Demand Analysis and Management
Analyse business demand for and consumption of IT services to anticipate future demand and how it might be provided for.
Improvement Planning
Practices-Outcomes-Metrics (POM)
Representative POMs are described for Demand Analysis and Management at each level of maturity.
- 1Initial
- Practice
- Gather information on business demand prior to IT procurement cycles.
- Outcome
- There is rudimentary collection of current business demand.
- Metric
- % of instances where current demand is translated into specified business requirements.
- Practice
- Collate IT requirements based on data available within IT.
- Outcome
- IT-focused requirements are collated and consolidated.
- Metric
- % of business requirements translated into IT requirements.
- Practice
- Attempt to supply IT services to other business units based on their demands.
- Outcome
- Consumption/usage of IT services is unmanaged and simply assumed.
- Metric
- No metric expected.
- 2Basic
- Practice
- Regularly collect and analyse information on current and future business demand for IT services.
- Outcome
- There is an alignment of knowledge and understanding between IT and the some other business units on the demand for IT services.
- Metric
- % of instances of current and future demand translated into specified business requirements.
- Practice
- Cooperate with the business on significant work/business initiatives to translate business demand into meaningful IT requirements.
- Outcome
- Formalized IT requirements based on initiatives are driven by business requirements.
- Metric
- % of business requirements translated into IT requirements.
- Practices
- Maintain information on the consumption of IT services by some business units.
- Assign dedicated resources based on usage and support needs.
- Outcome
- Usage reports, demand profile, capacity profiles, etc. are available to justify resource assignment and to validate usage.
- Metrics
- % of IT services used.
- % availability of IT systems.
- 3Intermediate
- Practice
- Develop, document and use formal processes of dialogue between IT and other business units to facilitate a shared understanding of the business demand profile.
- Outcome
- Formalized and documented business requirements and functional requirements specifications are generated and catalogued.
- Metric
- % of instances of current and future demand translated into specified business requirements.
- Practice
- Establish an iterative process to capture business requirements, translate business requirements into IT-focused requirements and fine tune the process.
- Outcome
- Business cases for subsequent IT activity are defined and approved, and ultimately translated into work packages for IT.
- Metric
- % of business requirements translated into IT requirements.
- Practice
- Leverage off the IT service catelogue to communicate the cost-benefit trade-off options.
- Outcome
- IT is a partner that advises other business units on cost-benefit trade-offs.
- Metric
- % of total services actually delivered which originated out of the service catalogue.
- Practices
- Utilize processes for mapping the consumption of IT capacity and services to demand from other business units.
- Formalize cost-benefit analyses, ROI, etc.
- Outcome
- Justification for capital investment is created; added value can be measured.
- Metric
- % of IT services with completed cost-benefit analyses ROI.
- 4Advanced
- Practice
- Conduct joint planning sessions between IT and other business units to discuss fluctuation in demand for IT services.
- Outcomes
- A dynamic model is developed.
- Variations in business demand dynamically generate revised requirements for the IT function.
- Metric
- % of realized planning sessions per annum.
- Practice
- Institute and regularly improve an organization-wide understanding of the documented process of translating demand into IT requirements.
- Outcome
- There is a common understanding throughout the organization on the process of translating demand into IT requirements.
- Metric
- % of business requirements translated into IT requirements.
- Practice
- Institute and regularly improve an organization-wide policy on chargeback for IT services.
- Outcome
- IT can track demand, and can understand and attribute the costs.
- Metric
- % of inter-/intra-organization chargebacks for IT services.
- 5Optimized
- Practice
- Benchmark the organization's ability to react rapidly to changes in demand for IT services.
- Outcomes
- The organization is positioned against industry competitors.
- The ability to react becomes a key differentiator.
- Metrics
- % of requested demand changes reviewed and incorporated into revised plans per annum.
- Agility rating versus ‘Best in Class’.
- [Agility = change complexity/change duration].
- Practice
- Regularly review and optimize strategies for collecting and processing business demand, and translating this into changes to the IT requirements.
- Outcome
- Rapid collection, analysis and processing of demand for IT services.
- Metrics
- % of requested demand changes that are reviewed and incorporated into revised plans per annum.
- Frequency of use of a service level agreement metric on demand changes being met.
- Practice
- Rapidly modify IT service provisioning catalogue to suit the demand for its services, and ensure it is sufficiently flexible to meet the demands of the business.
- Outcome
- IT is positioned to meet demand from internal and external sources, or a combination of both, with little or no organizational overhead.
- Metric
- % of satisfied business customers rating on IT agility (per annum).