Centralized job scheduling maturity model

• US 8,886,551 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2005
• Issued: 11/11/2014
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): Boswell, Beth V
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yesildag, Mehmet
• Application Number:
  US11/224,053
• Publication Number:
  US 20070061180A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,346 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.22
• US Class Current: 705/7.22
• 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 to improve scheduling of tasks in an organization, the method being executed by a processor that performs a plurality of operations, the plurality of operations comprising:

receiving, at an information manager provided by the processor, current job scheduling information from an organization related to an organizational aspect of the organization, the current job scheduling information describing linear computer processing of discrete data sets within the organization;

determining, at an assessment manager provided by the processor, a current maturity level for the organization from among a plurality of predefined job scheduling maturity levels using the current job scheduling information, wherein each of the plurality of predefined job scheduling maturity levels comprises a process definition that supports processing of discrete data sets within the organization;

determining, at the assessment manager, a target maturity level from among the plurality of predefined job scheduling maturity levels; and

devising, at a planning manager provided by the processor, one or more maturation operations for the organizational aspect that, when performed, shift the organization from the current maturity level to the target maturity level, wherein the one or more maturation operations to shift the organization from the current maturity level to the target maturity level comprise implementing conversion of decentralized computer job scheduling within the organization into a central computer job scheduling service within the organization.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, performing, by an implementation manager provided by the processor, 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, by the processor, 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 predefined set of people, processes, and technology for the target maturity level.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the organizational aspect of the organization comprises one or more selected from:

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 a central computer job scheduling service within the organization such that jobs from decentralized computer job schedulers are migrated to the central computer job scheduling service.

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

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the process definition of the current maturity level comprises scheduling jobs based on a system or application event, and wherein a process definition of the target maturity level comprises scheduling jobs at the central computer job scheduling service based on a business event.

9. A method to improve job scheduling in an organization, wherein job scheduling comprises linear computer processing of discrete data sets within the organization, the method being executed by a processor configured to perform a plurality of operations, the plurality of operations comprising:

receiving, at an information manager provided by the processor, current job scheduling information from an organization related to an organizational aspect of the organization;

devising, at a planning manager provided by the processor, one or more primary maturation operations for the organizational aspect that, when performed, shift the organization from a primary maturity level from a plurality of predefined job scheduling maturity levels to a secondary maturity level from the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels, wherein each of the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels comprises a process definition that supports job scheduling within the organization, and wherein the one or more primary maturation operations to shift the organization from the primary maturity level to the secondary maturity level comprise implementing conversion of decentralized computer job scheduling within the organization into a central computer job scheduling service;

performing, by an implementation manager provided by the processor, 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, at the planning manager, one or more secondary maturation operations for the organizational aspect 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, by the implementation manager, 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, at the planning manager, one or more tertiary maturation operations for the organizational aspect that, when performed, shift the organization from the tertiary maturity level to a quaternary maturity level from the plurality of predefined job scheduling maturity levels;

and

performing, by the implementation manager, 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 10, wherein the one or more tertiary maturation operations focus the job scheduling of the organization on a business objective rather than an information technology objective.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more tertiary maturation operations comprise implementing service level agreement monitoring to monitor a job scheduling service metric and alerting the organization when job scheduling is trending towards failure.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more primary maturation operations comprise:

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

devising a metric that measures utilization of the central computer job scheduling service.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more secondary maturation operations comprise mapping the central computer job scheduling service to a service level agreement the organization has with a customer.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more secondary maturation operations comprise defining a quality metric covering availability and performance of a function of the central computer job scheduling service, the quality metric comprising one or more selected from:

uptime, capacity, or specific functionality of the job scheduling service.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the process definition of the primary maturity level comprises considering only costs of hardware and software as costs associated with job scheduling, and wherein the process definition of the secondary maturity level comprises considering costs of labor and maintenance as costs associated with job scheduling.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the process definition of the secondary maturity level comprises mapping usage of job scheduling services to at least costs of labor and maintenance associated with job scheduling.

18. The method of claim 9, wherein the process definition of the secondary maturity level comprises utilization of virtual machine technology between job definitions and physical systems where jobs are processed.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein the process definition of the secondary maturity level comprises backing up job definitions on a predefined time interval.

20. The method of claim 9, wherein the process definition of the secondary maturity level comprises installing job scheduling agent on a platform requiring access to the central scheduling service.

21. The method of claim 9, wherein the process definition of the secondary maturity level comprises determining a root cause of an incident to prevent reoccurrence.

22. The method of claim 9, wherein a process definition of the tertiary maturity level comprises a service catalogue comprising at least a written catalogue of services provided by the centralized computer job scheduling service.

23. The method of claim 9, wherein the process definition of the secondary maturity level comprises defining roles of personnel involved in delivery and maintenance of a centralized job computer scheduling service.

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

an information technology operations manager,

a development manager,

an information technology manager system administrator,

a job scheduling manager, or

a scheduling service manager.

25. A system to improve the job scheduling of an organization, wherein job scheduling comprises linear computer processing of discrete data sets within the organization, the system comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive current job scheduling information from an organization related to an organizational aspect of the organization,

determine a current maturity level for the organization from among a plurality of predefined job scheduling maturity levels using the current job scheduling information, wherein each of the plurality of job scheduling maturity levels comprises a process definition that supports linear computer processing of discrete data sets within the organization,

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

devise one or more maturation operations for the organizational aspect that, when performed, shift the organization from the current maturity level to the target maturity level, wherein the one or more maturation operations to shift the organization from the current maturity level to the target maturity level comprise implementing conversion of decentralized computer job scheduling within the organization into a central computer job scheduling service within the organization.