Register your product to gain access to bonus material or receive a coupon.
This eBook includes the following formats, accessible from your Account page after purchase:
EPUB The open industry format known for its reflowable content and usability on supported mobile devices.
PDF The popular standard, used most often with the free Acrobat® Reader® software.
This eBook requires no passwords or activation to read. We customize your eBook by discreetly watermarking it with your name, making it uniquely yours.
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
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