Explanation and definition of EITRP Associations

This is my fourth posting in the series to introduce EITRP. This posting focuses on the concept of 'Associations' within EITRP.

Enterprise Information Technology Resource Planning (EITRP) is a new method for documenting and modeling the resources that contribute to the creation, operation and retirement of assets, policies and systems in modern Information Technology (IT) environments. EITRP enables organizations to clearly document the resources that contribute to and guide how an IT department implements and manages the necessary tools for a company to conduct business. IT departments can be represented and described in a similar way, EITRP exploits these similarities to provide a consistent method for documenting the life-cycle of an IT environment.

The core of EITRP representations of an organizations is the idea of 'Tiers.' 'Tiers' are representations of the common building blocks of all organizations, infrastructure and resources supporting that infrastructure. 'Tiers' ensure that any EITRP model can be referenced, simulated and documented in a consistent manner. Each 'Tier' is unique in the data is contains and provides for standards of documentation.

A 'View' is a subset of an EITRP model formatted and limited to the components necessary for a given role within the organization. A 'View' is a representation of what staff levels within an organization will own, manipulate and utilize the data contained in one or more 'Tiers.'

Building on the concepts of 'Tier's and 'Views' we add 'Associations' to our glossary for EITRP. An 'Association' is the documented relationship of a piece of information(an object) contained in one 'Tier' to it's corresponding information in another 'Tier'. 'Associations' define how a change to one 'Tiers' parameters will affect another 'Tiers' parameters.

'Associations' allow a 'Model' to be built for an organization that shows not only the present state of the organization, but the affect of changes within that 'Model.' 'Associations' allow EITRP to be used to document current information, future state information and what changes will occur as a migration or change between states occurs. 'Associations' are an important part of EITRP for documenting information including dependencies, costs, implications and resource needs.

There are three types of 'Associations' that can occur between objects in individual 'Tiers'. When referencing an 'Association' we always start with the lower 'Tier' in the relationship, moving to the higher 'Tier' in the relationship.

• one-to-one (1t1) – A one-to-one 'Association' is defined as a link between two objects, each in a separate 'Tier'. Each object if manipulated, will only affect the other single object within the 'Association.'

• one-to-many (1tM) - A one-to-many 'Association' is defined as a link between greater then two objects, one of which is in a lower 'Tier' and the remaining are contained in a higher 'Tier'. The only object will affect many if manipulated, where as the multiple objects, if any are changed, will affect the single object in the lower 'Tier.'

• many-to-many (MtM) - A many-to-many 'Association' is defined as a link between greater then four objects, two or more of which are in a lower 'Tier' and the remaining are contained in a higher 'Tier.' The lower 'Tier' objects will affect multiple if manipulated, as well as the multiple higher 'Tier' objects, if any are changed, will affect the lower 'Tier' objects.

Above are two simple examples of a set of 'Tiers' within an EITRP environment, and the associated objects in those 'Tiers' and their 'Associations'. These 'Associations' are simple and only show the basic type of 'Association' but could also contain information about what a change to one component will do the other associated component.

The primary purpose behind 'Associations' is to enable EITRP models to be used for automation within an IT environment. As IT environments continue to grow, it will be more and more vital to automate as many processes, changes and evolutions of the environment as possible. EITRP enables the necessary information about the environment, it's resources and it's parameters to be documented in a way to allow for automation of changes over time.

Future postings will cover additional topics including:

• 'Model' – The definition and uses of a 'Model', the overarching term for a complete set of data points across all tiers, including 'Associations' that provide for a representation of the organization and it's resources.

• EITRP Data Standards - I will publish the initial version of the EITRP Data Standards, there are the methods for documenting information in a standard way within the EITRP 'Tiers' and 'Views' to allow that data to be referenced, manipulated and modeled for changes within the environment.

Explanation and definition of EITRP Views

This is my third posting in the series to introduce EITRP. This posting focuses on the concept of 'Views' within EITRP.

Within Enterprise Information Technology Resource Planning (EITRP) 'Views' are a representation of the staff that will interact with each of the 'Tiers' and utilize the information they contain. A 'View' is a subset of an EITRP model formatted and limited to the components necessary for a given role within the organization. A 'View' is a representation of what staff levels within an organization will own, manipulate and utilize the data contained in one or more 'Tiers.'

The example 'Views' below are based on the most common job roles within an Information Technology (IT) department at a medium to large company. The actual defined 'Views' for a companies EITRP models will be specific to that organization and updated to reflect changes in the companies structure, management styles and organizational needs. The 'Views' represented below are meant as a guide for companies that are adopting EITRP and can be modified as needed over time.

The most common views that will be utilized in some form at most organizations are:

• Chief Information Officer (CIO) – The CIO will most commonly be responsible for the process and associated data within an organization to execute on the companies core business requirements. This role will require the CIO to influence and drive components contained in the higher 'Tiers' related to company rules, process and policies.

• Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – The CTO will expand on the CIO role, while influencing those policies and process, the CTO will also own and define the SLAs the IT organization will work towards at the need of the business and the services that will be delivered to the business for implementing the processes and policies above.

• Architect – Architects within the context of IT are responsible for taking the defined SLAs and services from the CTO and turning them into a design that can be implemented across their organization or company wide. The Architect is responsible for managing the risk and reward tradeoff analysis of the possible solutions for a given need within the environment.

• Administrator – The Administrator is the role most commonly associated with the implementation of the environment, based on the design from the Architects. The Administrators primary responsibility is to implement new designs and provide feedback to the Architects for use in future designs.

• Operations – Operations staff are the first team to respond to abnormalities within the environment. Operations staff are responsible for monitoring for compliance with SLAs and taking prescribed action to remedy all non-compliance.

In larger organizations, it is possible that each 'View' will have multiple individuals that fill that role. Smaller companies could then have a situation where a single individual falls into multiple 'Views.' It is important that when a company is adopting and defining their EITRP 'Tiers' and 'Views' they account for the current structure and needs, but include provisions for the evolution of the company. This will allow the EITRP model to evolve over time and properly account for changes, growth or contraction within the organization and how that change affects the resources managed by the IT organization.

One core component of EITRP is to create a 'Model' that encompasses all resources within the IT environment and their associations. This concept of 'Views' is important for ensuring that as new 'Models' are created, the proper 'Associations' are in place for the evolution of the organization, allowing company leadership to better anticipate how changes will impact the organization.

Future postings will cover additional topics including:

• 'Associations' – The relationship of a data point in one tier and how it relates to the data point in another tier.

• 'Model' – The definition and uses of a 'Model', the overarching term for a complete set of data points across all tiers, including 'Associations' that provide for a representation of the organization and it's resources.

• EITRP Data Standards - I will publish the initial version of the EITRP Data Standards, there are the methods for documenting information in a standard way within the EITRP 'Tiers' and 'Views' to allow that data to be referenced, manipulated and modeled for changes within the environment.