Test 438: Applying Fundamentals of Tivoli Business Automation Management 2008

Section 1: Planning

1. Given the company organization chart, schedule an introductory meeting with the customer sponsor and identify all interested parties so that a list of key players and decision makers with corresponding roles and responsibilities is created.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify stakeholders.
2. Identify implementers.
3. Identify customers.
4. Identify stakeholder roles.
5. Identify implementer roles.
6. Identify customer roles.
7. Compile a list of role and responsibilities.


2. Given the contact information from the client and organization charts, meet with stakeholders, implementers and client's customers and identify experts so that a list of experts is compiled.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Contact the stakeholder.
2. Identify stakeholder’s expert(s).
3. Contact the client implementers.
4. Identify client's implementers expert(s).
5. Contact the client’s customers.
6. Identify client’s customers experts(s).
7. Compile a list of experts in the client’s environment.


3. Given organizational information, identify all personnel in relevant roles so that business automation roles are clearly identified for all relevant personnel in the organization.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Interview individuals.

-Verify job title.
-Determine formal job responsibilities and roles relevant to Business Automation Management.
-Determine informal responsibilities and role relevant to Business Automation Management.
2. Document roles.
3. Provide to client for review.


4. Given that the customer has provided an organizational chart with roles and responsibilities defined, align the individual's roles and responsibilities to defined tasks based on documented requirements of a project, so that the functional paths are defined.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Document roles and responsibilities.
2. Define functional paths.
3. Map actual functional paths to application roles.
4. Document the mapping of roles and responsibilities to the actual functional paths.


5. Given details of key customer contacts in relevant business areas, interview these contacts and document the scope of problems that are candidates for business automation so that problems are assessed and documented.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Present interview form to Stakeholder.
2. Agree on access to customer resources and schedule interview.
3. Conduct interview with emphasis on the following areas:

-Where most of time is spent
-Pieces which follow a rigid procedure
-Completion of required tasks or tasks not completed due to current resources
-Prioritized issues
-Previously attempted automation
-Futures – what changes are going to occur in each business area
4. Document the problems described by the customer using the form.
5. Supply results back to customer for review.


6. Given client input, analyze the information, align results of the analysis with client expectations and help client readjust expectations if necessary so that strategic goals for business automation are finalized and stated.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Gather client understanding of their goals from client decision makers and client project sponsors.
2. Gather business automation (BA) business requirements (why BA is needed) from client decision makers and client knowledge providers and consultant’s own knowledge and experience.
3. Gather business automation business dependencies (consequences of BA’s absence or failure) from client decision makers, client knowledge providers and consultant’s own knowledge and experience.
4. Gather the current status of client’s business automation from client knowledge providers and pertinent client data.
5. Gather the total resource commitment from client decision makers.
6. Analysis data gathered.
7. Align client current goals with preliminary strategic goals.
8. Communicate required readjustment of inputs stated in previous steps with client decision makers if necessary.
9. Agree with client on strategic goals


7. Given that meetings have taken place where the customer was able to convey their business automation-related problems associated with their business, identify automation requirements so that all customer pain points are known.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify all pain points that are impacting the customers business
2. Determine if these problems can be addressed by IBM Tivoli BA solutions
3. Determine if the pain points for the customer are related to business process and not a software related solution.
4. Analyze pain points and determine if they can be addressed by the BA solutions to be provided.
5. Document the customer pain points so that they can be translated to requirements.


8. Given a meeting time and date with the customer and the key stakeholders of the Business Automation team, interview the contacts and discuss the business processes that are used within the company and who are the business process owners within the company so that the processes within the company to enable alignment of Business automation solution are fully understood.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Gather list of Business processes defined by Client.
2. Gather list of business process owners.
3. Gather business process from each individual process owner.
4. Gather the current status of client’s Business processes.
5. Analysis data gathered.
6. Communicate gathered back to customer to ensure accuracy.
7. Agree with client on business processes and process owners


9. Given business type, size and adherence to regulatory standards or process methodologies, use available tools to validate and investigate the business so that core business processes are understood.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Investigate business type (Telco, Enterprise, Government Agency or Small/Medium Business).
2. Identify organizational structure and size.
3. Investigate if business is bound by regulatory standards.
4. Validate if business follows defined process methodologies (for example, ITIL, eTOM, SixSigma, etc.).
5. Identify the client's supply chain.
6. Identify the client's customer.
7. Compare with like business types.
8. Interview management and department heads for additional information.


10. Given the availability of the client's security information, analyze the client's security policies as they relate to business automation management software design so that all relevant policies are reviewed.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Analyze information on client security practice. This may include:

-authentication
-authorization
-privileges
-audit/compliance
-event audit-ability
-identity management
-common administration of users
-provisioning
-workflow
-risk management
-common point of security management
-privacy management
-privacy enforcement policy
-single sign-on (distinguish between enterprise and web)


11. Given the high-level and low-level business processes, map the relationship between the high-level and low-level business processes so that the relationship is documented.

With emphasis on the following steps:
-Review the high-level business processes
-Breakdown the high-level business processes into low-level component processes
-Document the relationship between the low-level component processes and high-level business processes
12. Given client input, determine the priority of the client requirements so that a table of pain points and business processes ordered by priority is created.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify and rank Client applicable Requirements using the pain points as a guide
2. Ask Client staff to rank pain points on a 1-10 scale, 1 being low pain
3. Present the ranked Requirements to Client staff for approval
4. Identify the business processes associated with each pain point

-Using the understanding of the client’s business processes, associate Requirements with Business Processes
-Build a table with each Requirement and Business Process, and pain weighting (1-10)
5. Rank the Business Processes by importance to the Client

-Using the knowledge of the Client’s Business Processes, and Business Objectives; rank the criticality of the Business Processes identified
-Assign a 1-10 ranking for the criticality and add to the table
-Present the Business Process ranking to the Client for approval
6. Assign Priorities

-Multiply the pain ranking by the criticality ranking for each Business Process, yielding the priority ranking
-Order table by the priority ranking
7. Present prioritized table to Client for approval


13. Given that information gathering meetings have taken place, identify and document all business automation applications that are in use so that a list of existing business automation products that are in use is created.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify Existing Event Management Systems
2. Identify Existing Network Management Systems
3. Identify Existing Computer Systems Monitoring
4. Identify Existing Change Management Systems
5. Identify Existing Provisioning Systems
6. Identity Existing Business Service Management Solutions
7. Identify Existing Application availability and performance tracking solutions


14. Given access to customer personnel and existing design documentation, determine the approximate scale and scope of the planned implementation in terms of the potential software and hardware resources required so that a documented description of customer requirements is created.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify the customer and their relevant system experts.
2. Arrange interviews with the customer and their experts to determine:

-Number of events that need to be processed per hour, per day,
-Number of users
-How long data needs to be stored in each part of the system
-Volumes of data to be stored in each part of the system
-Number of product instances required to provide redundancy and multi-tiered architectures
-Number of integration points between sub-systems
-Number of integration points between IBM and other software products.


15. Given the client’s pain points and priorities, business processes and the project scale, document functional and non-functional requirements so that functional and non-functional requirements are prioritized and documented.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify and prioritize functional requirements for automation based on the client interviews, pain points and business processes.
2. Document functional requirements as functions, services and tasks that the system will be required to perform.
3. Identify and prioritize non-functional requirements based on relevant client design standards and security requirements e.g. performance, maintainability, security requirements.
4. Document non-functional requirements.
5. Work with client to make requirements measurable where possible.


16. Given customers concerns about the current application, investigate the solution so that a document is created that summarizes the weakness of the current application.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Interview customer to determine their concerns about the current application
2. Identify current solutions coverage of the environment
3. Identify the flexibility of the current solution
4. Identify the performance of the current solution
5. Identify current solutions future supportability
6. Identify customer’s processes and match them against processes allowed by current application
7. Create a document that consolidates information collected


17. Given a critical business process, define the steps needed to support that process using business automation tools so that the steps will be an automated process.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Define client processes suitable for automating.
2. Define the specific steps of the manual process.
3. Understand input and output functions of each step within the process.
4. Determine the manual steps suitable to be automated.
5. Assess the steps and come to agreement with customer on the automated process.


18. Given customer information, security policy and access methodology investigate security infrastructure in detail so that the solution can support customer access.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify whether the customer is internal or external to the client.
2. Obtain information on the number of users and their roles (for example: Executive, Operations, Support or Engineering).
3. Compile a list of desired security requirements from customer.

This may include:
-authentication
-authorization
-identity management
-single sign-on
4. Identify security and identity management software architecture (LDAP, PKI, etc.).
5. Identify solution access method (for example: Web, Java desktop client, VPN, proxy).
6. Validate level of access (read write, read only, trend or status reports only).
7. Validate Tivoli business automation product support of customer’s security infrastructure


19. Given the client's current computing environment, coordinate each new IBM Tivoli Business Automation Solution hardware requirement taking into account existing available platforms and any high-availability and failover client requirements so that the customer can plan on any new hardware purchases, and a hardware deployment plan for the solution is delivered to the customer.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify if any existing computing equipment will be used in the solution
2. Gather from SME’s input the memory, processor and disk space requirements for each BA component.
3. Determine if any existing computing equipment can be used based on SME’s component requirements.
4. Determine how components will be deployed taking high-availability and failover client requirements into account.
5. Create a hardware solution document that describes the software solution deployed on the computing hardware.
6. Deliver hardware solution document to the customer.


20. Given the list of proposed business automation products and the client’s third-party applications, identify the integration points so that the key integration points are identified and documented.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Review the list of proposed business automation products.
2. Review the list of client thirty-party applications
3. Research the integrations between proposed business automation products and third-party applications
4. Identify the key integration points.
5. Document the key integrations points


21. Given the existing client business process management environment, determine the applicable processes/applications and integration methods so that an integration architecture and plan are generated.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify existing legacy management processes

-Collect process information from stakeholders
-Develop list of legacy processes/applications by interviewing Client Operations staff.
-Determine the existing information flow through the legacy processes
-Determine the existing process architecture
-Document the information flow process and legacy process architecture
2. Determine the underlying application(s) supporting each process

-For each application determine the vendor, revision, and Client SME
-Generate a table of process/application relationships, vendor, revision and Client SME
3. For each process determine the best possible interface

-Investigate options with Client SME
4. Design Legacy Process Integration Architecture

-Determine integration points into Tivoli Business Automation applications
-For each legacy process, generate an integration architecture and integration plan.


22. Given that all information gathering meetings have taken place, assess the requirements and solution so that a gap analysis is created and delivered.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify Existing BA solutions including competitive products.
2. Define the new architecture
3. Identify the product gaps in the existing architecture
4. Identity any structural components that are not working effectively.
5. Identify the new IBM Tivoli BA products to implement in the new architecture
6. Analyze the difference and level of effort to create the new architecture
7. Document the level of effort to implement the architecture


23. Given the initial functional and non-functional requirements, functions relevant to business automation, integration points and the gap analysis, define and document requirements so that a list of requirements is fully defined.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Use additional information to check for additional requirements and tune existing requirements
2. Review potential use of legacy pieces for automation requirements
3. Use gap analysis to identify which products are required to support requirements. This may lead to new physical requirements
4. Review priorities and clarity of requirements with client
5. Create baseline requirements if required
6. Create a Document of Understanding


24. Given client expectations, analysis and presentation materials, review the finding of the requirements analysis with the client so that the findings are agreed to by the client.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Preset expectations of customer. Test out ideas that you plan to present to insure that it is within the realm of the possible for the customer.
2. Create a presentation that is logical and well reasoned and that illustrates findings (data collected, analysis of data, integration of data).
3. Rehearse presentation with internal team.
4. Seek internal criticism of presentation before presenting.
5. Ensure the presentation is tailored to the audience and is designed to fit into the time allowed.
6. Receive feed-back from the customer and reiterate the idea that the customer is a partner.
7. Review customer’s reactions and determine if there are gaps in customer understanding.


25. Given that meetings have taken place where the customer was able to relate business automation-related problems associated with their business, determine if an on-site Proof of Concept or off-site Proof of Technology is required so that a Proof of Concept or Proof of Technology requirement is known.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. After the customer has related their requirements determine if the requirements can be met with an off site Proof of Technology.
2. Determine if the customer has a unique environment that would require on site deployment of a product to prove it is a viable solution.
3. Determine if competitors are supplying the customer with an on site Proof of Concept.
4. Determine if on site computing and lab technologies exist to support a viable Proof of Concept that will satisfy the customer requirements.

Section 2: Build Overall Design

1. Given management approval, candidate's role and associated logistics, schedule the interviews so that key personnel technical interviews are arranged.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify key personnel (candidate).
2. Obtain management approval.
3. Identify candidate’s role in the organization.
4. Identify candidate’s role and responsibility in the project (stakeholder value).
5. Check calendar and location availability.
6. Develop technical interview questions.


2. Given basic knowledge of the available Tivoli offerings, review the high-level architecture of the IBM solutions available and relationships between Tivoli offerings so that the Solution Advisor is prepared to advise the client.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Review the Tivoli portfolio
2. Review the basic relationship between the Tivoli products
3. Review business requirements to IBM Tivoli solutions.
4. Possess knowledge of the Tivoli solutions product maturity
5. Possess Knowledge of Tivoli product opportunities.
6. Review the product relationships between IBM, Tivoli, and third-party vendor solutions.
7. Review the business and technical advantages of IBM Tivoli solutions.
8. Possess knowledge of education opportunities to customer based on the IBM Tivoli solution.


3. Given the set of business automation tools, become familiar with the generic functions of business automation tools so that the Solution Advisor can be prepared to address the clients issues and needs.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Obtain knowledge of the recommended practices for monitoring to include:

-Availability
-key processes
-key indicators
-performance metrics
-errors/faults
-notifications (information and other types)
2. Obtain knowledge of the recommended practices of business services to include:

-Relationships between business services
-Relationships between business services and objects (servers, applications)
3. Obtains knowledge of IT Service Management to include:

-Knowledge of ITSM Frameworks (for example, ITIL)
-Knowledge of service support
-Knowledge of service delivery
4. Obtain knowledge of on demand computing including:

-Knowledge of the automation of software
-Knowledge of the automation of hardware
-Knowledge of the automation of networks


4. Given that the customer requirements are known, understand at a high level the IBM Tivoli products for business automation so that the IBM Tivoli products for business automation will be understood.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Determine if an Event Management system is required
2. Determine if a Network Management Systems
3. Determine if Computer Systems Monitoring is required
4. Determine if a Change Management Systems
5. Determine if a Provisioning System is required
6. Determine if a Business Service Management Solutions is required
7. Determine if an Application availability and performance tracking solutions is required


5. Given information about the existing client system, review the high-level functionality of any non-IBM products that will be part of the solution so that IBM Tivoli and non-IBM products are understood.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify the separate products within the existing system.
2. Identify the product vendors.
3. Research the general functionality of the product and which parts of this functionality are used in the existing system.
4. Determine if there is an integration point between the IBM and non-IBM products.
5. Research the support arrangements for each non-IBM product
6. Determine if each non-IBM product has a road-map or is static.


6. Given an understanding of IBM business automation solutions, the requirements, and technical details of the current solutions and integration points, identify components not being utilized effectively so that improvements are recommended.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify any requirements that can be met by extending currently installed IBM tools.
2. Identify any systems that are a bottleneck – are the systems sized and tuned properly.
3. Identify potential use of IBM tools that will pro-actively monitor and improve utilization e.g. improve load sharing onto systems that are under-utilized.
4. Identify any duplication of functionality that would allow the architecture to be simplified.
5. Investigate whether interfaces can be made more efficient to increase utilization of components.


7. Given that the customer has been presented with the relationships between Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) ,describe how the solution benefits the customer so that the customer understands how Return on Investment (ROI) is achieved

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Document to customer how BA will measure Key performance indicators.
2. Document how KPIs are used to measure SLAs.
3. Document how measuring SLAs and focusing resources on the frequently recurring Pain points can assist in the reduction of MTTR.
4. Create a presentation that shows how Return on Investment (ROI) is realized when the system is made more reliable by using KPIs, SLAs and MTTR.


8. Given the availability of information and the understanding of the client’s business and technical requirements, match the client’s requirements to Tivoli business automation products so that the solution is designed.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Summarize key personnel technical interviews.
2. Obtain customer business requirements and goals.
3. Obtain customer technical requirements and goals.
4. Understand high level functionality and architecture of IBM solutions available.
5. Define Tivoli business automation products to provide the solution.
6. Determine requirements for integration.
7. Determine timeframe for deployment.
8. Determine deployment approach (multi-phased or not).


9. Given a list of products to be deployed and client information (such as schedules, timelines, skill level, deployment scope) determine the Level of Effort (LOE) to deploy the products and the cost of involving professional services so that a decision can be made on how to implement the products.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify products to be deployed
2. Determine the deployment order of the products.
3. Identify and document scope of deployment (for example, Architecture/Solution Design, Project Management, Non-Production & Production)
4. Break down the project into high level tasks.
5. Determine which tasks can be done consecutively or in tandem.
6. Identify Project Manager.
7. Assign LOE to each component.
8. Identify and document LOE of client implementers


10. Given the Tivoli Software configuration, select the competencies required to implement the solution so that SMEs can be identified.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Identify required skills for each implementation requirement in the Client design.
2. Determine the level of expertise and experience of candidate needed for each skill.
3. Identify a list of skills matching the implementation skills needed.


11. Given an architecture document, create a high-level Project Plan so that a project plan is delivered to the client.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Define the scope of the project and create a scope statement
2. Create a Work Breakdown Structure
3. Define the objectives and measures for success
4. Identify major milestones based on objectives
5. Develop a timelines based on level of effort for each milestone
6. Create a milestone timeline
7. Identify milestone relationships and dependencies
8. Communicate the Project Plan to stakeholders and implementers

Section 3: Deliver Solution

1. Given the list of IBM products in the proposed solution, select an effective method of presenting the solution to the client such that the presentation method best suited for the current client is determined.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Review the presentation methods available.
2. Select one or more methods that cover the list of IBM products in the proposal.
3. Identify any resources that are needed to use methods such as internet connections, temporary software licenses or SMEs.


2. Given that interviews are conducted, analyze organization to determine who is most influential both formally and informally so that key decision makers and stakeholders are identified.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Interview Sponsor and ask in an appropriate manner “Who are key decision makers?”
2. Observe customer interactions with one another.
3. Determine who is most knowledgeable.
4. Determine who is most listened to and respected by their team.
5. Determine who is tasked (informally or otherwise) with the most important tasks.
6. Determine who appears to be the key decision maker(s)
7. Verify your observations are correct with the Sponsor or their representatives.


3. Given the scope of the IBM business automation solution, client specific solution design and the expert resources involved, present the benefits of the solution using demonstration so that the value of the solution is made clear to the client.

With emphasis on the following steps:
1. Validate understanding of customer requirements by demonstrating the solution against key customer use cases.

-Identify increase in reliability and traceability brought about by solution
-Identify improvement in Mean time to Recovery.
-Identify additional Key Performance Indicators that are now available, for example, TBSM metrics
2. Demonstrate reduction in workload brought about by solution through example and customer reference
3. Emphasize the value of harnessing the expert input, both internal and external, to streamline operations
4. Describe future potential – expansion of functionality once key tools are in place, ability to scale in the future
5. Understand the appropriate IBM or partner demonstration method to use (PoC, Tech Demo Center, Centers of Excellence).
6. Schedule appropriate resources and personnel to assist with final presentation and demonstration.