Method and system for determining a management complexity factor for delivering services in an environment

• US 20070234301A1
• Filed: 03/30/2007
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Birch, John G., Spencley, Philip T., Duvvur, Akilesh V., Garvey, Sean P., Hix, Gary R., Edgar, William S., Echaniz, John F., Sharib, Matthew G., O'Keefe, Stephen T., Winner, Gerald T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,979,513 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/124
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/14 Network analysis or design

Abstract

Method and system for determining a management complexity factor for an environment, such as an information technology (IT) environment, is disclosed. A management complexity factor represents the needless complexity, inefficiencies and waste in an environment. An IT environment includes different platforms, systems, and components that have an effect on changes and upgrades within the environment. The impact of the changes or upgrades is reduced if the environment has increased coordination, few single points of failure, high information availability, a high level of automation and the like. The management complexity factor is determined by evaluating several metrics according to objective criteria and weighing the metrics according to their importance. Using the management complexity factor, strategies and targets are identified to lower the complexity and inefficiencies within the environment.

Claims

1. A method for determining a complexity factor for an environment, the method comprising:

determining a value of a metric of a plurality of metrics, wherein the metric corresponds to a component of the environment;

assigning the metric to a plurality of tiers, wherein each tier of the plurality of tiers corresponds to a tier weight; and

determining a management complexity factor for the environment using the values of the plurality of metrics and the tier weights for the plurality of tiers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that value of the metric includes determining an efficiency number for the value of the metric.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the value of the metric includes analyzing the component.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said assigning includes

assigning a first tier weight to a first tier of the plurality of tiers;

and

assigning a second tier weight to a second tier of the plurality of tiers, wherein the first tier weight is greater than the second tier weight.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said assigning includes

assigning a first tier weight to a first tier of the plurality of tiers;

assigning a second tier weight to a second tier of the plurality of tiers; and

assigning a third tier weight to a third tier of the plurality of tiers.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising gathering data regarding the environment.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying the component corresponding to the metric to reduce the management complexity factor.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of metrics comprises about eight metrics.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of tiers comprises about three tiers.

10. A method for determining a complexity factor of an environment, the method comprising:

determining a first category number for a first metric relating to the environment;

assigning a value for the first metric according to the first category number;

determining a second category number for a second metric relating to the environment;

assigning a value for the second metric according to the second category number;

applying a tier weight to at least one of the first value and the second value; and

determining a management complexity factor based on the first value and the second value.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising associating the first metric to a tier to generate the tier weight.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising associating the second metric to a tier to generate the tier weight.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising analyzing data from the environment corresponding to the first metric.

14. A method for creating metrics used to determine complexity in an environment, the method comprising:

defining a metric for the environment that relates to a feature of the environment that is measurable;

defining a plurality of categories for the metric that are distinguishable by levels of complexity of the feature;

associating the metric to a tier having a tier weight; and

composing a complexity factor determination table with the metric and the plurality of categories.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising defining another metric having another plurality of categories.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising composing the complexity factor determination table with the another metric and the another plurality of categories.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the associating includes selecting the tier from a plurality of tiers.

18. A network environment comprising:

a plurality of components having an attribute;

a tool to analyze the plurality of components according to the attribute to determine a metric, wherein the metric correlates to a value;

a calculator to determine a management complexity factor using the value.

19. The network environment of claim 18, further comprising at least one additional tool.

20. The network environment of claim 18, wherein the plurality of components includes a terminal, a server, a backup system or a host.

21. The network environment of claim 18, wherein the metric includes architectural complexity, process maturity, a level of automation, information availability, use of tools, skill alignment, rate of reactive changes or expected growth of the network environment.