ITIL Capacity Management

Product Author Bios

Larry Klosterboer is a certified IT architect specializing in systems management. He works for IBM’s Technology Integration Management Center in Austin, Texas. Klosterboer has 20 years of experience in service delivery, spanning systems from mainframe to midrange to desktop. His areas of focus have included network design, UNIX® systems administration, asset management and, most recently, service management implementation. He has designed and implemented ITIL aligned solutions for some of IBM’s largest customers. Klosterboer’s highly praised IBM Press books include Implementing ITIL Configuration Management and ITIL Change and Release Management.

The Business-Focused, Best-Practice Guide to Succeeding with ITIL Capacity Management

Using ITIL® capacity management processes, IT organizations can eliminate waste and overbuying, reduce both equipment and staffing costs, drive more value from existing investments, and consistently provide the right resources to meet the needs of the business. Now, in this comprehensive, best-practice guide, leading ITIL expert Larry Klosterboer systematically explains how to manage capacity using the ITIL framework and techniques.

Drawing on his extensive ITIL experience, Klosterboer covers all facets of ITIL-based capacity management, and offers proven solutions to the challenges IT organizations encounter in implementation. He presents expert guidance on accurately projecting demand and growth, planning and staffing, tool selection, process implementation, and much more.

This book’s practical insights will be invaluable to every IT leader who wants to leverage ITIL’s best practices for capacity management, and for every business and technical manager who wants IT to deliver greater value, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Coverage includes

• Making the business case for capacity management
• Establishing specific goals for capacity management
• Mastering ITIL capacity management terminology
• Predicting capacity in dynamic, fast-changing organizations
• Implementing systems that help you anticipate trends
• Defining capacity plans, staffing capacity management teams, and implementing ongoing processes
• Linking capacity with performance management and with other ITIL processes
• Selecting the right capacity management tools for your environment
• Integrating capacity issues into your IT project management discipline
• Using “business capacity planning” to help the entire business become more agile

Related Article

The Road to Effective Capacity Management

Online Sample Chapter

ITIL Capacity Management: Define and Manage Capacity Plans

Table of Contents

Preface     xxi

Acknowledgments     xxv

About the Author    xxvii

Part I Concepts in Managing Capacity     1

Chapter 1 Introduction to Capacity Management    3

The ITIL Life Cycle     4

     The Overall Library     4

     The Service Management Life Cycle     4

The Purpose and Goals of Capacity Management     6

     The Major Purpose    6

     Other Purposes     7

     General Goals for Capacity Management    7

     Defining Specific Goals for Your Organization     8

Interfaces to and Dependencies on Other ITIL Processes     8

     Capacity Management and Service Continuity     9

     Capacity Management and Configuration Management     9

     Capacity Management and Release Management     9

     Other Interfaces     9

The Business Case for Capacity Management     10

     Cost Avoidance     10

     Business Agility     11

     A Great Start for Financial Management     11

Important Risks to Consider     12

     Missing Business Capacity Data    12

     Inconsistent Component Capacity Data     12

     Lack of Analysis Skill and Tools     13

Summary and Next Steps     14

Chapter 2 The Geography of Managing Capacity    15

Capacity Pools and Component Capacity Management    15

     Defining Capacity Pools    16

     Boundaries of Capacity Pools     16

     Granularity of Capacity Pools    17

     Managing Capacity Pools     19

Capacity Streams and Service Capacity Management     19

     Defining Capacity Streams     19

     Confluences and Shared Capacity     20

     The Value of Capacity Streams    21

     Managing Capacity Streams     22

How Virtualization Affects Capacity Management    22

     Virtualization Creates Subpools     23

     Managing Virtual Capacity Pools    23

     Sharing Virtual Resource Pools Between Streams    24

     Over-Subscription and Risks of Virtualization     24

Summary and Next Steps     25

Chapter 3 Understanding Capacity Demand     27

Trend-Based Forecasts     27

     Component-Based Trends    27

     Service-Based Trends     29

     Business-Based Trends     29

Portfolio-Based Forecasts    30

     Business-Driven or “Top Down” Portfolio     30

     IT-Driven Portfolio     31

     Innovation-Driven Portfolio     32

Business Event Forecasts    32

The Blended Capacity Forecast     33

Using the Forecast for Cost Management     35

     Cost Avoidance Through Increased Utilization     35

     Cost Reduction Through Decommissioning and Recovery     35

     Projecting and Tracking Cost Avoidance and Cost Reduction    36

Summary and Next Steps     36

Chapter 4 Dimensions of Capacity Growth     39

Grow the Base     39

     Growth by Demand    40

     Growth by Refresh     40

Grow the Business    42

     Project-Based Growth     42

     Service-Based Growth     45

Summary and Next Steps    45

Part II Best Practices in Capacity Management     47

Chapter 5 Establish the Capacity Management Information System    49

Purpose of the Capacity Management Information System    49

     Repository of Capacity Information     49

     Interface to Integrated Service Management     50

     Reporting and Decision Making     52

Contents of the Capacity Management Information System     52

     Utilization Data     52

     Capacity Data     54

     Capacity Plans     56

First Steps to Implementation     57

     Define Requirements     57

     Select Tools     58

     Gather Data     58

     Implement Processes     59

     Train Staff     59

Using the Capacity Management Information System     60

     Forecasting Capacity Needs    60

     Making Capacity Decisions     60

     Integrating Service Management     60

Summary and Next Steps     61

Chapter 6 Define and Manage Capacity Plans     63

Scope of a Capacity Plan     63

     Service Capacity Plans     63

     Component Capacity Plans     64

     How Many Plans?     65

Format of a Capacity Plan     66

     The Essential Elements     66

     The Right Level of Detail     69

Maintaining Capacity Plans    69

     Periodic Reviews     70

     Coping with Major Changes     71

Storing Capacity Plans     72

     Format of the Plans     72

     Maintaining Version Control     73

Summary and Next Steps     74

Chapter 7 Staff the Capacity Management Team     75

Implementation Roles    75

     Capacity Process Owner    76

     Capacity Management Information System Designer     77

     Process Engineer    78

     Project Manager     79

Operational Roles     81

     Capacity Service Owner     81

     Capacity Analyst    82

     Capacity Data Manager     83

     Capacity Planner     85

A Word About Skills    86

     Skills, Roles, and Staffing    86

     Developing Capacity Management Skills     87

     Skill Maturity and Team Composition     87

Summary and Next Steps 88

Chapter 8 Implement the Capacity Management Process     89

The High-Level Process     89

     The ITIL Process     90

     Adopting and Configuring a Process     91

     Attributes of a Good High-Level Process     93

Defining and Documenting Capacity Policies    94

     Capacity Monitoring Policies     95

     Capacity Acquisition Policies     96

     Policy for Capacity Incidents and Changes     97

     Policy for Capacity Planning on New Projects    98

Creating Capacity Procedures     98

     Process Steps Create Procedures    98

     Procedures for Capacity Reviews     99

     Procedures for Improving Capacity     100

     Procedures for Capacity Planning     100

Managing Capacity Process Assets     101

     Document Format and Storage    101

     Reviews and Process Approvals     102

     Making Updates and Tracking Revisions     103

Summary and Next Steps     103

Chapter 9 Relate Capacity and Performance    105

Performance Is Capacity in a Moment     105

     Definition of Performance Management    106

     Time Scale for Performance Testing     106

     Performance Management in the Capacity Management Process    107

Expand Capacity to Improve Performance     109

     Techniques to Measure Performance     109

     Techniques to Improve Performance    110

     Diagnosing Performance Problems    111

Understanding Peaks and Valleys    113

     Creating a Performance Profile     114

     Measuring Performance Trends     116

     Integrating Performance into the Capacity Plan     116

Virtualization’s Impact on Performance     117

     How Hypervisors Improve Performance    117

     How Virtualization Automates Performance Management    117

Summary and Next Steps     118

Chapter 10 Choose Capacity Management Tools     119

Tools to Track Component Capacity    119

     Specific Requirements in This Class     120

     Available Tools     121

     Specialized Tools Approach     122

     Generalized Tools Approach    123

Tools to View Service Capacity    123

     Specific Requirements in This Class    124

     Available Tools     124

     Build or Buy     125

Performance Management Tools     125

     Specific Requirements in This Class    126

     Available Tools     127

Tools for a Capacity Management Information System     128

     Specific Requirements in This Class     128

     Available Tools    129

How to Choose the Best Tools     129

Summary and Next Steps    131

Chapter 11 Produce Capacity Reports     133

Capacity Reports     133

     Component Exception Reports     134

     Component Trending Reports    135

     Service Trending Reports     136

Capacity Management Reports and Process Metrics     138

     Measuring Capacity Trend Accuracy     138

     Tracking Capacity-Related Incidents     139

     Evaluating the Completeness of Capacity Plans     140

Summary and Next Steps     141

Part III Common Issues in Capacity Management     143

Chapter 12 Business Capacity Planning     145

The Scope of Business Capacity Planning     145

     Defining Business Capacity     146

     How to Measure Business Capacity Utilization     147

     Predicting Business Capacity Needs     149

The Challenge of Planning Business Capacity    150

     Effort Versus Benefit     150

     Getting Agreement on Measurements    151

     The Place of Business Capacity Planning in Business Strategy     152

Integrating Business Capacity Planning with IT Capacity Planning    153

     The Business Component Hierarchy    153

     The Line Between IT Services and Business Processes     154

     Integrated Utilization     155

     Integrated Capacity Plans     155

Managing IT Capacity without Business Capacity Information    155

Summary and Next Steps     156

Chapter 13 Smoothing the Order Cycle     157

Establishing Capacity Buffers and Reorder Levels    157

     Determining Capacity Buffers     157

     Establishing Reorder Levels    158

     First Guesses and Fine-Tuning     159

Factors Affecting Reorder Levels    159

     Deployment Time     160

     Process Maturity     160

     Vendor Packaging     160

     Virtualization Standards     161

     Cost-Containment Efforts    162

Ordering the Right Amount     163

     Ordering Individual Units    163

     Ordering Hardware for Virtualization     163

     Volume Ordering    165

     Finding the Right Balance     165

Reclaiming Capacity Instead of Reordering     166

     How Reclaimed Capacity Affects Capacity Demand     166

     How Reuse Affects Reorder Levels    166

     Creative Ways to Reuse Capacity    167

Summary and Next Steps     167

Chapter 14 Capacity Management in a Project Context     169

Capacity Plans as Project Deliverables     169

     Adding Capacity Requirements in Project Definition    170

     Considering Capacity and Performance in the System Architecture     171

     Defining and Executing Capacity Test Cases     172

Building the Capacity Plan at Project Time    173

     Testing and Estimating Capacity Utilization     173

     Architecting for Capacity Growth     174

     Engaging Capacity Management in the Project     175

Turning the Capacity Plan Over to Operations    177

     When Capacity Management Has Been Engaged    177

     When Capacity Management Was Not Engaged     178

     Essentials of Operational Turnover     179

Summary and Next Steps    179

Chapter 15 Integrating Capacity Planning with IT Processes     181

Integrating with Availability Management     181

     Process Linkage     182

     Data Linkage    183

     Benefits of Integration    183

Integrating with Configuration Management     183

     Process Linkage     184

     Data Linkage     184

     Benefits of Integration    185

Integrating with Change Management     185

     Process Linkage     186

     Data Linkage    187

     Benefits of Integration     187

Integrating with Incident Management     187

     Process Linkage    188

     Data Linkage     188

     Benefits of Integration    189

Integrating with Service Continuity Management     190

     Process Linkage     190

     Data Linkage    191

     Benefits of Integration     192

Integrating with Release and Deployment Management     192

     Process Linkage     192

     Benefits of Integration     193

Chapter Summary     193

Index    195

Sample Pages

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