APM #1: Application Portfolio Management (APM) CIS Exam ServiceNow
***Classifying applications helps track and compare. You can identify relationships and redundancies between applications more easily. What are five (5) attributes you can add to a application to classify and group?
**all require apm_admin to create/edit - Application Category (mandatory) = grouping attribute which can be used to make application rationalization decisions. -Category Group (optional) = Grouping attribute used for filtering and reporting app categories -Application Family (Optional) = Group applications by the manufacturers classification of their products into various suites -Business Process (Optional) = primarily used for filtering and reporting -Software Model = Specifications of software such as manufacturer, version, release date, and end of life date.
***What plugins are required for specific features in the APM module (4)?
- APM - ATF Tests [com.snc.apm.atf] - Business Stakeholders [com.snc.business_stakeholder] - Domain Support - Domain Extensions Installer - Performance Analytics Premium for APM [com.snc.pa.premium.apm] Activate the following for additional: - PPM Standard [com.snc.financial_planning_pmo] - Financial Management for APM [com.snc.financial_management_for_apm] (and you get Performance Analytics - Content Pack - Financial Management for APM)
***What are the Roles Installed with APM (4)?
- APM Admin [sn_apm.apm_admin]: Create or Update Application records and access administration activities. ***Create/update/delete application categories.*** - APM Analyst [sn_apm.apm_analyst] : Access applications landscape, dashboards, roadmaps, strategy program workbench, and associated pages. ***View/update/delete application indicator scores.*** ***- APM User [sn_apm.apm_user]: Access to ***create/update/delete applications***, view landscape, and roadmap - APM Read [sn_apm.apm_read]: Access to view APM PA dashboards provided by the base system and the underlying tables from where the data for the dashboards are retrieved.
***What plugins does APM activate if they are not already active (6)?
- Business Planner [com.snc.apm.business_planner] - Demand Core [com.snc.demand_core] - Fiscal Calendar [com.snc.fiscal_calendar] - Performance Analytics - Content Pack - APM [com.snc.pa.apm] - Bubble Chart Widget for Service Portal [com.snc.sp_workbench_widgets] - Tree Map [com.snc.treemap]
What seven (7) sections are in the APM Portal?
- Business Portfolio (capabilities, assessed, not assessed, major gap; hierarchy map, business planning) - Information Portfolio (data domains, information objects, database catalogs, unstructured DB catalogs; information objects) - Application Portfolio (# applications, my applications, COTS, homegrown; applications, landscape, analyze) -Technology Portfolio (biz app SW models, high risk SW models, biz app HW models, high risk HW models; technology portfolio) -Opportunities and Solutions (no. of goals, no. of demands, no. of programs) -Notifications -Recent Activity
What are the OOB modules installed with Business Planner (6)?
- Goals - Business Units - Enterprise Strategy - Business Unit Strategy - Capabilities - Capability Map
What are the two (2) modules in the Information Portfolio module?
- Information Objects - Data Domains
What are the three (3) sections of the Application 360 Dashboard?
- Overview (application score) - Costs (trended over time) - Workload (incidents, problems, changes)
What are the five (5) sections of the Business Planning Portal?
- Strategies (view, create) - No. of Goals (view, create) - No. of Capabilities (view, create, map) - No. of Business Units (view, create) - Recent Activity
What is a Business Capability (3)?
- The ability of an organization to do its business activity successfully and fulfill its business goals - Typically represented as verbs (manage, provide) - Represented as performing tasks to achieve business outcomes
What are the four (4) sections of the Application Landscape Dashboard?
- Top 10 Applications by user - Applications by (platform, category, manufacturer, etc) - Applications by Category vs Manufacturer - Applications by App Category vs Age
What are the Related Links on the Business Application form (3)?
-Application 360 -Application TCO (Total Cost Ownership) -Subscribe
T/F - Discovery, Service Mapping and SAM are pre-requisites for Technology Portfolio Management
False - Although the automation would make it easier, this content can be manually built in the CMDB.
T/F: For Business Applications you can create only one scoring profile
False, you can create multiple
What is a Business Application?
Software that is used by business users to perform a business function. Business application is a new CMDB CI class.
T/F: Email notifications are inactive by default.
True
T/F: For Business Capabilities you can create only one scoring profile
True
What modules are installed with APM (7)?
-Application Portfolio -Application Portfolio Analysis -Application Ratings -Capability Ratings - Information Portfolio -Technology Portfolio Management (TPM) -Administration
What are two (2) specific interests in APM for IT Leadership?
-Application investments to support mission-critical capabilities -Technical debt and application rationalization
What are two (2) specific interests in APM for IT Operations?
-Application stability: high incident counts -Up-to-date application infrastructure mapping
TOGAF is typically modeled at what four (4) levels?
-Business -Application -Data -Technology
Which TOGAF models do the current implementation of ServiceNow's APM align to?
-Business -Application -Technology -Data (as of NY)
What are the personas governing capability based planning (3)?
-Business Owner: Importance is to perceive the existing capabilities and work out strategies to identify the areas that need investments to plan for better allocation of expenses on projects -Application Portfolio Owner: Importance is to identify those capabilities that impact your business applications and address them, so that they business applications function effectively. -Capability Planner: Needs to establish capabilities in the light of the industry norms of applying procedures that have been termed as best practice, being most effective and yielding best results.
What are two (2) specific interests in APM for Enterprise Architects?
-Business capabilities supported by applications -Technology standards and life cycle plans
What are two (2) specific interests in APM for Application Owners?
-Business value and health of applications -Prioritization of maintenance and upgrade dollars
What are the Related Lists on the Business Application form (3)?
-CI Scores -Ideas -Information Object Attributes
What are five (5) data that are assessed and tracked against the Business Application?
-Costs -Usage -Business Value -Functional Fit -Risks
What are the six (6) sections of the Application Assessments Dashboard?
-Customer Satisfaction trend (assessment) -Usage trend (indicator) -Business Value trend (assessment) -Technical Risk trend(assessment) - Cost of Support (indicator) - Total Changes trend (indicator)
What are three (3) END dates captured on the software model?
-End of life -End of Support -End of Extended Support
What are the five (5) Business Planning hierarchy records - high to low?
-Enterprise strategy -Business unit strategy -Goal -Program -Demand
What are the four (4) main stakeholder groups in APM?
-IT Leadership -Enterprise Architects -IT Operations -Application owners These are also the personas that would be engaged for a process workshop
What are the mandatory fields on the Business Application form?
-Name -Application Category -Description -IT Application Owner
What are the four standard Performance Analytics APM plugins and the one available by subscription?
-Performance Analytics - Content Pack - Application Portfolio Management -Performance Analytics - Content Pack - Application Portfolio Management and Change Management -Application Portfolio Management, Performance Analytics - Problem Management - Performance Analytics - Content Pack - Financial Management for APM **By subscription - Performance Analytics Premium for APM
Which two items in Technology Portfolio Mgmt require SAM Premium subscription?
-Product Classification -Software Product
What are three (3) APM business outcomes?
-Reduced risk -Reduced cost -Increased value
What challenges can you address with APM (5)?
-Redundant applications for similar functions -Increasing cost of owning and maintaining applications -Increasing demand to upgrade the existing applications for new functions -Conflict between in-house legacy applications and that of the vendors -Inadequate performance because of outdated applications
In addition to the form header, which sections are present on the Business Application form?
-Related Items (CMDB relationships) -Contract -Owners -Compliance - Activities
What do Enterprise Architects do (3)?
-They take a company's business strategy and define an IT systems architecture to support that strategy. -They must understand a company's business and be able to dive deeply into tech issues. -They ensure a company's technology objectives are aligned to its business goals.
What are some conditions related to updating or deleting a capability (5)?
-When you add a capability, the level of the new capability in the hierarchy is automatically assigned based on the level of the parent capability that is attached. -If a parent capability is updated in the hierarchy, then the levels of all its child capabilities are recalculated. Otherwise, a capability can only be updated of its name, description, or parent. -While adding or updating a capability the total number of levels cannot exceed more than six in the hierarchy. For example, the levels can be from 0 to 5, where 0 is the root level. -You can delete capabilities that are at the leaf node level only. Or, a capability that does not have a child capability of its own. -Do not create circular relationships. In creating a parent capability, a child capability cannot be its parent.
***What are the two (2) limitations of not activating Premium Performance Analytics on instances?
-You cannot create new indicators -You cannot collect data older than 180 days
***What are the steps in the APM Guided Setup (5)?
1. Basic Setup 2. Application Portfolio 3. Business Portfolio 4. Technology Portfolio 5. Information Portfolio
What are three (3) main APM navigation starting points?
1. APM > Home > Application Portfolio Management Portal 2. APM > Application Portfolio Analysis > Dashboard 3. Business Planner (not within APM)
***What are the four (4) increasing levels of Maturity in APM?
1. Applications under Management 2. Basic Rationalization 3. Advanced Rationalization 4. Application Road Map (Optimization)
What is the underpinning hierarchy of the Common Service Data Model?
1. Business Capability 1a. Business Service 1ai. Application Service 1b. Technical Service 1bii. Application Service
What are some tips to prepare for a successful APM workshop (4)?
1. Ensure system admins have been trained before implementation workshops begin 2. Ensure APM Process Owners have attended APM Fundamentals Training 3. Custom training for APM professionals may be conducted closer to the Go Live 4. Provide customers with checklists before the implementation workshop so that they may gather information from other stakeholders
***What are the five (5) steps of the Application Rationalization approach?
1. Identify 2. Measure 3. Evaluate 4. Decide 5. Take action
What are five (5) problems Enterprise Architects can address with APM?
1. No single repository of applications; applications are tracked in multiple spreadsheets 2. No single definition of an application; i.e., is SAP an application? 3. The business value provided by an application is too subjective. 4. There are too many business applications in the enterprise and no objective method to decide which applications to retire, replace, maintain or invest in. 5. Never ending pressure to cut IT application budgets; application rationalization is challenging.
How would you define the Application Portfolio Management Portal?
Aligns with TOGAF, providing an approach for designing, planning, implementing, and governing an enterprise information technology architecture.
What is the basic plugin for APM?
Application Portfolio Management (com.snc.apm)
What is APM and what assistance does it provide an organization?
Application Portfolio Management is a framework for managing enterprise Business Applications and software-based services. APM aids in - developing a comprehensive understanding of applications in the organization - identifying redundancy - decreasing budget/costs - identifying which applications to modernize/upgrade - deciding whether to invest, sustain or replace based on business need aligned to organizational goals
Which table links Application Services to the underlying technologies, such as an application to the instance?
Application Service Software Models table [sn_apm_tpm_service_software_model] Business applications have multiple instances such as development, QA, and production. Instances are nothing but application services. Hence application services must be associated with software models to know the risk of the application service.
Guided Setup: What is included in Application Portfolio Setup?
Application portfolio helps you to track the BUSINESS APPLICATIONS that support the business capabilities identified to fulfill the goals of your organization. -Also can use to sort and group your applications by their category and family and view the actively used ones in the Application Landscape dashboard. -Analyze the application categories and assess them for an assessment period, and filter by the application indicators and scores. -Strategize to set goals, identify opportunities to meet your goals, create demands, and track the project. - Application Classification - Business Applications - CI Relations - Application Assessment - JOB: Load Application Indicators and Complete Application Scores - Reports and Dashboards - Certification schedule - Links to Community Documents
Guided Setup: What is included in Business Portfolio Setup?
Business portfolio enables you to know the BUSINESS CAPABILITIES defined by your organization. Assess the business capabilities to know the business applications, which support the business capabilities, that are at a risk. Use the capability-based planning (CBP) map to get a complete panoramic view of all your capabilities and sub-capabilities that achieve your organizational goals. - Business Capabilities - Services - CI relations - JOB: Load application indicators and compute application scores - JOB: Update business capability levels and hierarchy IDs - Links to community documents
***What is CSDM?
Common Services Data Model - a shared set of service-related definitions across the SN platform. As of NY, CSDM is being standardized to ensure: ***- accurate service reporting*** - consistent use of standard terms - provide prescriptive guidance on service modeling
What is the Business Planning Portal?
Created to provide a home for business planning activities. A starting point to understand IT from a business point of view. Use the portal to capture enterprise strategies, business unit strategies, goals and capabilities
What is the APM Rationalization Process Step 4?
Decide: Propose Actions to transform the 'current state' to 'future' state. When complete, you are able to recommend actions to take for each application: replacement, retirement, consolidation, upgrade, modernize, etc.
What is the APM Rationalization Process Step 3?
Evaluate: Should be done in the context of portfolio future state, not where it is now. When complete you will be able to recommend actions to take for each application
***What are the CSDM components in ITBM, ITSM and ITOM?
ITBM: - Business Capability - Business Application ITSM: - Portfolio - Service - Service Offering - Service Catalog ITOM: ***- Application*** ***- Infrastructure CIs***
What is the APM Rationalization Process Step 1?
Identify: Use the CMDB and automated tools to identify servers and software applications installed on your network
Guided Setup: What is included in Basic Setup?
Import USERS and GROUPS to provide access to the instance and facilitate automated processes, such as auto-assignment of tasks. ASSIGN ROLES to groups to provide access to all group members, or assign roles to individual users.
Where are data sensitivity and ownership managed?
Information Objects
***Maturity level: What is Applications under management?
Maturity Level 1 -The application lifecycle process is defined -IT and Business Ownership are established -Applications are Categorized
Maturity level: What is Basic Rationalization?
Maturity Level 2 -Metadata is input manually -Category based optimization takes place -Coarse optimization of data is achieved
Maturity level: What is Advanced Realization?
Maturity Level 3 -Broadly sourced metadata is implemented -Multi-objective rationalization becomes possible -Business and IT demands are integrated
***Maturity level: What is Application Road Map (Optimization)?
Maturity Level 4 -Continuously assess and improve on their alignment to the business - Create Demands and projects related to the business applications
What is the APM Rationalization Process Step 2?
Measure: Use base functionality indicators that source data from ITSM, PPM and Financial Management to assess applications across many dimensions
What is SAM?
Software Asset Management -Systematically tracks, evaluates and manages software licenses, compliance and optimization.
***What is the APM Rationalization Process Step 5?
Take Action: Use the ***PPS suite*** to make the final decisions of what projects to fund, and produce a roadmap of projects, taking into consideration the demand and supply of resources.
***What is TOGAF and what are the four (4) approaches it provides?
The Open Group Architecture Framework: A framework for enterprise architecture that provides an approach for 1. Designing 2. Planning 3. Implementing 4. Governing an enterprise information technology architecture
Guided Setup: What is included in Technology Portfolio Setup?
The underlying VERSIONS and LIFE CYCLES of the technology of your business applications must be tracked to better plan upgrades, purchases of new applications, or retire the applications that are no longer supported by the vendors. The systematic management of the technology portfolio of business applications helps you to optimize on expenses, eliminate redundancies in applications, and also retire application technologies that are expensive to maintain. - Application services - CI relations - Risk parameters - Product classification - Software product - Software product model - Application service - software models - Software model lifecycle - JOB: Load TPM risk parameters and compute application service risks - Timeline view range - Links to community documents
Certain Application Inventory updates make automatic changes. Which four (4) and what are the two (2) resulting changes?
Updates: - New application added to the portfolio - Changes to application performance (incidents) - Major changes to business applications (capability relationship) - Periodic assessment updates Resulting in: - Updated application analysis - Updated application strategy road map
Guided Setup: What is included in Information Portfolio Setup?
You can capture information from the assets used in your organization as information objects. Connect the information object to the business application to have a portfolio of application information, ready and accessible at any time. - Setup Data domain - CI relations - Links to community Documents
***What role is required to create a business capability?
sn_apm.apm_admin
What role is required to use the Capability Map?
sn_apm.apm_analyst
What role is required to view the APM Portal page?
sn_apm.apm_analyst
***What is the minimal role required to create/edit/delete a Business Application?
sn_apm.apm_user
