The first entry in the new series –‘frameworks in the management of IT’ will be devoted to ASL which stands for Application Service Library.
Application Service Library already has 6 years and is a response of management applications service providers (PinkRoccade company – now part of Getronics) on the second version of the ITIL (ITIL v3 is much better developed when it comes to the apps management problems).
ASL is widespread mainly in the Netherlands, but the library is not only available in Dutch but also in English, the usage of ASL is free – all rights to the library has ‘ASL BiSL Foundation’. To get know the contents of the library one has to buy the book – ‘ASL a framework for application management’.
ASL Framework consists of description of the 26 apps management processes grouped into 6 clusters (Maintenance & Control, Enhancement & Renovation, Connecting Processes, Organizational Cycle Management, Applications Cycle Management, Management), which are arranged in 3 levels (Operations, Management Strategy).
Level |
Cluster |
Process |
Operations |
Maintenance & Control |
Incident Management |
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Configuration Management |
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Availability Management |
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Capacity Management |
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Continuity Management |
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Connecting Processes |
Software Control & Distribution |
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Change Management |
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Enhancement & Renovation |
Impact Analysis |
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Design |
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Realization |
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Testing |
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Implementation |
Management |
Management |
Planning and Control |
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Cost Management |
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Quality Management |
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Service Level Management |
Strategy |
Organization Cycle Mangaement |
Market Definition |
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Account Definition |
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Service Delivery Definition |
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Technology Definition |
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Skills Definition |
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Application Cycle Management |
Customer Organization Strategy |
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ICT Developments Strategy |
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ICT Portfolio Management |
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Life cycle management |
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Customer environment strategy |
The roles of the various clusters in the library ASL are as follows:
Maintenance and control cluster – ensuring that existing applications are used effectively to support business processes with the least possible use of resources and with minimum operational interruptions
Enhancement and renovation cluster – ensuring that applications are modified in line with changing business requirements (usually as a result of changes in business processes)
Management – ensures that all the clusters with the operations level are managed in an integrated way
Applications Cycle Management – is responsible for alligning IT with business, the aim is to create long-term strategy for the IT systems, which is consistent with the long-term strategy for the whole organization
Organization Cycle Management – is responsible for a long-term development of organizations conducting applications management.
ASL was mainly thought as a response to shortcomings in the second version of ITIL (you can see it also after actual process names used in ASL). ITIL v3 has already been much better suited to the problems encountered in the management of applications, but ASL should continue to be applied in those organizations that are developing their own applications or modifying COTS (Commercial, of-the-shelf). If we use only COTS applications and we have no need for modification, ITIL v3 should be enough for us.
The question of ASL library popularity remains, unfortunately its popularity is limited practically to the Netherlands, where about 2500 people have been trained. More information about ASL can be found here.
Hello,
there are also some interesting mind maps on ASL2 for further study. Highy recommedend:
http://www.mindmeister.com/356768604/asl-2-application-service-library-2