Softwares solution discovers batch services, recordsthem in unique records in the CMDB, associates them

with other enterprise conguration elements, forecaststhe impact of change on batch processing, and correlates

that impact with business services, thereby predicting thefull impact of any change on business users.

The result is a more effective change managementprocess based on best practice recommendations thataccommodates all mission-critical business services, re-ducing unexpected downtime, improving availability, and

reducing the cost of change. Enterprise ManagementAssociates believes this solution will provide signicant

benets to many enterprises, especially those with an

existing CMDB implementation

The ProblemMission-critical data processing relies in large part on

the automated initiation, execution, management,integration, and recovery of batch-mode IT process-ingscripts, jobs, tasks, and other non-interactive ITprocesses that manipulate a specic data set. These

processes may be application-oriented, such as account-ing, payments, e-commerce, supply chain management,ERP, purchasing, ordering, fulllment or data mining;

or system-oriented, such as data backup, grid and cluster

support, virtual load balancing, storage management, ordata export-transform-load operations. Batch process-ing in a modern enterprise is a foundation technology

for many critical business services, so it is imperative tomaintain consistent and reliable batch processing.

At the same time, change is inevitable and protable

businesses demand almost continual change, so theycan provide new products and services, build com-petitive advantage, and continually improve customer

service. Without change, a business will stagnate, andinevitably be overtaken by its competitors. However,

with change comes risk, and the potential for problems.EMA estimates, for example, that faulty conguration

changes are responsible for around 60% of downtimein an average enterprise.

It is therefore important to establish practices and pro-cedures for change management that account for the ef-fect of changes on systems, applications, and especially

business services. With change management, changecontrol, and application and infrastructure mappingtools, this can be a relatively simple and standardizedprocess. However, these tools invariably do not account

for batch processing, leaving many critical business ser-vices vulnerable to unexpected outages. It takes a deepunderstanding of the batch processes, and their often

complex interdependencies, to ensure that conguration

changes do not adversely affect the batch environment.

For example, if IT needs to move a system to put it intoa new virtual server, or upgrade the physical server, itis relatively easy to predict and minimize the impact on


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online users. Using application mapping, even complexapplications, and their associated business services, canbe mapped onto specic servers or devices. Similarly,

using performance monitoring tools, it is also quite sim-

ple to measure the peaks and troughs in online usage,so the move can be scheduled to occur outside the peakonline usage. These change management processes help

to minimize the possible disruption to the majority ofonline users.

However, mission-critical batch processing may occuron the same system. This will not be revealed throughtraditional application and business service mapping,which tends to concentrate mainly on the online, real-

time aspect of application processing. Nor are the com-plex interrelationships of batch processing revealed in

performance monitor output. So while the scheduleddowntime may cause a minimal impact on online users,

it still has the potential for signicant disruption by

delaying or interrupting scheduled batch processes thatform the basis for critical business services.

Of course, the major part of this problem is the complexdependencies that batch processing entails. While one

system may not host mission-critical batch processing, itmay still be part of a critical path, due to a complex ow

of dependencies.

For example, in a manufacturing company, a specic

system located on the loading dock might be dedicatedto providing an input station for stock and inventory

management. It may run just a couple of batch jobsovernight to update the ERP system with the new mate-rials received in the loading dock that day. Bringing thatsystem down for a change request will not have any obvi-

ous effect on critical online business systems. However,the batch process that updates stock and inventory maybe part of a critical batch processinventory received

updates accounts payable, accounts payable updates gen-eral ledger, general ledger updates accounts receivable,

and accounts receivable updates billing, which in turnissues all invoices. So all of a sudden, bringing down a

barely signicant system on the loading dock actually

stops the company from issuing any invoicesa majorimpact on the business.

Effective change management processes must thereforeprovide visibility into batch processing, and the criticalbusiness services that rely on it. Otherwise, even a well-

managed change cycle can cause signicant problems to

important business services.

The Solution

ITIL Approach to Change ManagementITIL, which stands for IT Infrastructure Library, is

a set of best practices for IT organizations, originallycreated under the auspices of the British government.While it covers other areas, its focus is on ensuring that

IT is able to deliver consistent business service. Threekey areas of ITIL apply to address the problem of ef-fectively managing change:

Service Desk

Conguration Management

Change Management

Central to these ITIL best practices is the implemen-tation of a Conguration Management Database (or

CMDB)either a central or federated database that is

used to record the status of all relevant conguration

items (CIs) throughout the enterprise. This gives IT theability to correlate the relationships between incidents,

problems, service requests, changes and business ser-vices, which in turn ensures that changes are properlyapproved, managed, and executed.

However, in a traditional implementation, a CMDBwill not contain any information about batch process-ing. So even with an ITIL-based approach to change

management, without taking into account the impact onbatch, serious service impact can occur. In addition, anychanges to batch processing itself cannot be managedwith standard change management processes, as ITIL

change management relies on CMDB data for planning,impact analysis, approval, etc. This is why it is importantto integrate batch processing with an ITIL approach to

change management.

Integrating Batch Processing With ITIL-Based Change ManagementUsing batch process information, alongside other con-guration information, as input to the change approval

process, stakeholders can take into account the effectof change on the entire enterprise, not just the onlineapplications. This is a much more complete approach tochange, and much more likely to avoid adverse change


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impact. Integrating all of this information into a singlesource of truththe CMDBhelps to ensure changeapprovers have access to all the information they needto make timely, accurate, and non-disruptive deci-

sions regarding potentially damaging change requests.Recording batch service CIs in the CMDB also ensuresthat any changes affecting batch services can be man-

aged within the systems, standards, and best practicesthat are in place for other enterprise systemsincludinginitiation by a service desk request, issuing the changeticket, planning, impact analysis, authorization, verica-

tion and notication.

For example, in a server consolidation project, IT may

plan to co-locate several applications onto a singleserver. A CMDB will help to determine and resolve

conicting system conguration requirements, but it willyield spurious and potentially harmful results if it does

not contain conguration information for batch ser-vices. Recording critical batch service CIs in the CMDB,however, will give change approvers a single source of

truth to discover, for example, that two overnight batchprocesses, which previously ran in parallel on separatesystems, will need to run in series if they are located on asingle server, seriously delaying processing and disrupt-

ing daytime business service.

In another example, an upgrade that needs to shut down

an application or the entire server might be scheduled foran overnight change window in the middle of the week.Change approvers can use batch service CIs stored in aCMDB to check what mission-critical batch processing

requires access to that server or application, and whatimpact it will have to shut the server down. This maylead to a decision to delay the upgrade to a different

change windowfor example, from a weekday night toa weekendto avoid delaying critical overnight batchprocessing. Alternatively, it may lead to submission ofa change request to relocate the critical batch service

to a different systema request that the change teamcan analyze, plan, approve, and execute with a standardITIL-based change management procedure.

BMC SoftwareDelivering Batch-CMDBIntegrationOne solution provider is set to deliver this solution, bypioneering this new approach of integrating batch pro-cessing with change management through integrationwith the CMDB.

BMC Software is providing a packaged solution that in-tegrates their batch process automation solution, BMCCONTROL-M, with their comprehensive CMDB, BMCAtrium. Information from BMC CONTROL-M is pop-

ulated into the CMDB with an add-on to BMC Atriumcalled the Batch Service Extension. This extension al-lows all relevant batch service attributes, such as service

name, priority, service owner, and service description, tobe stored in the CMDB. This information is automati-cally discovered by scanning the BMC CONTROL-Menvironment, mapping the batch business services, and

correlating batch entities with machines and applications,using a standard API that normalizes service data to en-sure consistency. This solution also integrates with BMCSoftwares leading service desk, BMC Remedy, providing

a complete ITIL-based change management process.BMC Atrium therefore can provide a single source of

truth not just for conguration information, but also

for the mission-critical batch processes maintained byBMC CONTROL-M. Stakeholders can more accurately

predict the impact of change, and thereby more easilydiagnose, resolve, and avoid potential problems.

The next step is to provide the ability to launch theBMC CONTROL-M forecasting capability from withina change management interface, what BMC Software re-fers to as Launch in Context. This will allow a change

approver to simulate a requested change to the environ-ment (e.g. shutting down a server) and, from within theirchange management application, launch a forecast ofthe resulting batch process that uses that environment.

With this facility, the change approver will be able tosee the impact the change will have with exceptionalclarity. In addition, BMC CONTROL-M Batch Impact

Manager will correlate this forecast with the businessservices that depend on batch processing, delivering amuch higher Business Service view of the impact ofchange on batch processing.

This new approach allows batch processesincludingrelevant inter-process dependencies, infrastructure de-

pendencies, and connections to business servicesto bedened and recorded in the CMDB, providing a single

source of truth, not just for critical online applicationconguration, but also for batch processing. This single

source of truth enables all stakeholders to determine thetrue impact of change on all critical business services,using one authoritative source to forecast the potential


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impact of change on both online and batch processing.This allows a complete risk assessment, and provides thenecessary tools to properly plan, manage, and executechange with minimal disruption.

EMAs PerspectiveEnterprise Management Associates (EMA) is a strong

supporter and advocate of an ITIL approach to en-terprise management, including change management,conguration management, CMDB, and service desk.

EMA is a strong supporter and advocate of batch pro-

cess automation, promoting wide use of batch processautomation solutions to deliver efcient, effective, and

reliable business services.

With this innovative integration of CMDB and batchprocess automation, BMC Software is implementing

a combination of these recommended best practices,combining them into a cohesive, integrated solution,and delivering a unique value to enterprises. Integratingbatch processing with the CMDB provides a single

source of truth to manage change, with the con-dence that change management planning is accountingfor all critical processing, not just online applications.Stakeholders are better informed, and can make better

decisions, to ensure change does not have unplannedand adverse effects on critical business services.

It is worth noting that a CMDB is not necessarily asimple implementation project, and enterprises shouldcarefully plan any such project, and set about to achieve

realistic goals in a realistic timeframe. However, a CMDBis a critical part of a complete ITIL implementation, andprovides denite value in an ITIL-based conguration

and change management process. Any enterprise that

has systemic problems with managing change shouldinvestigate a CMDB deployment such as BMC Atrium.And where batch process disruption occurs as a resultof change, enterprises should also look at integrating

their CMDB with their batch processing. BMC Softwareis leading the way in providing such a solution to achievethis goal, providing unique and innovative value.

EMA therefore recommends enterprises investigate anintegrated solution that includes BMC Atrium, BMCCONTROL-M, and BMC Remedy. This integratedITIL-based approach to change management integrates

batch processing, CMDB, and service desk disciplines,to help ensure business service availability, even in themost complex environments.

About BMC SoftwareBMC Software, Inc. [NYSE:BMC] is a leading providerof enterprise management solutions that empower com-

panies to manage their IT infrastructure from a businessperspective. Delivering Business Service Management,BMC Software solutions span enterprise systems, appli-

cations, databases, and service management. Founded in

1980, BMC Software has ofces worldwide and scal2005 revenues of more than $1.46 billion. For more in-formation about BMC Software, visit www.bmc.com.


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About Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.

Enterprise Management Associates is an advisory and research rm providing market insight to solution providers and technology guidance to Fortune

1000 companies. The EMA team is composed of industry respected analysts who deliver strategic awareness about computing and communicationsinfrastructure. Coupling this team of experts with an ever-expanding knowledge repository gives EMA clients an unparalleled advantage against their

competition. The rm has published hundreds of articles and books on technology management topics and is frequently requested to share theirobservations at management forums worldwide.

This report in whole or in part may not be duplicated, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or retransmitted without prior written permission ofEnterprise Management Associates, Inc. All opinions and estimates herein constitute our judgement as of this date and are subject to change withoutnotice. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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ITIL Change Management Revised Final