PMI PMP PDU ITIL v3 training and materials

Homeit frameworks

Apps management with ASL – Applications Service Library framework

Like Tweet Pin it Share Share Email

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

 

 

Configuration Management

 

 

Availability Management

 

 

Capacity Management

 

 

Continuity Management

 

Connecting Processes

Software Control & Distribution

 

 

Change Management

 

Enhancement & Renovation

Impact Analysis

 

 

Design

 

 

Realization

 

 

Testing

 

 

Implementation

Management

Management

Planning and Control

 

 

Cost Management

 

 

Quality Management

 

 

Service Level Management

Strategy

Organization Cycle Mangaement

Market Definition

 

 

Account Definition

 

 

Service Delivery Definition

 

 

Technology Definition

 

 

Skills Definition

 

Application Cycle Management

Customer Organization Strategy

 

 

ICT Developments Strategy

 

 

ICT Portfolio Management

 

 

Life cycle management

 

 

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.

Comments (1)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *