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Application Management Lifecycle

From an operational perspective, we are primarily interested in the overall management of applications as part of IT services.  These can be developed in-house or purchased off the self from third party developers. Because of our operational point of view, and the focus on ensuring these services/applications are delivered with both utility and warranty, we look at their support from a more holistic approach and use what is referred to as the “Application Management Lifecycle”. It sequences through six stages or steps which are: Requirements, Design, Build, Deploy, Operate and Optimize.  Requirements: Requirements for new applications are garnered, based on business/customer needs and takes place primarily during services design.  There are six types of requirements for any application Functional requirements Manageability requirements Usability requirements Architectural requirements Interface requirements Service Level requirements Design:   At this point the requ

Application Cost Models

The Professor was recently asked about Application Cost models.  While ITIL does not speak specifically about “Application Cost Models,” there is information about how to create a service cost model using ITIL’s Financial Management process.  From ITIL’s perspective, an application is one part of an end-to-end service. Developing a cost model involves: Identifying all costs attributed to the service (hardware, software, salaries, accommodations, external services, transfer costs (e.g., from other internal units) Determining which costs can be directly tied to the service Deciding how to fairly apportion indirect costs (e.g., infrastructure, technical staff time) Adjusting the total to allow for unabsorbed overhead costs (e.g., administrative or managerial salaries, building/accommodation costs such as a data center or IT office space) A spread sheet can be used to break each cost down into a unit cost.  Overall cost for the application (or service) can then be calculated based

Application Management Lifecycle

In a previous Blog I spoke to Application Management from the point of view that they do not actually develop the application but manage it throughout its entire lifecycle. This is done through the Application Management Lifecycle along with Operational Models. Operational Models are the specifications of the operational environment in which the application will run after it has been deployed. This model is used to simulate and evaluate the live environment during the Design and Transition stages. It also ensures that proper environmental requirements and sizing can be documented and understood by all groups or teams involved with application development and management. Many of you are familiar with “Software Lifecycle (SLC) and “Software Development Lifecycle” (SDLC). These are use by application development and project teams to manage the designing, building, testing, deployment and support of applications. From an ITIL perspective the Application Management Lifecycle looks at the

Application Management

When I teach ITIL V3 Foundation classes I often have to make the distinction between Application Management which is one of the “Service Operation Functions” and Application Development. I often begin my discussion by explaining that Application Development is responsible for the actual development and building of applications by the developers. Application Management is responsible for managing applications throughout their lifecycle and is performed by any department, group or team that is involved in managing and supporting operational applications. Additionally the function also plays a role in the design, testing and improvement of applications that form part of IT services. Application Management plays a key role in all applications whether purchased from a third party manufacturer or developed by in-house staff. During the design stage of the ITIL Lifecycle one of the key decisions made by Application Development is whether to buy or build. After that decision is made Applic