MOPS

Operational Tools.

It is well known that the key elements of any Management system are People, Processes and Products. The latter is reflected in the Operational Tools element of MOPS.

The MOPS approach focuses on the importance of deploying software to help IT Production both do the job better, and (equally importantly) report on what they are doing.

Operational Software Tools can assist IT Production to:

• Capture the Metrics of IT Production, including Time Used, Support Calls, Business Transactions, statistics on the Infrastructure Supported etc.
• Automate the day-to-day support role, including Batch processing, Backup, Central Console, Alerting etc.

In practice, one of the issues with operational software tools is that they are often implemented “in isolation”. Hence, the MOPS approach emphasises the importance of having a “referential” approach to Operational Tools deployment, as part of an overall Tools Strategy.

One aspect of a "referential" approach is to make sure that you have common naming conventions for all your applications, servers, etc. in each of the different tools.

Experience also reinforces the fact that the more tools an organisation has, the more complex the task of integrating them together.

Advise on the selection and integration of appropriate software tools to manage the infrastructure and the people who look after it.