04 Operations Flashcards
1
Q
Why IIS Operations are considered to be critical?
A
- Business in the Information Age is dependent on smooth IIS Operations.
- Corporate information and communication is essential to organizations in the digital and information age.
- A smoothly running IIS is valuable and critical to survive for these companies.
2
Q
What is Operations Management (in general)?
and what is IIS Operations Management?
A
- Business Operations Management is in charge of enabling and supervising the production and distribution of products and services.
- Layout and maintenance of the production facilities and processes
- Controlling the production and service delivery processes (purchasing, inventory, production and scheduling, quality, storage, logistics…)
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IIS Operations Management is directly responsible for rendering IT services to the business. Concerned with:
- Planning, organizing and directing activites required for running IIS (smooth delivery of IT services)
- Controlling daily activites to run the IIS, eliminating service breakdowns and reduce outages durations.
3
Q
What is the difference between IIS Operations Management and Strategic IM (IS Strategy)?
A
- IS Strategy sets the direction for the development of the IIS through projects.
- Strategy implementation results in an aspired IIS.
- IIS Operations is then concerned with the continous delivery of IT services from the IIS.
Exemplary operational tasks (IIS Operations) in:
- IRM (Information Resources Mgmt.) examples: administration of document archives, categorising, editing and indexing information…
- ASM (Applications Systems Mgmt.) examples: maintenance of applications, license administration, versioning, support for users in applications…
- TIM (Technical Infrastructure Mgmt.) examples: hardware configuration, HW an network monitoring, system software upgrading/versioning, backup procedures…
4
Q
Describe the (6) main IIS Operation Tasks categories and provide examples from each of them:
A
Main IIS Operation Tasks:
Engineering, Maintenance, Monitoring, Administrative, User-related, Security & Compliance.
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Engineering Tasks:
- Facilities service engineering: physical facilities, adminission control, backups, energy supply.
- Hardware deployment: evaluate, acquire, install hardware, communication and peripheral devices.
- Software deployment: evaluate, acquire, configure, install all types of software (system, universal, standard..)
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Maintenance Tasks:
- Machine care: cleaning, mending, exchange reparation of machines (tapes, disks..)
- Hardware maintenance: deal with failure, changes, updates of components, roll-out steps for hardware related to the IIS.
- Software maintenance: test and deploy software updates and patches, bug fixing, further development of applications.
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Monitoring Tasks:
- Monitoring IT service levels: availability and quality of services delivered. Prevent/react on service breaches.
- IIS monitoring: critical infrastructure components (network, servers, applications) and its availability, services provided and counter breakdowns.
- Capacity control: capacity of the infrastructure to deliver IT services needed, balancing service delivery with capacity requirements.
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Administrative Tasks:
- IT purchasing: procuring HW, SW, Information Resources, warranty claims.
- Inventory book keeping: account and document components deployed in the IIS.
- Stock-keeping: spare parts for incidental and critical IT components (toner, CDs..)
- License monitoring: software usage and cross-checking available licenses.
- Document IT service quality: document service delivery and fulfillments of service levels and service breaches.
- Charging for IT service delivery: measure provision of IT services and invoice it.
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User-related Tasks:
- User administration: user accounts and rights, policies, IT permissions, tracking of credentials usage, deletion of users.
- User helpdesk: user assitance and support in using the IIS (guidance, instructing..)
- N-level support: scalated user care for breakdowns and other technical problems.
- User consulting: user assistance for specific and individual non-common problems.
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Security & Compliance Tasks:
- Data protection and security: protection of personal data again misuse, theft, manipulation..
- Technical protection: protection against unauthorised access, intentional damage…
- Disaster prevention: planning for the recovery from total breakdown by defining safeguards (backups) and recovery routines (backup restoring procedures)
- Systems auditing: formal assessment of AS and TI regarding legal compliance, corporate and industry standards.
- Process auditing: formal assessment of the IIS operation processes and procedures (cost effectiveness and compliance with corporate/industry standards).
5
Q
Describe some of the (14) main issues & challenges in Managing IIS Operations:
A
Main issues & challenges in Managing IIS Operations:
- “Factory design”: shaping environments to host the IIS (buildings, data centres, layouts..)
- “Capacity planning”: plan future network, processing power, storage needs..
- “Plan production technology”: end-of-life technology, decisions of renewal and upgrades..
- “Production planning and control”: smooth daily IIS operations on client level, QoS..
- “Quality management”: organise and quick diagnose IT issues that impede delivery..
- “Risk management”: plan and control risks, provisions against disasters, malfunction, breakdown..
- “Bookeeping”: set up a bokkeeping system for IIS Operations/service delivery
- “Cost accounting, planing, budgeting”: cost of IT services calculation, internal transfer prices, forecast costs of IIS opeerations.
- “Personnel management”: planning operations personnel needed (quantity, quality)..
- “Sales”: negotiate the SLAs at the customer level.
- “In-house production department”: decide what to develop in-house and what to outsource.
- “Supplier management”: observe the market to select external HW, SW and service providers, interaction and coordination with them.
- “Contracting”: negotiate technical IT service contracts with external suppliers (SLAs, prices, amounts, discounts..)
- “Compliance”: assess and ensure that systems and processes comply with legal regulations.
6
Q
Describe the Origins of IT Service Management:
(also define ITSM):
A
- ITSM (IT Service Management) has its roots in the development and publication of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) by the British Office of Government Comemrce (OGC). Current version is 2011.
- ITIL proposes one paradigm for managing IT, it has its starting point from IIS Operations and centres on the concept of IT services provided to the business:
- Providers of IT services have to consider the quality of services provided and focus on the relationship with customers.
- ITSM is introspective: thinking of the delivery of IT to the business.
7
Q
What is a Service and what is an IT Service?
A
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Service: an immaterial good that is produced for another party involving an external factor.
- ITIL: a means of delivering value to customers, by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve but without the ownership of specific costs and risks.
- ITIL Standard definition: and IT Service is based on the use of Information Technology and supports the Customer’s Business Processes. An IT Service is made up from a combination of people, proceses and technology and should be defined in a SLA.
8
Q
From the general service theory, what are the 3 dimensions of services?
A
Three dimensions of services:
- Potential dimension: service providers hold certain production factors (HR, production res., information -> potential factors) to be able to offer a service on demand for customers.
- Process dimension: the service provider interacts with the customer to combine the potential factors with the customer input (-> external factor).
- Result dimension: as a result of the combination of both previous factors, value is generated for the customer usually by transforming the external factor into an outcome that generates value for such customer.
9
Q
In ITSM, what are the (6) key characteristics of IT Services:
A
In ITSM, IT Services:
Intangible, Value for customers, Means of an IT-based infrastructure, Produced in an industrial fashion, Mass-customizable, Provided care-free
- Are Intangible
- Services are bundles of activites done by a service provider that process an external factor (business process object) using internal production factors.
- Generate value for customers
- Value in the form of shorter processing times, raising the quality of the process outcome, costs reductions, higher customer satisfaction.
- Provided by means of an IT-based infrastructure
- IT services are produced through IT potential factors.
- Are produced in an industrial fashion
- Standardized, automated and specialized to the reduce costs and increase speed, quality of products.
- Are mass-customizable
- Combines standardized pre-fabrication and individualized assembly by means of modularization. IT services as end-products composed of modules (standardized and reausable components).
- Are provided care-free to the customer
- Customers are not bothered with technical complexity and production details. A customer pays a service fee for this care-free usage. Calculation of service fees per month per user as an example.
10
Q
List the hierarchy of IT SLAs:
A
- IT Service Level Agreement
- IT Service Specification
- IT Service Levels and Service Level Targets
11
Q
Elaborate on the IT Service levels and Service level targets (layer):
A
- Service levels specify the quality of IT services (minimum quality values to be achieved):
- Quality characteristics can refer to the 3 dimensions of an IT service:
- Potential dimension: rarely addressed, important to assure to the client compliance with standards and legal requirements by the provider.
- Process dimension: relevant on the interaction between provider-customer, standards during interaction.
- Results dimension: the main focus of defining service levels.
12
Q
Contrast one example from the following service levels types:
Result-oriented
Process-oriented
Potential-oriented
A
-
Potential-oriented:
- Resource qualities (skills of employees, quality of HW/SW)
- Certifications of the service provider
- Capacity used (employees, bandwith)
-
Process-oriented:
- Frequency (of activities performed)
- Support response time (from 1st and 2nd, n… level support)
- Process compliance (legal, ethical, professional standards used)
-
Result-oriented:
- On-call time (hours of service)
- Availability (how long/often a service is available in relation to a time measure: 98% per month, mean time between failures > 10 days)
- Response time (time to respond to a specific action)
- Recovery time (time to recover after a breakdown)
13
Q
Elaborate on the IT Service Specification (layer):
A
IT Service Specification:
- Specification refers to the function of the service.
- Provides a criterion to assess for correctness and malfunction.
- Refers to the “what”? The delivered functionality.
- IT Service Specification Template:
- Service Header: service designation, short description, targeted user roles
- Service Value and functionality: value provided, business activities/processes supported, functionality (basic functions)
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Service Levels and targets:
- Potential-oriented service levels: availability of 99,8% per year
- Process-oriented s. levels: follows BSI guidelines for data protection
- Result-oriented s. levels: storage data encrypted with AES-128.
- Service Delivery: access point, provisioning time, service unit (to measure consumption and billing the service).
14
Q
Elaborate on the IT Service Level Agreement (layer) and its contents:
A
- A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract that governs the relationship between the client of an IT service and the service provider.
- The SLA describes the IT Service, documents Service level targets and specifies the responsibilities of the IT Service Provider and the customer.
- A single SLA may cover multiple IT services or multiple customers.
-
Contents:
- Who and when? (Parties in the agreement, duration, termination)
- What? (Service Specification) (Service purpose and subject, Scope limitations, Service levels & level targets)
- Payment commitments (pricing mechanism, billing and terms of payment, penalties for non-performance impacts)
- Service monitoring (service levels indicators and measurement, service monitoring mechanisms, escalation procedures, reporting, security and auditing procedures)
- Communication and co-operation (supplier roles and contact persons, customer roles and responsibilities, co-operation procedures)
- Legal issues (property, confidentiality, warranty, contract review and adaptations, termination in ordinary and extraordinary terms).
15
Q
Describe the (3) major managerial decisions involved in Organizing for IT Service Delivery:
A
Major managerial decisions involved:
- Define the Depths of Value Added
- Levels of detail of links to suppliers, customers and users (negotiation, contraction, provide, monitor, charge, payment, support/requests) within the external and internal markets.
- Set-up and IT Service Delivery Organization (hierarchical organization)
- Setting up organizational functions: teams or groups of people and the tools/resources used to carry out processes or activities.
- Functions that operate-maintain the infrastructure or those interacting with customers.
- Define IT Service Processes (process organization)
- User support, Incident processing, Ticket processing, Change processing.
16
Q
Briefly list and describe the (5) volumes from the ITIL Framework:
A
- Service Strategy (guidande on how to design, develop and implement service management as an organizational capability and as a strategic asset).
- Service Design (guidance for the design and development of services and service management processes).
- Service Transition (guidance for the development and improvement capabilities for transitioning new and changed services into operations).
- Service Operation (practices in the management of service operations. Includes guidance on achieving effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery and support of services so as to ensure value for the customer and the service provider).
- Continual Service Improvement (guidance in creating and maintaining value for customers through better design, introduction and operation services. Quality management, Change management and capability improvement).
