Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20080133259A1/en
Timestamp: 2018-12-13 22:41:53
Document Index: 554157170

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 4600', 'art 4600', 'art 4600', 'art 4600', 'art 4600', 'art 4600']

US20080133259A1 - Information technology enterprise manager - Google Patents
Information technology enterprise manager Download PDF
US20080133259A1
US20080133259A1 US11939391 US93939107A US2008133259A1 US 20080133259 A1 US20080133259 A1 US 20080133259A1 US 11939391 US11939391 US 11939391 US 93939107 A US93939107 A US 93939107A US 2008133259 A1 US2008133259 A1 US 2008133259A1
US11939391
This application is a continuation of commonly assigned O'Connor et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/745,892 (Attorney Docket No. 1881.001US1), entitled “INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ENTERPRISE MANAGER,” filed Dec. 22, 2003, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
This application is also related to commonly assigned O'Connor et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/745,837 (Attorney Docket No. 1881.002US1), entitled “INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ENTERPRISE MANAGER AND PRODUCT PORTFOLIO MANAGER APPLICATION MODULE,” filed Dec. 23, 2003, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
This patent application pertains generally to enterprise management systems, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to an information technology enterprise manager.
FIG. 8 is a user interface display screenshot of an example of an Application Interfaces screen.
The present inventors have developed, among other things, a platform for supporting IT decisions. The platform includes a comprehensive knowledge base and the tools needed to exploit the knowledge base. The knowledge base has been designed to provide context to the process or IT decision making. The tools leverage the IT knowledge base to address specific IT management challenges. Moreover, the platform and tools lend themselves to implementing a set of “best practices” for managing an organization's IT needs.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating generally one example of portions of the database 108. The database 108 has been specifically designed to provide context to the process or IT decision making. For example, the database 108 includes data that is organized into data groups 200 that are particularly useful for supporting the IT decision making processes. In this example, the data groups 200 include an IT Services data group 202, an IT Resources data group 204, and an IT Consumers data group 206 (at this level of abstraction). The IT Services data group 202 includes data pertaining to various IT services provided to an organization. The IT Resources data group 204 includes data pertaining to various IT resources that are used for providing the IT services. The IT Consumers data group 206 includes data pertaining to various consumers of IT services within an organization. This organization of data is particularly valuable to IT decision making, and lends itself to providing functionality specific to IT decision making that extends beyond what a more generic enterprise management system is capable of offering.
3. IT Applications APPLICATIONS EXAMPLE
(a) An application name or identifier that identifies the software application (e.g., “Excel,” “AutoCad,” etc.).
(b) A vendor identifier that identifies one or more vendors of the software application (e.g., “Microsoft,” “Oracle,” etc.). In one example, the vendor identifier is linked to one or more vendors that are present in the IT Vendors data group 306.
(c) An application descriptor that stores descriptive information about the nature of the software application (e.g., “Word-Processing Software,” “Accounts Payable Software,” etc.).
(d) An application status indicator that provides information about the status of the software application (e.g., “Proposed,” “Pending,” “Active,” “Legacy,” “End-of-Life,” “Retired,” etc.).
(b) An application instance location identifier (e.g., “Rack 10,” “Building 6”) that identifies a physical and/or geographic location within the organization where that instance of the software application is deployed on a hardware platform.
FIG. 10 is a user interface display screenshot of an example of an Application Interface Instance Details screen 1000, including information about a particular deployment of a software application interface, such as on a particular hardware asset. In one example, the user can navigate to the Application Interface Instance Details screen 800 from the Applications screen 400 by selecting one of the application interfaces listed in the Application Interfaces inventory, which brings up a list of instances of that application interface (as well as an “Add New” button, if no instances of that application interface are listed); by selecting one of the application interface instances or the “Add New” button, the Application Interface Instance Details screen 800 is displayed.
(a) An asset name or identifier that identifies the nature of the hardware asset (e.g., “server,” “desktop computer” etc.).
(b) An asset vendor identifier that identifies one or more vendors of the hardware asset (e.g., “Dell,” “Cisco,” etc.). In one example, the vendor identifier is linked to one or more vendors that are present in the IT Vendors data group 306.
(j) An asset location identifier (e.g., “Rack 10,” “Building 6,” that identifies location and/or geographic information associated with the asset.
(f) One or more functional group (i.e., organizational unit) identifiers that identify one or more groups in the organization (e.g., “Corporate,” “Product Development,” “Infrastructure,” “Customer Care,” “Operations,” etc.) that provide or use the business process.
(g) A business process provider type identifier, for example, that identifies whether the business process is outsourced, provided internally (e.g., by IT or another organizational unit). In one illustrative example, the provider type identifier takes on the values “Non-IT organizational unit,” “IT,” and “Outsourced/Vendor.”
(h) An business process importance level identifier (e.g., “High,” “Medium,” and “Low”) that identifies the importance of the business process, for example, in relation to other business processes.
(i) A business process health indicator (e.g., “Healthy,” “Stable,” “Fair,” “Critical,” etc.) that provides information about a state of health or condition of the business process.
(j) A business process type descriptor (e.g., “Automated,” “Manual,” etc.) that identifies a predefined type for association with the business process.
FIG. 16 is a user interface display screenshot that illustrates an example of a Client Details screen 1600 that permits a user to view and/or edit information about a particular client. In one example, the Client Details screen is brought up by the user clicking on a particular client in the client list of FIG. 15.
(i) An IT staff member's geography or location identifier that identifies the geographic or physical location (e.g., “Americas,” “Asia-Pacific,” “Japan,” etc.) where the IT staff member works.
(j) An IT staff member's IT group identifier that identifies a particular group within the IT group of the organization where the IT staff member works (e.g., “Applications,” “Data Center,” “Desktop Computing,” “Network Operations,” etc.).
(k) An IT staff member job function identifier or descriptor that identifies or describes a functional job category of the IT staff member (e.g., “Architect,” “Development,” “Operations Support,” etc.).
(d) An IT service category descriptor that categorizes the IT service, such as into one of several predetermined categories (e.g., “Equipment,” “Utility,” “Application,” etc.).
(e) An IT vendor type that identifies which categories of goods and/or services are provided by a particular vendor (e.g., “hardware,” “software,” etc.).
(f) One of more IT vendor function identifiers that identify which IT functions are associated with the particular vendor (e.g., “Application,” “Data Center,” “Desktop,” “Network,” etc.).
(g) An IT vendor status identifier that identifies the status of the business relationship between the organization and the IT vendor (e.g., “Evaluation,” “Production,” etc.).
(e) An IT project importance identifier (e.g., “Immediate/Urgent,” “High,” “Medium,” “Low,” etc.) that identifies the priority of the IT project.
(f) An IT project state identifier, that identifies the state of the IT project being tracked (e.g., “Pending,” “Active,” “Deferred,” “Cancelled,” “Completed,” etc.).
The Project Lifecycle screen 3104 includes information relevant to managing certain project steps in the project's lifecycle. In this example, the project steps in the IT project's lifecycle are designated “Definition,” “Business Case,” “Design and Implement,” and “Wrap-Up.” The Attachments screen 3104 permits documents, spreadsheets, or other files to be attached or otherwise linked to the particular IT project. The Links screen 3108 permits web pages or the like to be linked to the particular IT project. In one example, the Project Summary Information screen 3110 includes a Priority Summary. The Priority Summary permits the user to view current priorities set for the particular IT project in various organizational units. In another example, the Project Summary Information screen 3110 includes an Impact Summary. The Impact Summary permits the user to view a list of items (e.g., applications, application interfaces, application instances, application interface instances, organizational units, business processes, IT services, IT staff, etc.) that are impacted by the particular project.
(a) An IT Project Type identifier (e.g., “Application,” “Infrastructure,” and/or “Other,” etc.). In one example, the system 100 includes a predefined list of IT Project types selectable by the user.
(b) An IT Project Initial Scope identifier that classifies the magnitude of the project (e.g., “Large Project,” “Medium Project,” and/or “Small Project,” etc.).
(c) A Justification category that identifies one or more justifications for the project (e.g., “Competitive Advantage,” “Increase Revenue,” “Sustaining Operations,” “Reduce Costs,” “Customer Satisfaction,” “Regulation Compliance,” and/or “Employee Satisfaction,” etc.).
(5) If driving cost savings, how much savings versus the current solution? Similarly, FIG. 33 lists two illustrative examples of probability of success questions:
(2) How many external parties/organizations are impacted by this project? FIG. 33 merely provides an illustrative example, in practice, the number and nature of the questions may vary. The questions are used to calculate an expected value for a particular project, which may then be compared with and/or analyzed against expected values for other projects
The system 100 permits the relative importance of each question in a set of questions to be assigned, such as by using a weighting. Continuing with the illustrative example, suppose that Question # 1 is allotted a weight of 0.6 (out of 1), because it is considered to have more influence on the Business Value, and suppose that Question # 2 is allotted a weight of 0.4 (out of 1).
If the user selects “Yes” for Question # 1 and “Yes” for Question # 2, the Project's Business Value score=100 and is calculated as follows:
The “Yes” answer for Question # 2 contributes a score of 40 to the total Business Value score, calculated as (this answer's score÷maximum score for any answer)*(question weight)*100. In this example, the calculation is (100÷100)*0.4*100=40.
Therefore, the total Business Value score for this illustrative example of Questions and Answers=60÷40=100.
If the user selects “Yes” for Question # 1 and “No” for Question # 2, the Project's Business Value score=100 and is calculated as follows:
The “No” answer for Question # 2 contributes a score of 0 to the total Business Value score, calculated as (this answer's score÷maximum score for any answer)*(question weight)*100. In this example, the calculation is (0÷100)*0.4*100=0.
If the user selects “No” for Question # 1 and “Yes” for Question # 2, the Project's Business Value score=40 and is calculated as follows:
(a) A budget line item name for the budget item (e.g., “desktop-computer,” “workstation,” or any other user-defined name for the budgeted item.”
(b) A budget category for the budget item (e.g., “Hardware,” “Software,” “IT Staff,” etc.). In one example, the user can choose from a list of predefined categories for the budget item.
(c) A budget type for the budget item (e.g., “Project,” “Sustaining,” etc.).
(d) An assignment of financial responsibility for the budget item (e.g., “IT group,” “Business group” etc.).
(b) A benefit category for the benefit line item (e.g., “Tangible,” “Intangible,” etc.)
(b) The approval status corresponding to each approver (e.g., “Approved,” “Pending,” “Denied,” “Rejected for Further Work,” etc.)
(b) A schedule health indicator that indicates how close the actual dates are to meeting the planned dates on the project schedule for each phase of the project (e.g., “On Schedule,” “Behind Schedule,” and/or “Critical,” etc.). In one example, a predefined list of schedule health indicator choices are available so that the user can select from the predefined list. The schedule health indicator differentiates between different health statuses, such as by using color-coding, different hatching patterns, or by providing any other distinguishing visual or other indicator.
(b) An expenditure category that categorizes the expenditure (e.g., “Hardware,” “Software,” “IT Staff,” etc.).
(c) An expenditure type that identifies the type of the line item expenditure (e.g., “Project,” “Sustaining,” etc.).
(d) An expenditure financial responsibility identifier that indicates where financial responsibility for the expenditure lies (e.g., “IT,” “Business Unit,” etc.).
(c) One or more Organizational Units for filtering IT projects. In one example, a specified organizational unit filter parameter links to such information in the IT Consumers data group 206 and/or the IT Clients data group 310, as appropriate.
(n) One or more Application Instance parameter values (as discussed above) for filtering IT projects according to application instances used by the organization. In one example, an application instance parameter links to such information in an IT Resources data group 204 and/or an IT Applications data group 300.
(o) One or more Application Interface Instance parameter values (as discussed above) for filtering IT projects according to application interface instances used by the organization. In one example, an application interface parameter links to such information in an IT Resources data group 204 and/or an IT Applications data group 300.
The location of the bubbles 4608 on the chart 4600 is determined from the “Probability of Success” and the “Business Value” scores of the IT project. In one example, such scores are obtained, in turn, using answers to expected value and cost/benefit questions in the “Business Case” portion of the project's lifecycle, as discussed above. The location of the bubbles 4608 on the chart 4600 provides guidance to the user for deciding whether to continue individual projects. Bubbles 4608 appearing in the upper right quadrant of the chart 4600 represent both a high business value and a high probability of success, and should likely therefore be pursued. Bubbles 4608 appearing in the lower left quadrant of the chart 4600 represent both a low business value and a low probability of success, and should likely therefore be re-evaluated to determine how to make such projects more attractive. Bubbles 4608 appearing in either the upper left quadrant of the chart 4600 or the lower right quadrant of the chart 4600 have a low probability of success or a low business value, respectively. Therefore, such projects should likely be reviewed by the portfolio manager.
It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. For example, the above-described embodiments (and/or aspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. As another example, portions of the disclosed methods can be encoded into instructions residing on a computer-readable medium. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein.” Moreover, in the following claims, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc. are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.
1. A computer-implemented information technology (IT) enterprise management system, the system comprising:
an information technology (IT) services data group, the IT services data group including information about an IT service provided to an organization;
an IT resources data group, the IT resources data group including information about an IT resource of the organization used to provide the IT service; and
an IT consumers data group, the IT consumers data group including information about an IT consumer within the organization that receive the IT service, the IT consumers data group comprising:
an IT resources identifier, the IT resources identifier configured to link the IT consumer to an associated IT resource;
an application interface configured to store information in the computer-implemented relational database, to access the information in the computer-implemented relational database, and to implement at least one IT enterprise management function using the information from the IT services data group, from the IT resources data group, and from the IT consumers data group.
2. A method of managing information technology (IT) for an organization, the method comprising:
organizing the information in data groups in the computer-implemented relational database, the data groups comprising:
an IT consumers data group, the IT consumers data group including information about an IT consumer within the organization that receive the IT service;
linking the IT consumer to an IT resource associated with the IT consumer; and
implementing at least one IT enterprise management function using the information from the IT services data group, from the IT resources data group, and from the IT consumers data group.
US11939391 2003-12-22 2007-11-13 Information technology enterprise manager Abandoned US20080133259A1 (en)
US10745892 US20050138074A1 (en) 2003-12-22 2003-12-22 Information technology enterprise manager
US11939391 US20080133259A1 (en) 2003-12-22 2007-11-13 Information technology enterprise manager
US10745892 Continuation US20050138074A1 (en) 2003-12-22 2003-12-22 Information technology enterprise manager
US20080133259A1 true true US20080133259A1 (en) 2008-06-05
ID=34679195
US10745892 Abandoned US20050138074A1 (en) 2003-12-22 2003-12-22 Information technology enterprise manager
US11939391 Abandoned US20080133259A1 (en) 2003-12-22 2007-11-13 Information technology enterprise manager
US (2) US20050138074A1 (en)
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US20110320236A1 (en) * 2010-06-25 2011-12-29 King Abdulaziz City For Science And Technology System and method of information technology application deployment
US8731991B2 (en) * 2010-06-25 2014-05-20 King Abdulaziz City For Science And Technology System and method of information technology application deployment
US20050138074A1 (en) 2005-06-23 application
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