Business Centric Log
Management (BCLM™):
Systems Thinking
Gerard Ibarra, PhD

Overview
This is part two of a three part series
describing the fundamentals of the Business
Centric Log Management methodology
For an overview of the process, please see
Business Centric Log Management:
Understand what to Log
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Recap of BCLM
The BCLM methodology is a process that is a
that identifies events that are critical to the
systems based on the business
It focuses on doing what is right for the
company
It steers away from looking at an individual
service or department and look at them
collectively instead
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Business Centric Log Management
Methodology
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What is Systems Thinking
In order to think in terms of a system, it is
important to first know what a system is
 “A system is an assemblage or combination of
elements or parts forming a complex or unitary
whole;…” (Blanchard, B. S., and Fabrycky, W. J.,
Systems and Engineering and Analysis (2nd ed.).
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1990)
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What is Systems Thinking
An example of a system could be any of the
following
Vehicle

Computer

Bicycle

Traffic Street Light

Airplane

Road (e.g., land, cement, stripes, markers, and

lane separators – this is more of a static system)
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What is Systems Thinking
Systems could also be part of a larger and
more complex system
 For example, a transportation system is made up
of roads, vehicles, and traffic street lights where
roads are the means of connecting two points,
vehicles are the means of moving people and
things from the points, and traffic street lights are
the means of efficiently and safely getting people
and things between the points
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What is Systems Thinking
In the above example, any of the systems, can
affect the efficiency of the overall system
 Large road repairs causes traffic detours – the
shortest path from origin to destination is void
 Excessive vehicles on the road causes congestion –
motorist must slow down and adjust their driving
 Broken traffic lights causes delays – motorist must
conform to using the traffic signal as a stop sign
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What is Systems Thinking
When thinking in terms of a system, it is thus
important to understand the affects that its
subsystems may have on the overall system
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Terms and Definitions
In this presentation, system refers to all the
servers, services, and applications working
together as one for a common purpose
System
Applications
Services
Servers
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Terms and Definitions
Example of a system as referred to in this
presentation
*
*Each application resides in its respective server based on the service – for example, the
Billing Application resides in the Billing Servr01 and Billing Server02 in the Billing Service
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Understanding the System
Now that there is a understanding of what a
system is, it is time to determine what the
company calls its system
 Is it all the services of the company acting
together to produce the service of the company
 Is it selected services that make up a system
where this system plays a niche in the company’s
business and strategy
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Understanding the System
 Is it various services that act as multiple sub-
systems, and those subsystems work together to
make up the system
System
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Understanding the System
After defining the system, map the services to
the system by showing how they relate to
each other and the system
For example:
 If Service A fails,
Does the system fail
•
Does part of the services fail
•
Does it degrade system
•
Does some of the services degrade
•
Does anything occur
•
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Understanding the System
 Is Service A dependent on Service B
 Can Service A dependent on B, but B not on A
 How much of an affect does Service A and B
together have on the system – is it more or about
the same than if they were to fail separately
 Is it possible that if Service A and B were to fail or
degrade together, that it would have less of an
impact on the system than if they were to fail or
degrade separately
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Understanding the System
The previous were examples of mapping the
services to the system
There are 2n-1 combinations, where n is the
number of services
 For example, the sample space for Service A, B,
and C, defined by S= {A, B, C}, has 7 combinations:
2n-1 = 23-1 = 8-1 = 7
• S = (A) S = (AB) S=(AC) S = (ABC)
• S = (B) S = (BC) S=(C)
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Understanding the System
Note that it is also important to determine the
independencies of each service which
increases the number of permutations
 For example,
• Is Service A dependent on B
and B independent of A
• Is Service B dependent on A
and A independent of B
• Is Service A and B independent of each other
• Is Service A and B dependent of each other
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Understanding the System
Once done, map the services and system to
the business based on the events generated
by the services – it may be necessary to
generate new events to completely map the
system to the business
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Understanding the System
Once mapped, rank the services based on the
criticality to the system and business
Use only those events that have the greatest
affect the system and business to monitor
them respectively – base it on the Pareto
principle, known as the 80-20 rule (Bunkley,
N., “Joseph Juran, 103, Pioneer in Quality
Control, Dies,” New York Times, March 3,
2008)
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Benefits of System Thinking
Understand what is important to the business
based on the system
Reduce the noise (amount of events being
tracked) and concentrate on monitoring what
is essential to the business
Make better decisions on the additions or
modifications of servers, services, or
applications based on how they affect the
system and business
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Conclusion
Know what is meant by a system
Determine the system of the company
Map the services to the system
Define the criticality of the events based on
the system and business
Use the 80-20 rule to monitor only what has
the largest affect on the system and business
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Conclusion
Improve the business
based on systems
thinking
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Contact Information
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