Category — ITSPM

The final product released last week in the ITSM portfolio is a significant enhancement and productization of the IBM Tivoli Unified Process (ITUP) tool now called the ITUP Composer v2.1 in this packaged release. The ITUP v2.0 tool will still be available for free as before. It does not include the ability to create, modify and publish processes and workflows. I still strongly recommend its use by anyone considering implementing any IT best practice such as ITIL, eTOM, COBIT, etc. in their environments.

Apart from what I’ve seen done from more pure play process and workflow modelling companies such as Casewise, I am not aware or any other Big4 or significant vendor offering a capability such as this. The sum of all of IBM’s powerful software group products are converging to make an extremely unique ITSM solutions portfolio and your IT processes come to life.

Here’s a snip on what’s in this productized release:

IBM Tivoli® Unified Process (ITUP) Composer V2.1 provides detailed documentation of IT Service Management processes based on industry best practices, enabling users to significantly improve their organization’s efficiency and effectiveness. ITUP Composer is the product version of the free IBM Tivoli Unified Process tool. ITUP Composer provides more detailed content and tooling to enable content customization, extension, and publishing.

The Tivoli Unified Process Composer comprises two main components: content and tools.

* Content — the customizable knowledge base describes in detail the following components and their relationships:
o Process — detailed descriptions and diagrams
o Work products — artifacts consumed and generated by processes
o Roles — describes responsibilities in detail enabling staff to work more effectively
o Tools — describes best practice uses of IBM tools for automation and execution
o Scenarios — describe common problems and best-practice solutions

* Tools — IBM Rational® Method Composer, a best-of-breed process authoring and publishing tool, enables users to:
o Extend or edit existing content
o Create new content
o Publish content as a website or PDF to document processes as a reference document for IT staff or auditing functions.

ITUP Composer V2.1 addresses all areas of IT Service Management, offering a quick start at understanding and building the optimal relationships among people, processes, information and technology in your organization. By enabling these components to work together, you can capture the full value of industry best practices to increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness, and improve governance and control.

Along with the release of the IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Database (ITCCMDB) last week, the first three process managers were released. Here’s a sniplet on each of them and links to more information:

IBM Tivoli Availability Process Manager (ITAPM): Tivoli® Availability Process Manager (ITAPM) provides visibility into IT components, applications and their business impact. It provides IT organizations with the necessary tools to effectively diagnose and prioritize incidents and problems that impact mission-critical business services.

IBM Tivoli Release Process Manager (ITRPM): IBM Tivoli® Release Process Manager provides a process-based solution to address the domain of Release Management as defined by Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). IBM Tivoli Release Process Manager automates complex deployments in the context of your overall release management process, allowing you to assess impact on your IT infrastructure and business critical functions before you release.

IBM Tivoli Storage Process Manager (ITSPM): IBM Tivoli® Storage Process Manager provides you with a set of customizable ITIL-aligned storage management processes. It manages and coordinates simple and complex change, configuration and incident management processes for an IT storage environment.

There are many more process managers planned over the next year in addition to these. Keep an eye out!