The Plan and Optimize Phase of the IT Service Lifecycle

Picking up from the last posting where I detailed our overall approach to the IT Service Lifecycle and briefly discussed the purposes of each of the four phases, today I wanted to drill into a bit more detail into the Plan and Optimize (P&O) phase. And while names have changed since I originally talked about this phase, then called IT Business Planning, the general purpose and goals of the phase have been in a state of natural evolution since.

As we think about P&O phase, it's important to think about what the business needs from IT in order to be successful. Generally speaking, IT must provide services that are compelling, valuable, predictable, reliable, compliant, adaptable, and cost-effective. And for IT to successfully meet those varied goals requires a great deal of careful planning, tight alignment to business objectives, and the optimization of limited resources to deliver on the overall IT strategy.

Plan & Optimize

Plan and Optimize Graphic

 

Goal of Plan and Optimize Phase

The goal of the MOF plan and optimize phase is to provide guidance to IT groups on how to continually plan for and optimize the IT service strategy to insure the delivered services have the following attributes and outcomes.

  • Services are valuable and compelling
  • Services are predictable and reliable
  • Services are compliant
  • Services are cost-effective
  • Services can adapt to the changing needs of the business

To effectively plan and optimize an IT strategy, MOF incorporates service management functions, SMFs, that define the processes and activities required to continually improve and align IT services to the business. Although each SMF can be thought of as a set of stand-alone processes, it is important to examine the SMFs in context of the larger lifecycle phase to insure service delivery is complete and at the right quality and cost level.

Business Alignment SMF

The Business Alignment SMF ensures an organization’s IT offerings and performance align to the business goals and objectives. The Business Alignment SMF incorporates the following processes:

  • Business Relationship Management
  • Portfolio Management
  • Demand Management
  • Service Level Management

These processes provide the business a predictable method for surfacing new requirements as well as understanding what future offerings are planned, what is currently being delivered, and the current performance of IT services.

Reliability SMF

The Reliability SMF ensures an IT service or system is dependable, requires minimal maintenance, will perform without interruption, and allows users to quickly access the resources they need. The Reliability SMF incorporates the following processes:

  • Availability Management
  • Capacity Management
  • Service Continuity Management

While these characteristics are necessary for ongoing day-to-day operations, they become even more important during times of rapid business change and growth and during unexpected events.

As for Policy Management and Finance Management, we're still working out the details on those two but I will fill in the blanks as soon as I can. Tomorrow, look for a post on the Operations and Support Phase, as I move about the circle in reverse.

Please do continue to provide your feedback to the team, either through e-mail or via comments below. We are still in the writing phase (as Policy and Finance can attest) and we're anxious to hear your opinions and best-practices.

Jason Osborne

Frameworks PM