Tivoli/Netcool BSM & ITSM Training Thoughts

I’ve just finished up a training course on the upcoming release of the IBM Tivoli/Netcool RAD 3.0 solution here in Dallas, TX this week. This release brings extended features and functionality to the RAD (Real-Time Active Dashboards) application that can be applied to the toughest and most challenging business and IT service management (BSM/ITSM) problems we see today. Service modeling, SLAs, policies, rules and ease of use continue to improve in this release. This is also the first release including integration into the much touted (2+ years) common GUI for the Netcool suite called the Netcool GUI Foundation (NGF). From what I hear and see, there’s still some polishing required with NGF, but I’m sure they’ll get it worked out by GA time.

After the training, I spent some time speaking with Bill Headlee, one of our lead instructors for the Netcool suite on how we can improve the training. My thoughts were centered on incorporating some of the people and process aspects of BSM / ITSM into the training to complement the technology nuts & bolts side of it. It’s my opinion that any successful BSM / ITSM initiative must include people and process components to be successful and that it can’t be a brute force technology solution.

So, what BSM and ITSM training would complement a technical training course? I mentioned including more discussion on what all of the acronyms are from a business and technology perspective. Just what is BSM, BAM, BPM, ITSM, ITIL, eTOM, etc.? How do these relate to the average Tivoli/Netcool tool guy? I pointed Bill to some of my blog pages (BSM) where I’ve attempted to collect varying definitions and viewpoints as a starting point. We need to teach what IBM Tivoli thinks these definitions are from our perspective!

I think we need to introduce some of the various modeling and flowcharting concepts. Since so much of these BSM, BAM, BPM, ITSM areas focus on monitoring and managing end-to-end processes and services (business or other), introducing Tivoli/Netcool consultants and engineers to these concepts may pay off immensely as they begin the engagement and implementation process. I’m thinking of basic introductions to UML, BPM/BPEL, flowcharting, swimlanes, etc. and how tools like Visio, ArgoUML, and flowcharting can help capture and organize the various inputs, outputs, rules and feedback loops involved in these end-to-end services and processes.

We also need to introduce some of the more basic concepts around topology, dependency, information and data modeling. I’m not saying we need all of the advanced graph theory and stuff for thesis papers, but introduction to concepts like parent-child relationships, containment models, OO/Java programming, ITIL CMDB Configuration Identification guidelines (ITIL Service Support Section 7.6.2), DMTF CIM, Common Data Models, etc. We should give our Tivoli/Netcool consultants and customers the knowledge that will help them engage within their environments and document, cature, model and decompose complex services and processes into their unique components, relationships and dependencies. Maybe some database, metadata, entity relationship diagram (ERD), and normalization concepts as well??? Are the skills, tools and concepts of a Data Architect/Modeler similar to those required of someone implementing something complex within Tivoli/Netcool RAD?

I recommended to Bill that we add more focus on the lab exercises and make them as real as possible. I suggested that we create some scenarios that our Tivoli/Netcool consultants and customers may actually run into when trying to implement RAD. We should create various ways of representing end-to-end services, processes and IT infrastructure from the perspective of IT and business. It could be expected that the tool guy gets a simple Visio diagram or flowchart (with varying levels of detail) that “represents” the critical business service or process. Another scenario could be an actual written description of that mission critical business service (this server has this application that talks to this database where our customer records are that returns a new account number and our customer invoices are created). From these visual and written descriptions, the engineer should attempt to create the representative RAD implementations. We should have examples from our key markets and verticals.

I think it’d be a great idea to give anyone attending the Tivoli/Netcool RAD training a list of pre-requisites to complete in advance of the training. One of these tasks could be to capture a day/weeks worth of Netcool events from their Netcool ObjectServer. This sample should include a wide assortment of events from as many of the different event sources and services, applications, components as possible. What this would allow is importing and replaying these events in the lab and creating more real-life end-to-end service and process models within RAD. You’d have all of the customer’s event fields, naming conventions, etc. available for use. This would go a long ways for the customer in “getting” it and being able to quickly apply what they learned when they return to the shop. I’d also recommend the attendee make an attempt at documenting an end-to-end service or process that’s in their environment either written, in Visio or some other tool. Everyone has an email, Intranet, portal, or similar corporate application that includes numerous infrastructure elements, applications, services, and transactions they could attempt to model in class.

What other ideas do you have that could provide a better rounded training experience on our flagship BSM/ITSM solution? How much time should we spend on the people and process side? What concepts need to be introduced in addition to the new widgets, dials and knobs found in the application? How do we ensure deployment success, customer satisfaction and ROI/Value?