Centralized job scheduling maturity model

• US 20070061180A1
• Filed: 09/13/2005
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Offenberg, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 8,886,551 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling

Abstract

The invention provides systems and methods for improving the job scheduling structure of an organization by raising the job scheduling maturity level of the organization. In one embodiment, a plurality of job management maturity levels may be defined and arranged in a hierarchy. Current job management information may then be received from the organization regarding the organization'"'"'s current job management structure. Using this current job management information, a current job management maturity level may be determined from the plurality of maturity levels. A target maturity level may then be selected from the plurality of job management maturity levels. One or more maturation operations may be devised that, when implemented, shift the organization to the target maturity level. The one or more maturation operations may then be performed, thus, shifting the organization to the target maturity level.

Claims

1. A method for improving scheduling of tasks in an organization, the method comprising:

receiving current job scheduling information from an organization across one or more organizational aspects of the organization, said current job scheduling information describing linear processing of discrete data sets within the organization;

determining a current maturity level for the organization from among a plurality of job scheduling maturity levels using the current job scheduling information, wherein the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels is predefined, and wherein each of the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels comprise at least one process definition that supports s processing of discrete data sets within the organization;

determining a target maturity level from among the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels; and

devising one or more maturation operations for at least one of the one or more organizational aspects that, when performed, shift the organization from the current maturity level to the target maturity level.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, performing at least one of the one or more maturation operations to shift the organization from the current maturity level to the target maturity level.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising verifying the shift from the current maturity level to the target maturity level.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein devising one or more maturation operations further comprises comparing the current job scheduling information to a standard set of people, processes, and technology for the target maturity level.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more organizational aspects of the organization include one or more of service level management, financial management, capacity management, business continuity, availability management, incident management, configuration and change management, personnel management, or business integration.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more maturation operations implement at least a central job scheduling service within the organization.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more maturation operations provide business continuity that maps back to one or more service level agreements the organization has with one or more customers.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more maturation operations focus the job scheduling structure of the organization on business objectives rather than information technology objectives.

9. A method for improving job scheduling in an organization, wherein job scheduling includes linear processing of discrete data sets within the organization, the method comprising:

receiving current job scheduling information from an organization across one or more organizational aspects of the organization;

devising one or more primary maturation operations for at least one of the one or more organizational aspects that, when performed, shift the organization from a primary maturity level from a plurality of job scheduling maturity levels to a secondary maturity level from the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels, wherein the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels is predefined, and wherein each of the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels comprise at least one process definition that supports job scheduling within the organization;

performing at least one of the one or more primary maturation operations to shift the organization from the primary maturity level to the secondary maturity level;

devising one or more secondary maturation operations for at least one of the one or more organizational aspects that, when performed, shift the organization from the secondary maturity level to a tertiary maturity level from the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels; and

performing at least one of the one or more secondary maturation operations to shift the organization from the secondary maturity level to the tertiary maturity level.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising devising one or more tertiary maturation operations for at least one of the one or more organizational aspects that, when performed, shift the organization from the tertiary maturity level to a quaternary maturity level from the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels;

and

performing at least one of the one or more tertiary maturation operations to shift the organization from the tertiary maturity level to the quaternary maturity level.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more primary maturation operations implement at least a central job scheduling service within the organization.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more organizational aspects include at least service level management, and wherein the one or more primary maturation operations include one or more of:

migrating jobs in decentralized schedulers to the central job scheduling service, or

devising metrics for measuring utilization of the central job scheduling service.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more secondary maturation operations provide business continuity that maps back to one or more service level agreements the organization has with one or more of its customers.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more organizational aspects include at least service level management, and wherein the one or more secondary maturation operations include one or more of:

defining customers for a job scheduling service;

defining quality metrics covering availability and performance of functions of the job scheduling service, including one or more of uptime, capacity, or specific functionality of the job scheduling service;

specifying appropriate service levels for the job scheduling service based on metrics with customers;

specifying appropriate operation levels for business units that support the job scheduling service;

defining service level agreements and operation level agreements;

creating a process that allows users to subscribe to the job scheduling service; and

creating a process for cyclical review of service metrics.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more tertiary maturation operations focus the job scheduling structure of the organization on business objectives rather than information technology objectives.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more organizational aspects include at least service level management, and wherein the one or more tertiary maturation operations include one or more of:

implementing service level agreement monitoring to proactively alert the organization when trending towards failure; and

upgrading processes for cyclical review of service metrics with the goal of delivering business driven service level agreements.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more organizational aspects include at least financial management and wherein the one or more primary maturation operations include one or more of:

tracking the cost of hardware to provide a central job scheduling service,

tracking the cost of software to provide the central job scheduling service,

tracking the cost of personnel to provide the central job scheduling services, or

tracking the cost of managing the central job scheduling service.

18. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more organizational aspects include at least capacity management, and wherein the one or more primary maturation operations include one or more of:

recording job throughput utilization for manual review, or

implementing virtual machine technology to place jobs with best available resources in the organization.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more organizational aspects include at least business continuity, and wherein the one or more primary maturation operations include one or more of:

backing up job definitions on a predefined time interval, or

documenting installation process for the central job scheduling service.

20. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more organizational aspects include at least availability management, and wherein the one or more primary maturation operations include one or more of:

implementing high availability technology according to job scheduling best practices, or

installing job scheduling agents on all platforms requiring access to the central scheduling service.

21. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more organizational aspects include at least incident management, and wherein the one or more primary maturation operations include one or more of:

providing an event management system to track incidents affecting workload automation services,

providing a mechanism to determine root causes of incidents to prevent reoccurrence, or

feeding incidents to an enterprise problem management system.

22. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more organizational aspects include at least configuration and change management, and wherein the one or more primary maturation operations include implementing a basic change control process for migrating jobs to production.

23. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more organizational aspects include at least personnel management, and wherein the one or more primary maturation- operations include defining roles of personnel involved in delivery and maintenance of a centralized job scheduling service.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the defined personnel roles include one or more of:

an information technology operations manager monitor,

a development manger,

an information technology manager system administrator,

a job scheduling manager, or

a scheduling service manager.

25. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more organizational aspects include at least business integration, and wherein the one or more primary maturation operations include providing documentation to install job agents on all systems that require access to the central job scheduling service.

26. A system for improving the job scheduling structure of an organization, wherein job scheduling includes linear processing of discrete data sets within the organization, the system comprising:

an information manager that receives current job scheduling information from an organization across one or more organizational aspects of the organization;

an assessment manager that determines a current maturity level for the organization from among a plurality of job scheduling maturity levels using the current job scheduling information, wherein the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels is predefined, and wherein each of the plurality of job management maturity levels comprise at least one process definition that supports linear processing of discrete data sets within the organization; and

a planning manager that;

determines a target maturity level from among the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels, and

devises one or more maturation operations for at least one of the one or more organizational aspects that, when performed, shift the organization from the current maturity level to the target maturity level.