Applying Lean Principles to ITIL Event Management Process

“ © 2008 Infosys Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright in the whole and any part of this document belongs to Infosys Technologies Ltd to the Applying LEAN ITIL V3 Event Management Process itSMF UK Conference 2008 – Driving Real Value Rohit Nand I Subbarao Chaganty

Agenda 1 ITIL V3 Event Management & Lean Principles 1 1 Event Management Process & Business Case 2 1 Approach for Waste Reduction 3 1 Waste Reduction Scope and Benefits 4 1 Summary & Other Opportunities within IT Service Management 5

Event Management gets its due with ITIL V3

I monitor my servers. What else do I need to do?

Isn’t this a part of the Incident Management process?

I support and manage Applications. Does this still concern me?

Whose ownership and responsibility is it?

Where can I find best practice guidance on Event Management?

Event Management is the backbone of IT Service Management playing a significant role in Service Operations and Assurance

Impact of proactive event monitoring and management on IT stability

Key enabler for proactive Service Desks

Improve efficiency through Automation

Questions before ITIL V3 Outcome Areas

LEAN originated with the Manufacturing industry but its principles are now being successfully applied to Services The complete elimination of waste so all activities create value for the customer Our initiative focused on elimination of waste in Event Management to reduce manual efforts by ~ 44%

We mapped the Lean Principles of Waste Reduction to Event Management to achieve optimization… 3. Waste due to Waiting Time 4. Transportation Waste 6. Waste from Over-Production 7. Waste due to Product Defects Mapping the redundancies and duplication existing in the current Event Monitoring and Alert scenarios As-Is To-Be Building an optimized Event Management system 1. Inventory Waste 2. Processing Waste 5. Waste of Motion

The Event Management process in question mainly depended on pre-configured Alerts which needed to be responded to and resolved …

Alert volumes and over crowded monitors are distracting for the analysts and challenge the analysts focus

Risk of missing a critical alert while dealing with such a huge number of alerts

Cleanup the monitoring system and ensure only genuine alerts

    Hot Spots for Waste Reduction   XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX

Case study – Business Case & Drivers

A focused initiative was kicked off to analyze the alerts and reconfigure and cleanup to ensure following outcomes:

Reduce cost of monitoring activities

Optimize Service Desk monitoring

Ensure accurate priority classification

Automate manual activities

Improve team moral

Service Desk operations involved significant efforts towards monitoring alerts triggered by specific application related events:

Batch jobs

Log files for key words

System and database space

Key business processes

File arrivals

Non-value adding monitoring efforts

Probability of missing critical alerts

Crowded alert interface

Reduced monitoring efforts

Ability to detect & address critical alerts

Cleaner alert interface

We applied waste reduction practices from LEAN on Event Management to improve efficiency and reduce costs

A data collection drive followed by intensive analysis and validation with the application support groups strengthened the business case… The Solution enables the Service Desk to continually remove alerts they believe to be redundant & aid in further optimization of the process Analysis Business Case Implementation

Establish 2 week baseline period

Collect/download alert reports

Categorize alerts into waste and identify resolutions

Validate redundancies with application groups

Develop the business case (Effort/$aving$)

Determine implementation requirements

Identify risks and mitigation

Seek agreement and go-ahead from Leadership

Setup implementation team

Recalibrate the baselines 2 weeks ( retrofit changes)

Implement identified resolution

Validate the reduction goals for each category

1. Analysis report 2. Waste categories 3. Business Case 4. Implementation plan 5. Recalibrated baselines 6. Realized benefits Key Activities Deliverables Phase

Inventory Waste – 32% of alerts warranted “No Remediation Action” Significant number of alerts configured to prompt manual activities like releasing space , kicking off processes and/or jobs manually Automation of manual activities significantly reduced this waste. Alerts should be configured to trigger specific ACTION Notification or informational alerts Prioritization & classification of alerts (Informational, Minor, Major & Critical) Alerts as triggers for manual processes Automate manual tasks to alert on exception only Revisit prioritization and clearing of informational alerts

Processing Waste – 24% of alerts were “Redundant” in nature !! Alerts for same or related events , e.g. Both Parent and Child jobs triggering alerts within embedded batch job scenarios. Redundancies identified and eliminated such that ONLY meaningful alerts appear in the system Redundant alerts for embedded jobs Different monitoring systems creating duplicate alerts Lack of co-relation between related events Co-relate alerts and remove duplicates Identify relation patterns within events and alerts

Waste due to Waiting Time – 13% of alerts were performing “Reminder Service” Alerts that are prime candidates for automation – move from a “ Reminder Service ” mode to “ Alert on Exception only ” mode Empower Service Desks; Move towards “Exception Based Alerting” Lack of Service Desk empowerment Log file alerts & file arrival alerts Reminder service alerts for manual jobs Eliminate manual task reminder alerts Automate manual tasks and configure exception alerts

Few other categories of Alert wastes were identified and marked for either reconfiguration or decommissioning 13% of the total alerts eliminated belonged to this category. Periodic review of Alerts is a critical activity to maintain optimum alert levels

Alerts created by new or changed functionality

Missing alerts for key changes

Lack of release management & coordination

Duplicate alerts due to incorrect configuration

Alerts configured for scheduled downtime

Misfired alerts – sent to wrong teams / configured to wrong teams

Lack of proper training or event handling procedures

Orphan alerts – no clear resolution defined

Lack of clear event handling procedures

Crowded alert radars – capturing insignificant events and alerts

By addressing the waste types to remove redundancies and duplication – we were able to achieve effort reduction by 44% (~USD 600,000) Event Mgmt Efforts reduced by 44% Some practical considerations Develop Ability to detect redundant alerts for analysts Build and maintain a continuous improvement program Identify opportunities for automation and integration Consider breaking up vertically aligned support and moving towards a shared services model

Potential areas within IT Service Management where LEAN based Waste Reduction can be applied to considerably optimize VALUE            Service Transition Change Management Configuration Management Transition Planning Knowledge Management Testing & Validation Release & Deployment Mgmt Service Operations Event Management Incident Management Problem Management Access Management Request Fulfillment Service Design Service Catalog Management Capacity Management Availability Management Service Continuity Mgmt Security Management Supplier Management Continual Service Improvement Service Measurement Service Reporting 7 Step Improvement Process Service Portfolio Financial Management Service Strategy Demand Management

Lessons from Economics and Psychology in managing the “Change” … Look within the organization for Positive Variance Build Partnerships Measure and Communicate Success Self-funding of Continuous Improvement initiatives Assign Ownership Design Incentives

Thank you “ The contents of this document are proprietary and confidential to Infosys Technologies Ltd. and may not be disclosed in whole or in part at any time, to any third party without the prior written consent of Infosys Technologies Ltd.” “ © 2008 Infosys Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright in the whole and any part of this document belongs to Infosys Technologies Ltd. This work may not be used, sold, transferred, adapted, abridged, copied or reproduced in whole or in part, in any manner or form, or in any media, without the prior written consent of Infosys Technologies Ltd.”