Best practices for implementing application service management

Today's non-stop business environment calls for high-performance, high-quality applications that are available around the clock. The burden is squarely on IT organisations to deliver the highest level of application service possible.

According to recent Forrester Consulting research into best practices for implementing application service management, end user experience is the best measure of application service.

The study, conducted in the US and Europe, also revealed that IT organisations benefit from being proactive toward feedback from end users. Successful IT organisations use best practices for application service management that revolve around end-user communication, and use processes supported by tools, including the collection of metrics on the end-user experience.

In addition, the study found that IT departments still rely on manual processes for alerting and troubleshooting. Many have trouble determining the business impact of performance problems, and rely on war room meetings to solve performance problems.

Finally, the research showed that respondents agreed that improving application service would have clear business benefits, especially in terms of avoiding costly application downtime. R

"Two common characteristics of best practices organisations that provide excellent application service management were identified," says Richard Hepplestone, Application Performance Management Consultant at Compuware South Africa,. "They have leaders who prioritise the end-user experience and communicate directly with the business to gather feedback on application service. In addition, they have formal metrics, processes and tools that ease communication and increase objectivity.

"Successful, best practice-worthy processes don't happen by accident; they take planning and dedication," he says. "Likewise, putting a tool in place without a process is worthless or worse.

"The Forrester research provides further support for Compuware's contention that companies should choose application service management solutions that help IT organisations manage application performance from the perspective that matters most, that of the end user. Response-time metrics should be integrated with end-to-end performance analysis to enable IT managers to proactively identify and rapidly resolve tough performance problems."

About the Study

Compuware Corporation commissioned a study conducted by Forrester Consulting to determine how IT organisations are tackling the applications services challenge. The study was comprised of phone interviews with 202 senior IT decision-makers from large companies in North America and Europe, and the interviews focused on the importance of delivering application service to their businesses and the challenges they face with service management. Additional interviews with IT executives about service management were also conducted. These in-depth interviews were held with 11 companies to understand best practices for managing application service.