WTF: What the FITS
“Secretary has run out of cartridge, will you replace?” - “OK.” "On the way, look there, accountant 1C will not allow" - "OK". “Hello, and yet, until I forgot - the hard maker at the coder seems to be dying.” This is how the work of the IT department in small companies is coordinated, often the same thing happens in the middle. Tasks are forgotten, employees are idle while waiting, at the time of inventory some components or papers on them are surely lost, economists are cutting back on the budget, because it is almost unrealistic to justify future expenses. With software licenses - all the trouble. Well, okay, let's all buy a new MS Office. What do we, ITIL with ITSM implement, or what? Yes, implement. Yes ITIL. Well, more precisely, not really.
It’s possible that in the preview we’ve gone too far, but such an unsystematic “fire fighting” in the IT service (or the so-called internal technical support) often happens. And it leads to unpleasant consequences: budget cuts, reprimands, employee dissatisfaction, problems with supervisory authorities, auditors, and sometimes dismissals. The management of IT in non-core companies receives little attention, and this is a strategic mistake - primarily because today almost every business has little IT due to the use of a huge amount of technology in its daily activities.
The best practices of ITSM, such as, for example, ITIL, which we have already written in detail, can help deal with the management and systematization of processes. We, the developers of IT infrastructure monitoring and management Alloy Navigator and Alloy Discovery, know howhard it is to understand and implement ITIL v.3 rules, so it’s not recommended for medium and small businesses, there’s too much in the library for such companies. . But you need to do something.
')
Thus, Axelos conducted a large-scale study of 380 companies in all geographical areas of the world. According to the survey, many companies use ITIL v.3 (33% of respondents) and other best practices in their activities. Distribution of preferences can be seen in the chart.
What are the best practices you currently use?
What services are present in your IT infrastructure?
As you can see from the graph, the processes in the companies are diverse, include many services. Recently, they were supplemented with questions that the IT service is putting on cloud computing growth and DevOps development (development and operations, software development methodology, in which development specialists and system administrators actively collaborate, integrate, or both functionalities are entrusted to one person. DevOps helps companies quickly create and update software products and services, coordinate the development and operation of software, release releases and builds as quickly as possible).
What processes have the greatest influence in the company in light of the development of cloud technologies and DevOps?
The importance of best practices is also growing in the context of the development of cloud technologies and agile development methodologies. The growing importance of using ITIL is recognized by 46% of companies.
However, in the early 2010s, Dell conducted its study, which was attended by 850 IT professionals from small and medium-sized businesses around the world. 71% of respondents believe that when buying software for automating support services, software compliance with ITIL recommendations is optional. Meanwhile, more than 50%, in one way or another, use the ITIL components in the management of the IT infrastructure, and more often in the form of a universal manual. The survey results show that the most important criterion when choosing software for technical support services is the simplicity of the solution.
Obviously, there are contradictions between the two studies, and a compromise is needed that will help small and medium-sized businesses to avoid chaos and correctly build an internal support service. In short, here would be some ITIL-light. And he is - FITS.
FITS (Framework for ICT Technical Support) is an IT management model for educational institutions (and small companies) developed by the British BECTA ([bekta]) - the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, the leading UK institution for promoting and integrating information and communication technologies. in education. The organization itself was disbanded in 2011, but FITS remained under the jurisdiction of The FITS Foundation . Now in Britain, ICT Services Framework One, based on FITS 2, is used for schools. FITS contains step-by-step instructions and recommendations for implementing processes and a set of templates for related documents. FITS does not exist in the Russian-language translation, access to its materials is carried out for a certain, very small fund fee.
But even if you don’t know English, you don’t want to register with The FITS Foundation and pay any contributions there, you definitely need to read the post - the FITS postulates look like a checklist for any company: they took, printed out and started checking the status business affairs. If something is missing, you can turn to ITIL v.2, its Russian versions are not very difficult to find.
In general, the main feature of FITS is its simplicity, fragmentation into steps, clear instructions and the absence of unnecessary information. A person familiar with the ITIL library will perceive FITS not as best practices, but as a guide to action - take it and do it. By the way, FITS is built on the basis of ITIL, according to ITIL, our Alloy Navigator was also developed - you can request a demo version on our website and work in the program - it is immediately clear from its components how to build IT infrastructure management, monitor hardware and software records , work with licenses, configurations, networks and other things. In general, familiar to system administrators and CIOs is a complete and comprehensive software for monitoring and managing IT infrastructure. We already wrote about it in detail in our blog .
All salt FITS - in processes that are divided into four large subgroups. We will talk about them.
Reactive processes are a group of processes that are responsible for recording the fact of an incident or for analyzing information after events. As a rule, this is a correction of the accomplished facts - a reaction to something. In many companies, unfortunately, most of the processes are reactive, since measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of the troubles that have already occurred, but not preventive measures and timely technical support. By the way, it is often difficult to prevent incidents due to the lack of effective tools for monitoring and managing IT infrastructure.
Service desk is a single point of contact between all users and the IT service. The main message of this process is simple - the registration of all events in one place (for example, it can be software like Alloy Navigator). Thus, all data on incidents are accumulated in one source, in it work is being done, correspondence, important files are attached. Further analysis of the incident pool allows you to predict events and prevent them. So unplanned downtime and fakapu will become much less.
The immortal bashorg
Incident management - detection, diagnosis and elimination of incidents, as well as reducing the likelihood of damage from the incident. Here are connected the higher managers whose task is to assess the competence and efficiency of IT specialists, to form the budget and staff of the company's IT service.
Proactive processes are aimed at preventing incidents and general improvement of services.
Operations Management is a structured approach to managing the company's IT services, which involves operations related to servers, PCs, peripherals, software, routers, routers, switches, etc. FITS operations management includes managing, monitoring and recording all changes made to hardware, configurations, software and profile documentation. Thus, an important goal is achieved - the accuracy and relevance of information about software and hardware. The importance of this data is particularly acute during audits and audits. Operations management includes several separate processes.
Systems administration is a service that provides day-to-day administration of technology services in IT infrastructure. There is no need to explain exactly what it is.
Storage management - the definition, tracking and storage of data and information resources, taking into account the security of storage, backup, etc.
Directory services management - setting up a directory service. The directory service stores information about users, workstations, and peripheral equipment. Each object has its own attributes in the catalog.
Performance and monitoring - during the process it is determined how the various actions in the infrastructure affect its individual components.
Preventative maintenance - Prevention of violations and malfunctions of the components of the IT infrastructure. The main task: to minimize the impact of technical failures and malfunctions on the progress of work (in our case, the operational processes of the business), to eliminate the idle time of the company.
Service continuity - minimizing the impact on IT services of force majeure and natural disasters, developing a plan for the restoration of services.
Operations management - includes managing and recording changes in hardware and software, services, services, and documentation, as well as minimizing the interruption of IT operations and maintaining accurate configuration information.
Management of results (Print and output management) - these processes should ensure that all printed and electronic materials will be prepared in the most efficient and low-cost way using the optimally suitable equipment.
Capacity planning . The goal of capacity planning is to ensure that the capabilities of the IT infrastructure meet the needs of IT users at any time. Capacity planning allows you to predict the state of peaks and drops in use and finding the points at which failures occur, ideally before the end user contacts the service desk.
Availability management - maintaining the availability of IT services in accordance with the requirements of users as set forth in the Service Level Agreement (SLA).
Energy Saving (Energy conservation) - this section focuses on methods that allow you to track and reduce the use of electricity in the IT infrastructure of the company.
Problem management - identifying the causes of problems, their resolution and prevention. In this FITS block, the differences between problems and incidents are determined (no different from ITIL), the responsible ones are established and detailed instructions are written. In general, you can get confused by reading the text FITS, because there many things concern teachers, senior teachers, tutors, etc. But in fact, if you miss these nuances, the principles of FITS perfectly fit the current realities of small and medium businesses.
Security management is a process associated with ensuring control of all aspects of security in an organization’s network. As always, it affects two sides: protection against external threats (unauthorized access, hacks, attacks, etc.) and internal (information plums, unlicensed software, theft of components, abuse of traffic and other resources, etc.). One of the effective preventive measures in the field of information security is the classification, registration and verification of all components of the IT infrastructure. FITS describes a variety of step-by-step security management instructions that cover almost all aspects, including the protection of physical assets, data, work in protected environments, network security, auditing, monitoring access to the system, and so on.
Change management - managing and recording changes in hardware and software, services, services, and documentation, as well as ensuring minimal downtime for IT operations and maintaining accurate configuration information. Changes in the company's IT infrastructure are usually quite difficult - it takes time, interrupting workflows, adjusting configurations associated with the change. And if it is global - write is gone, the process will drag on for many months.
And all because the changes are introduced completely, immediately, interrupting all existing processes. And in some cases it may be justified. FITS is focused on change management for people with a relatively small amount of working time and not ready for an unspecified result. The best practices prescribed in it help to start with small steps, highlight the benefits of change, learn to identify useful changes and look for benefits in them. Success from the standpoint of FITS is a component of several small, but verified steps. Change management can also include:
Configuration management is the process of creating and maintaining up-to-date states of the components of the IT infrastructure and related documentation, as well as displaying the relationships between these components.
Service level management is the process of determining, agreeing on and documenting an acceptable and achievable service level, as well as monitoring all processes and monitoring their compliance with this level.
Financial management - the process of ensuring the maximum adequacy of the cost of the IT infrastructure and its functionality. Simply put, inside this process, the question is how to build the most efficient IT infrastructure for the lowest possible money. It also defines the IT budget parameters.
Interestingly, in one of the latest editions, FITS included Internet security as a course in the framework of certification, and this section was attributed specifically to strategic processes. Although, of course, it is more logical to attribute this question to the safety management processes in proactive processes.
If we talk about companies, then strategic processes are already the subject of management of top managers and heads of departments. And to ensure the transparency of these processes, we need well-functioning work of all previous ones.
In our blog, we have repeatedly raised the question of whether ITSM (IT Service Management, IT service management) is needed in any of its implementations (best practices) for small and medium businesses, where issues are solved at the level of “you, me, you” . Practice shows that it is needed - first of all, for the order and controllability of processes in the IT infrastructure. It is also needed because it allows you to save and subsequently seek funds for upgrading infrastructure components. And best practices such as FITS, MOF, ITIL, and so on. - this is not a panacea or desk books, these are check-lists of processes. Sometimes even an understanding of just the device of these management libraries helps to review the work of the IT service in the company and find an approach to change. It doesn't matter what you use - the result is important. Agree, unmotivated savings on IT infrastructure - in our century this is perhaps one of the most blatant strategic mistakes.
It’s possible that in the preview we’ve gone too far, but such an unsystematic “fire fighting” in the IT service (or the so-called internal technical support) often happens. And it leads to unpleasant consequences: budget cuts, reprimands, employee dissatisfaction, problems with supervisory authorities, auditors, and sometimes dismissals. The management of IT in non-core companies receives little attention, and this is a strategic mistake - primarily because today almost every business has little IT due to the use of a huge amount of technology in its daily activities.
The best practices of ITSM, such as, for example, ITIL, which we have already written in detail, can help deal with the management and systematization of processes. We, the developers of IT infrastructure monitoring and management Alloy Navigator and Alloy Discovery, know how
')
Inconsistent ITIL Requirements
Thus, Axelos conducted a large-scale study of 380 companies in all geographical areas of the world. According to the survey, many companies use ITIL v.3 (33% of respondents) and other best practices in their activities. Distribution of preferences can be seen in the chart.
What are the best practices you currently use?
What services are present in your IT infrastructure?
As you can see from the graph, the processes in the companies are diverse, include many services. Recently, they were supplemented with questions that the IT service is putting on cloud computing growth and DevOps development (development and operations, software development methodology, in which development specialists and system administrators actively collaborate, integrate, or both functionalities are entrusted to one person. DevOps helps companies quickly create and update software products and services, coordinate the development and operation of software, release releases and builds as quickly as possible).
What processes have the greatest influence in the company in light of the development of cloud technologies and DevOps?
The importance of best practices is also growing in the context of the development of cloud technologies and agile development methodologies. The growing importance of using ITIL is recognized by 46% of companies.
However, in the early 2010s, Dell conducted its study, which was attended by 850 IT professionals from small and medium-sized businesses around the world. 71% of respondents believe that when buying software for automating support services, software compliance with ITIL recommendations is optional. Meanwhile, more than 50%, in one way or another, use the ITIL components in the management of the IT infrastructure, and more often in the form of a universal manual. The survey results show that the most important criterion when choosing software for technical support services is the simplicity of the solution.
Obviously, there are contradictions between the two studies, and a compromise is needed that will help small and medium-sized businesses to avoid chaos and correctly build an internal support service. In short, here would be some ITIL-light. And he is - FITS.
What is FITS?
FITS (Framework for ICT Technical Support) is an IT management model for educational institutions (and small companies) developed by the British BECTA ([bekta]) - the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, the leading UK institution for promoting and integrating information and communication technologies. in education. The organization itself was disbanded in 2011, but FITS remained under the jurisdiction of The FITS Foundation . Now in Britain, ICT Services Framework One, based on FITS 2, is used for schools. FITS contains step-by-step instructions and recommendations for implementing processes and a set of templates for related documents. FITS does not exist in the Russian-language translation, access to its materials is carried out for a certain, very small fund fee.
But even if you don’t know English, you don’t want to register with The FITS Foundation and pay any contributions there, you definitely need to read the post - the FITS postulates look like a checklist for any company: they took, printed out and started checking the status business affairs. If something is missing, you can turn to ITIL v.2, its Russian versions are not very difficult to find.
In general, the main feature of FITS is its simplicity, fragmentation into steps, clear instructions and the absence of unnecessary information. A person familiar with the ITIL library will perceive FITS not as best practices, but as a guide to action - take it and do it. By the way, FITS is built on the basis of ITIL, according to ITIL, our Alloy Navigator was also developed - you can request a demo version on our website and work in the program - it is immediately clear from its components how to build IT infrastructure management, monitor hardware and software records , work with licenses, configurations, networks and other things. In general, familiar to system administrators and CIOs is a complete and comprehensive software for monitoring and managing IT infrastructure. We already wrote about it in detail in our blog .
All salt FITS - in processes that are divided into four large subgroups. We will talk about them.
FITS processes
Reactive processes
Reactive processes are a group of processes that are responsible for recording the fact of an incident or for analyzing information after events. As a rule, this is a correction of the accomplished facts - a reaction to something. In many companies, unfortunately, most of the processes are reactive, since measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of the troubles that have already occurred, but not preventive measures and timely technical support. By the way, it is often difficult to prevent incidents due to the lack of effective tools for monitoring and managing IT infrastructure.
Service desk is a single point of contact between all users and the IT service. The main message of this process is simple - the registration of all events in one place (for example, it can be software like Alloy Navigator). Thus, all data on incidents are accumulated in one source, in it work is being done, correspondence, important files are attached. Further analysis of the incident pool allows you to predict events and prevent them. So unplanned downtime and fakapu will become much less.
The immortal bashorg
Incident management - detection, diagnosis and elimination of incidents, as well as reducing the likelihood of damage from the incident. Here are connected the higher managers whose task is to assess the competence and efficiency of IT specialists, to form the budget and staff of the company's IT service.
Proactive processes
Proactive processes are aimed at preventing incidents and general improvement of services.
Operations Management
Operations Management is a structured approach to managing the company's IT services, which involves operations related to servers, PCs, peripherals, software, routers, routers, switches, etc. FITS operations management includes managing, monitoring and recording all changes made to hardware, configurations, software and profile documentation. Thus, an important goal is achieved - the accuracy and relevance of information about software and hardware. The importance of this data is particularly acute during audits and audits. Operations management includes several separate processes.
Systems administration is a service that provides day-to-day administration of technology services in IT infrastructure. There is no need to explain exactly what it is.
Storage management - the definition, tracking and storage of data and information resources, taking into account the security of storage, backup, etc.
Directory services management - setting up a directory service. The directory service stores information about users, workstations, and peripheral equipment. Each object has its own attributes in the catalog.
Performance and monitoring - during the process it is determined how the various actions in the infrastructure affect its individual components.
Preventative maintenance - Prevention of violations and malfunctions of the components of the IT infrastructure. The main task: to minimize the impact of technical failures and malfunctions on the progress of work (in our case, the operational processes of the business), to eliminate the idle time of the company.
Service continuity - minimizing the impact on IT services of force majeure and natural disasters, developing a plan for the restoration of services.
Operations management - includes managing and recording changes in hardware and software, services, services, and documentation, as well as minimizing the interruption of IT operations and maintaining accurate configuration information.
Management of results (Print and output management) - these processes should ensure that all printed and electronic materials will be prepared in the most efficient and low-cost way using the optimally suitable equipment.
Capacity planning . The goal of capacity planning is to ensure that the capabilities of the IT infrastructure meet the needs of IT users at any time. Capacity planning allows you to predict the state of peaks and drops in use and finding the points at which failures occur, ideally before the end user contacts the service desk.
Availability management - maintaining the availability of IT services in accordance with the requirements of users as set forth in the Service Level Agreement (SLA).
Energy Saving (Energy conservation) - this section focuses on methods that allow you to track and reduce the use of electricity in the IT infrastructure of the company.
Problem management
Problem management - identifying the causes of problems, their resolution and prevention. In this FITS block, the differences between problems and incidents are determined (no different from ITIL), the responsible ones are established and detailed instructions are written. In general, you can get confused by reading the text FITS, because there many things concern teachers, senior teachers, tutors, etc. But in fact, if you miss these nuances, the principles of FITS perfectly fit the current realities of small and medium businesses.
Security Management
Security management is a process associated with ensuring control of all aspects of security in an organization’s network. As always, it affects two sides: protection against external threats (unauthorized access, hacks, attacks, etc.) and internal (information plums, unlicensed software, theft of components, abuse of traffic and other resources, etc.). One of the effective preventive measures in the field of information security is the classification, registration and verification of all components of the IT infrastructure. FITS describes a variety of step-by-step security management instructions that cover almost all aspects, including the protection of physical assets, data, work in protected environments, network security, auditing, monitoring access to the system, and so on.
Change processes
Change management - managing and recording changes in hardware and software, services, services, and documentation, as well as ensuring minimal downtime for IT operations and maintaining accurate configuration information. Changes in the company's IT infrastructure are usually quite difficult - it takes time, interrupting workflows, adjusting configurations associated with the change. And if it is global - write is gone, the process will drag on for many months.
And all because the changes are introduced completely, immediately, interrupting all existing processes. And in some cases it may be justified. FITS is focused on change management for people with a relatively small amount of working time and not ready for an unspecified result. The best practices prescribed in it help to start with small steps, highlight the benefits of change, learn to identify useful changes and look for benefits in them. Success from the standpoint of FITS is a component of several small, but verified steps. Change management can also include:
- Release management - planning, testing and managing the successful implementation of software and hardware. This process in the Russian realities needs adaptation - rather, SAM (software asset management) is the management of software assets (software and licenses) of a company.
- Update management (Patch management) - a process aimed at maintaining the network components (hardware and software and services) up to date in accordance with the latest patches and updates.
Configuration management is the process of creating and maintaining up-to-date states of the components of the IT infrastructure and related documentation, as well as displaying the relationships between these components.
Strategic processes
Service level management is the process of determining, agreeing on and documenting an acceptable and achievable service level, as well as monitoring all processes and monitoring their compliance with this level.
Financial management - the process of ensuring the maximum adequacy of the cost of the IT infrastructure and its functionality. Simply put, inside this process, the question is how to build the most efficient IT infrastructure for the lowest possible money. It also defines the IT budget parameters.
Interestingly, in one of the latest editions, FITS included Internet security as a course in the framework of certification, and this section was attributed specifically to strategic processes. Although, of course, it is more logical to attribute this question to the safety management processes in proactive processes.
If we talk about companies, then strategic processes are already the subject of management of top managers and heads of departments. And to ensure the transparency of these processes, we need well-functioning work of all previous ones.
What is FITS good for?
- These are just two books in which the processes of managing technical support (IT service) are described in detail and in an accessible manner. If you had to deal with six ITIL books in which the presentation is conducted in absolutely bureaucratic language and all procedures are strictly regulated, you will appreciate FITS as a guide to action, and not an IT bible on the shelf.
- It contains established processes that have been adapted to the school environment. In our case, it is important that they do not require a multi-day study, contain ready-made templates, instructions, and do not take much time to implement.
- It contains documents and templates that can be used as is, without modifications and personification.
- The result of the implementation of the methodology will be immediately noticeable, since the start will not take much time and resources.
- Administrative and technical tasks are clearly separated, there are no blurred boundaries.
- Almost immediately you can begin to assess the effectiveness of the IT service and look for ways to optimize the cost of IT infrastructure.
- Combined with monitoring and recording incidents, FITS will help plan the costs of expanding IT infrastructure, additional motivation, etc.
In our blog, we have repeatedly raised the question of whether ITSM (IT Service Management, IT service management) is needed in any of its implementations (best practices) for small and medium businesses, where issues are solved at the level of “you, me, you” . Practice shows that it is needed - first of all, for the order and controllability of processes in the IT infrastructure. It is also needed because it allows you to save and subsequently seek funds for upgrading infrastructure components. And best practices such as FITS, MOF, ITIL, and so on. - this is not a panacea or desk books, these are check-lists of processes. Sometimes even an understanding of just the device of these management libraries helps to review the work of the IT service in the company and find an approach to change. It doesn't matter what you use - the result is important. Agree, unmotivated savings on IT infrastructure - in our century this is perhaps one of the most blatant strategic mistakes.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/313522/
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