Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 424 pages
- Published by: Morgan Kaufmann November 6, 2006
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0123705932
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0123705938
-
Book Dimensions:
9.2 x 7.4 x 1 inches
- Weighs: 2 pounds
Product Review
"In most companies IT has evolvedperhaps its time to consider intelligent design. This is the value of Charlies book. Charlie describes a process-based approach coupled with data modeling and metadata concepts, which translate in turn to distributed system architectures: a type of three-legged stool for the purpose of putting more intent into ITSM infrastructure design. I consider him one of the foremost thinkers in the area. He has certainly opened my eyes to the wonders of it all." -- Ken Wendle, FISM, ITSM Solution Lead, Hewlett Packard, Co-founder and Past President, itSMF, USA
Charles Betz' work is innovative and paradigm-shifting, but more importantly he is the first human being to get below the hype of running 'IT Like a Business' and provide actionable ideas for managing information technology business processes more effectively and efficiently. This is a must read for anyone charged with enterprise architecting, IT planning, and IT governance and management in general. - David Buckholtz, Vice-President, Enterprise Architecture; Sony Pictures Entertainment
"Betz tells us that the cobbler has been ignoring his children, but in fact the average Fortune 500 executive probably believes that IT management is already a science: i.e., the emperor has no clothes! In a succinct yet detailed fashion, Betz clothes & shods the royal progeny with a clear and concise approach to IT management that leverages the enterprise resource planning and value chain integration notions. How do enterprise and business process modeling, performance metrics, SOA and BPMN, business planning and the COBIT & ITIL frameworks contribute to better, cheaper and faster IT systems and change that matches the business' pace? Betz shows how to leverage what's available, and run IT like a business. This book is destined to sit on the shelf of every IT professional who is tired of patching
software and fighting fires, and prefers to offer a businesslike service to the business he serves. -- Richard Mark Soley, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO, Object Management Group, Inc.
Charles Betzs new book is a welcomed look at IT governance. By breaking down the different functional areas of IT, he has created a roadmap to the highest levels of maturity. Serious technology professionals will find this resource extremely valuable in planning, executing, and reviewing their infrastructure environment. Making Shoes for the Cobblers Children is critical reading for anyone who envisions a new world of technology governance. This book unveils a great model that managers and executives can use to maximize their technology investment. It develops an action plan for managing all elements of the technology environments as a business which is long overdue. - R. Todd Stephens, Ph.D., BellSouth Corporation
Making Shoes for the Cobbler's Children will help you implement a successful IT governance program by giving you a firm foundation in current IT governance essentials. Betz's practical patterns, models, and processes will jumpstart your IT governance planning and analysis initiatives, leading to increased business confidence in IT's overall effectiveness and ability to deliver. -- Karen Lopez, Principal Consultant, InfoAdvisors, Inc.
For decades, the management of Information Technology has been driven by more art than science. Charlie's broad view of the IT Value Chain and his use of design patterns for IT processes gives the reader clear examples of how to get started with their own journey toward IT excellence. His clear passion for the subject matter makes for an easy read. - Dennis Gaughan, Research Director, AMR Research
Product Description
How would you feel if you visited your financial planners office and saw past-due credit card notices on their desk? Would you trust an auto mechanic whose car backfires and produces black smoke? A dentist with terrible teeth? A banker in shabby clothes? An interior designer whose offices are a shambles?
This is the position of the IT capability in many large organizations. The designated custodian of critical business processes and data does not manage its own processes and data reliably. A response in the form of Enterprise Resource Planning for Information Technology is emerging from major companies, research firms, and vendors; they are labeling these offerings "ERP for IT," IT Resource Planning, and related terms.
This groundbreaking, practitioner-authored book provides an independent examination of and response to these developments. An analysis of the large scale IT capability, with specific attention to business processes, structured data, and enabling systems, it is essentially a comprehensive systems architecture, not for the business capabilities IT supports, but for IT itself.
Features
The book presents on-the-ground coverage of enabling IT governance in architectural detail, which you can use to define a strategy and start executing. It fills the gap between high-level guidance on IT governance, and detailed discussions about specific vendor technologies. It is a next-step book that answers the question: OK, we need to improve the way we run IT now what? It does this through:
* A unique value chain approach to integrating the COBIT, ITIL, and CMM frameworks into a coherent, unified whole
* A field-tested, detailed conceptual information model with definitions and usage scenarios, mapped to both the process and system architectures
* Analysis of current system types in the IT governance and enablement domains: integration opportunities, challenges, and evolutionary trends
* Patterns for integrating the process, data, and systems views to support specific problems of IT management.
* Specific attention throughout to issues of building a business case and real-world implementation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Charles Betz is a Senior Enterprise Architect, and chief architect for IT Service Management strategy for a US-based Fortune 50 enterprise.
He has held consultant and architect positions for Best Buy, Target, and Accenture, specializing in metadata, configuration management, IT governance, enterprise application integration, and ERP systems. He holds a summa B.A. in Political Science and a Master of Science in
software Engineering, both from the
University of Minnesota. Charlie is an active member of the professional community, belonging to the IT Service Management Forum, IEEE, ACM, and Data Management Association (DAMA). He presents frequently both locally and nationally to professional associations and conferences.
He is the sole author of the popular www.erp4it.com weblog.
Are you in the thick of sorting out how to make ITIL and COBIT work, and trying to make sense of the dozens of vendors clamoring to help?
Are you puzzled over how the ITIL vision for Change Management fits into the reality of your current processes? And how it relates to Enterprise Architecture and Portfolio Management?
Is the concept of configuration management and the CMDB giving off more heat than light for you? How can you make it real?
Have you found yourself wondering whether you really need an IT portfolio management tool, an enterprise architecture repository, a metadata repository, a service management tool, and a configuration management database (CMDB)? And if you have them, are you wondering if they should be related somehow?
The book presents on-the-ground coverage of enabling IT governance in architectural detail, which you can use to define a strategy and start executing. It fills the gap between high-level guidance on IT governance, and detailed discussions about specific vendor technologies. It is a next-step book that answers the question: OK, we need to improve the way we run IT - now what? It does this through:
* A unique value chain approach to integrating the COBIT, ITIL, and CMM frameworks into a coherent, unified whole
* A field-tested, detailed conceptual information model with definitions and usage scenarios, mapped to both the process and system architectures
* Analysis of current system types in the IT governance and enablement domains: integration opportunities, challenges, and evolutionary trends
* Patterns for integrating the process, data, and systems views to support specific problems of IT management.
* Specific attention throughout to issues of building a business case and real-world implementation.
Among the specific topics addressed are:
* ITIL recommendations from a practical systems implementation point of view
* Configuration management: challenges, misconceptions, myths, and realities. Business justification for. Support for compliance and regulatory goals.
* Interrelationships between IT portfolio planning, solutions development, and IT operations
* The relationship between application development and hosting (infrastructure) organizations
* Business intelligence, performance management, and metrics for the IT capability itself
* Detailed, actionable clarification of the vague concept of "IT Service" and all its permutations and implications
* IT portfolio degradation through complexity
* Detailed models of IT information
* The various classes of systems used internally by large scale IT organizations
* The concept of "repository" and its relationship to the Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
* Process roles and responsibilities. Closed-loop, self-reinforcing processes for IT data management.
* Application as critical control point and portfolio entry. Clarifying relationship between "application" and "IT service." Application portfolio management: process, data structures, and systems.
Reader Reviews
Charles Betz has assembled THE handbook for running IT like a business. I believe that it is the only definitive source that clearly ties all the various IT management disciplines together into a symbiotic whole. Symbiosis (pl. symbioses) is a close association between two different types of organisms in a community. It can be defined as: 'The living together in permanent or prolonged close association of members of usually two different species, with beneficial or deleterious consequences for at least one of the parties.' Having worked in several enterprise IT organizations for over twenty years, I have been involved in different parts of the organism. Each part of the organism can do a good job of explaining/defending its role; however, the pieces seldom understand how the whole is intended to function. This book clearly puts the pieces of the puzzle together. This book is very comprehensive and it will require concentrated study. My advice would be to get each member of the IT management team a copy, assign sections, and work together to walk through the book as a book study. Then and only then - use the knowledge gained to build your IT Business.
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