Architecture and Patterns for IT Service Management, Resource Planning, and Governance: Making Shoes for the Cobbler's Children, Second Edition [Paperback]

Charles T. Betz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0123850177 | ISBN-13: 978-0123850171 | Edition: 2

Information technology supports efficient operations, enterprise integration, and seamless value delivery, yet itself is too often inefficient, un-integrated, and of unclear value. This completely rewritten version of the bestselling Architecture and Patterns for IT Service Management, Resource Planning and Governance retains the original (and still unique) approach: apply the discipline of enterprise architecture to the business of large scale IT management itself. Author Charles Betz applies his deep practitioner experience to a critical reading of ITIL 2011, COBIT version 4, the CMMI suite, the IT portfolio management literature, and the Agile/Lean IT convergence, and derives a value stream analysis, IT semantic model, and enabling systems architecture (covering current topics such as CMDB/CMS, Service Catalog, and IT Portfolio Management). Using the concept of design patterns, the book then presents dozens of visual models documenting challenging problems in integrating IT management, showing how process, data, and IT management systems must work together to enable IT and its business partners. The edition retains the fundamental discipline of traceable process, data, and system analysis that has made the first edition a favored desk reference for IT process analysts around the world. This best seller is a must read for anyone charged with enterprise architecture, IT planning, or IT governance and management.

• Lean-oriented process analysis of IT management, carefully distinguished from an IT functional model
• Field-tested conceptual information model with definitions and usage scenarios, mapped to both the process and system architectures
• Integrated architecture for IT management systems
• Synthesizes Enterprise Architecture, IT Service Management, and IT Portfolio Management in a practical way

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Intended for executives, planners and high level IT managers, this volume provides a comprehensive overview of the ecosystem of Information technology and explores the interconnectedness of technology and business as a system of value for IT architecture. Topics discussed include IT as an evolving system of continuous improvement, universal architectures, patterns for IT processes and IT lifecycles. The work explores overarching themes and also provides detailed organizational charts and plans demonstrating real world examples. Betz is research director for an integrated IT management at a management consulting firm."--SciTech Book News

About the Author

Charles Betz is the Research Director for IT Portfolio Management for Enterprise Management Associates, with extensive practitioner experience as an enterprise architect for large scale IT operations in retail and financial services.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 2 edition (October 7, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0123850177
• ISBN-13: 978-0123850171
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #400,074 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exhilarating! Prepare to Understand March 13, 2012

By Haakon B. Dahl

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

At last, a handbook for the big picture with roots down in the details. This brilliantly executed second edition is an easy read, full of power concepts and connections you had suspected but not confirmed. Your new favorite phrase will be "A-Ha!" as you thump the desk, triumphant.

While this volume is to me indispensable in my own pursuit of ITIL processes and mindset at work, it is not an ITIL book as such. It is instead an applied reference for a range of issues confronting IT management. Vendor-specific white papers with obvious product-pitch slants are not helpful in building mindset, which is where this book excels.

Betz' 2005 white paper on data architecture for IT was a breakthrough in describing the concept of a configuration item in specific but implementation-neutral terms. It showed the foundation of practical, implementable structures and plans for the management of IT data and processes. This book has thoroughly updated and expanded that vision, and placed it in a constellation of related and reinforcing principles. In the second edition, Betz lays the familiar ITIL hopes and worries alongside ideas from other disciplines. The result is a guided tour through your own territory with a whole new perspective.

I initially bought the Kindle version, which was worth every penny. I followed that up with the print version for the ease of flipping through the physical book. For the print version, the book itself is of high quality, with an elegant but not fussy layout, a sturdy and durable binding, and paper that feels like it will be around for a while. And despite the illustration which sometimes appears on Amazon pages, my copy is not the tall and narrow Monarch size, but a typical, comfortable size and aspect. (I don't think it was ever Monarch-bound, but I don;t know that.)

Plenty of reviewers have detailed the contents--let me simply add a five-star endorsement to the list of accolades which this book is garnering, all well-deserved. My purpose in this review is to explain not the What of the book, but the Why. You will read this with a pen and pad handy, as you find yourself inspired. Prepare to understand.

5.0 out of 5 stars Innovative perspective for Managing IT November 21, 2012

By Jair Merlo

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book presents an insightful perspective on IT efficiency improvement. The author uses an information factory metaphor in a way to foster great ideas related to TQM (Total Quality Management), process improvement and IT Architecture. One of the greatest insights is the concept that system development is a type of change equivalent to "changing the factory assembly line" and application tuning is "improving the quality of the factory assembly line". Based on this insight and the vast set of quality and process techniques succesfully applied in the management engineering discipline, the author provides thoughtful and practical advices for streamlining IT processes. In a way to extract most of the value from the book, the reader should carefully read each page, absorbing and analyzing the ideas brought by the author, specially if the reader already has some experience on IT organizations and processes.

5.0 out of 5 stars Love, love, love this book! February 19, 2012

By J. Andersen

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been reading and referencing your book since it was published. Its my bible.....thank you for wrapping it all up in one place! Its awesome!

Still stands true 14 months later....4/9/2013.