A Comprehensive Approach to

Practicing ITIL Change Management

A White Paper Prepared for BMC Software

November 2008
Table of Contents

Executive Summary.............................................................................................................................................................................1

The Problem.........................................................................................................................................................................................1

The Solution ........................................................................................................................................................................................2

ITIL Approach to Change Management...................................................................................................................................2
Integrating Batch Processing With ITIL-Based Change Management................................................................................2
BMC Software—Delivering Batch-CMDB Integration..........................................................................................................3

EMA’s Perspective................................................................................................................................................................................4

About BMC Software..........................................................................................................................................................................4

 A Comprehensive Approach to
Practicing ITIL Change Management

Executive Summary reducing the cost of change. Enterprise Management

Batch processing is a critical part of most enterprises. It Associates believes this solution will provide significant
is a foundation technology for applications including e- benefits to many enterprises, especially those with an
commerce, accounting, stock and inventory control, en- existing CMDB implementation
terprise resource planning, customer service, and many
more. Any disruption to mission-critical batch process- The Problem
ing can cause extensive impact to the business through Mission-critical data processing relies in large part on
downtime, lost revenue, contract penalties, and more. the automated initiation, execution, management,
integration, and recovery of batch-mode IT process-
However, change management processes, even those
ing—scripts, jobs, tasks, and other non-interactive IT
based on recognized best practices such as ITIL, rarely
processes that manipulate a specific data set. These
take into account the batch environment when planning
processes may be application-oriented, such as account-
for change. Systems are shut down, removed, rebuilt,
ing, payments, e-commerce, supply chain management,
and updated without any concern for the impact such
ERP, purchasing, ordering, fulfillment or data mining;
changes may have on critical batch processing, and the
or system-oriented, such as data backup, grid and cluster
business services that depend on it.
support, virtual load balancing, storage management, or
An emerging solution for this problem is to inte- data export-transform-load operations. Batch process-
grate batch service definitions into a Configuration ing in a modern enterprise is a foundation technology
Management Database, or CMDB. In ITIL best prac- for many critical business services, so it is imperative to
tices, the CMDB serves as “a single source of truth” maintain consistent and reliable batch processing.
for recording the configuration of devices, operating
At the same time, change is inevitable and profitable
systems, databases, middleware, applications, etc. This
businesses demand almost continual change, so they
provides (among many other things) a single point of
can provide new products and services, build com-
reference to determine the scope and impact of any
petitive advantage, and continually improve customer
change to any IT system throughout the enterprise.
service. Without change, a business will stagnate, and
Integrating batch process definitions with the CMDB
inevitably be overtaken by its competitors. However,
extends this single source of truth to include mission-
with change comes risk, and the potential for problems.
critical batch services also. This ensures the assessment
EMA estimates, for example, that faulty configuration
of the scope and impact of any change can now be
changes are responsible for around 60% of downtime
truly universal.
in an average enterprise.
BMC Software is providing a solution to this require-
It is therefore important to establish practices and pro-
ment, by integrating their batch process automation so-
cedures for change management that account for the ef-
lution, BMC CONTROL-M, with their CMDB solution,
fect of changes on systems, applications, and especially
BMC Atrium. This innovative solution based on ITIL
business services. With change management, change
best practices directly addresses the problems of inte-
control, and application and infrastructure mapping
grating change management and batch processing. BMC
tools, this can be a relatively simple and standardized
Software’s solution discovers batch services, records
process. However, these tools invariably do not account
them in unique records in the CMDB, associates them
for batch processing, leaving many critical business ser-
with other enterprise configuration elements, forecasts
vices vulnerable to unexpected outages. It takes a deep
the impact of change on batch processing, and correlates
understanding of the batch processes, and their often
that impact with business services, thereby predicting the
complex interdependencies, to ensure that configuration
full impact of any change on business users.
changes do not adversely affect the batch environment.
The result is a more effective change management
For example, if IT needs to move a system to put it into
process based on best practice recommendations that
a new virtual server, or upgrade the physical server, it
accommodates all mission-critical business services, re-
is relatively easy to predict and minimize the impact on
ducing unexpected downtime, improving availability, and

©2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Page 
 A Comprehensive Approach to
Practicing ITIL Change Management

online users. Using application mapping, even complex
applications, and their associated business services, can
be mapped onto specific servers or devices. Similarly,
using performance monitoring tools, it is also quite sim-
ple to measure the peaks and troughs in online usage,
so the move can be scheduled to occur outside the peak
online usage. These change management processes help
to minimize the possible disruption to the majority of
online users.
However, mission-critical batch processing may occur
on the same system. This will not be revealed through
traditional application and business service mapping,
which tends to concentrate mainly on the online, real-
time aspect of application processing. Nor are the com-
plex interrelationships of batch processing revealed in
performance monitor output. So while the scheduled
downtime may cause a minimal impact on online users,
it still has the potential for significant disruption by
delaying or interrupting scheduled batch processes that
form the basis for critical business services.
Of course, the major part of this problem is the complex
dependencies that batch processing entails. While one
system may not host mission-critical batch processing, it
may still be part of a critical path, due to a complex flow
of dependencies.
For example, in a manufacturing company, a specific
system located on the loading dock might be dedicated
to providing an input station for stock and inventory
management. It may run just a couple of batch jobs
overnight to update the ERP system with the new mate-
rials received in the loading dock that day. Bringing that
system down for a change request will not have any obvi-
ous effect on critical online business systems. However,
the batch process that updates stock and inventory may
be part of a critical batch process—inventory received
updates accounts payable, accounts payable updates gen-
eral ledger, general ledger updates accounts receivable,
and accounts receivable updates billing, which in turn
issues all invoices. So all of a sudden, bringing down a
barely significant system on the loading dock actually
stops the company from issuing any invoices—a major
impact on the business.
Effective change management processes must therefore
provide visibility into batch processing, and the critical
business services that rely on it. Otherwise, even a well-
managed change cycle can cause significant problems to
important business services.
The Solution
ITIL Approach to Change Management
ITIL, which stands for “IT Infrastructure Library,” is
a set of best practices for IT organizations, originally
created under the auspices of the British government.
While it covers other areas, its focus is on ensuring that
IT is able to deliver consistent business service. Three
key areas of ITIL apply to address the problem of ef-
fectively managing change:
• Service Desk
• Configuration Management
• Change Management
Central to these ITIL best practices is the implemen-
tation of a Configuration Management Database (or
CMDB)—either a central or federated database that is
used to record the status of all relevant configuration
items (CIs) throughout the enterprise. This gives IT the
ability to correlate the relationships between incidents,
problems, service requests, changes and business ser-
vices, which in turn ensures that changes are properly
approved, managed, and executed.
However, in a traditional implementation, a CMDB
will not contain any information about batch process-
ing. So even with an ITIL-based approach to change
management, without taking into account the impact on
batch, serious service impact can occur. In addition, any
changes to batch processing itself cannot be managed
with standard change management processes, as ITIL
change management relies on CMDB data for planning,
impact analysis, approval, etc. This is why it is important
to integrate batch processing with an ITIL approach to
change management.
Integrating Batch Processing With ITIL-
Based Change Management
Using batch process information, alongside other con-
figuration information, as input to the change approval
process, stakeholders can take into account the effect
of change on the entire enterprise, not just the online
applications. This is a much more complete approach to
change, and much more likely to avoid adverse change

©2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Page 
 A Comprehensive Approach to
Practicing ITIL Change Management
impact. Integrating all of this information into a single
source of truth—the CMDB—helps to ensure change
approvers have access to all the information they need
to make timely, accurate, and non-disruptive deci-
sions regarding potentially damaging change requests.
Recording batch service CIs in the CMDB also ensures
that any changes affecting batch services can be man-
aged within the systems, standards, and best practices
that are in place for other enterprise systems—including
initiation by a service desk request, issuing the change
ticket, planning, impact analysis, authorization, verifica-
tion and notification.
For example, in a server consolidation project, IT may
plan to co-locate several applications onto a single
server. A CMDB will help to determine and resolve
conflicting system configuration requirements, but it will
yield spurious and potentially harmful results if it does
not contain configuration information for batch ser-
vices. Recording critical batch service CIs in the CMDB,
however, will give change approvers a single source of
truth to discover, for example, that two overnight batch
processes, which previously ran in parallel on separate
systems, will need to run in series if they are located on a
single server, seriously delaying processing and disrupt-
ing daytime business service.
In another example, an upgrade that needs to shut down
an application or the entire server might be scheduled for
an overnight change window in the middle of the week.
Change approvers can use batch service CIs stored in a
CMDB to check what mission-critical batch processing
requires access to that server or application, and what
impact it will have to shut the server down. This may
lead to a decision to delay the upgrade to a different
change window—for example, from a weekday night to
a weekend—to avoid delaying critical overnight batch
processing. Alternatively, it may lead to submission of
a change request to relocate the critical batch service
to a different system—a request that the change team
can analyze, plan, approve, and execute with a standard
ITIL-based change management procedure.
BMC Software—Delivering Batch-CMDB
Integration
One solution provider is set to deliver this solution, by
pioneering this new approach of integrating batch pro-
cessing with change management through integration
with the CMDB.
BMC Software is providing a packaged solution that in-
tegrates their batch process automation solution, BMC
CONTROL-M, with their comprehensive CMDB, BMC
Atrium. Information from BMC CONTROL-M is pop-
ulated into the CMDB with an add-on to BMC Atrium
called the Batch Service Extension. This extension al-
lows all relevant batch service attributes, such as service
name, priority, service owner, and service description, to
be stored in the CMDB. This information is automati-
cally discovered by scanning the BMC CONTROL-M
environment, mapping the batch business services, and
correlating batch entities with machines and applications,
using a standard API that normalizes service data to en-
sure consistency. This solution also integrates with BMC
Software’s leading service desk, BMC Remedy, providing
a complete ITIL-based change management process.
BMC Atrium therefore can provide a single source of
truth not just for configuration information, but also
for the mission-critical batch processes maintained by
BMC CONTROL-M. Stakeholders can more accurately
predict the impact of change, and thereby more easily
diagnose, resolve, and avoid potential problems.
The next step is to provide the ability to launch the
BMC CONTROL-M forecasting capability from within
a change management interface, what BMC Software re-
fers to as “Launch in Context.” This will allow a change
approver to simulate a requested change to the environ-
ment (e.g. shutting down a server) and, from within their
change management application, launch a forecast of
the resulting batch process that uses that environment.
With this facility, the change approver will be able to
see the impact the change will have with exceptional
clarity. In addition, BMC CONTROL-M Batch Impact
Manager will correlate this forecast with the business
services that depend on batch processing, delivering a
much higher Business Service view of the impact of
change on batch processing.
This new approach allows batch processes—including
relevant inter-process dependencies, infrastructure de-
pendencies, and connections to business services—to be
defined and recorded in the CMDB, providing a single
source of truth, not just for critical online application
configuration, but also for batch processing. This single
source of truth enables all stakeholders to determine the
true impact of change on all critical business services,
using one authoritative source to forecast the potential
©2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 
 A Comprehensive Approach to
Practicing ITIL Change Management

impact of change on both online and batch processing. EMA therefore recommends enterprises investigate an
This allows a complete risk assessment, and provides the integrated solution that includes BMC Atrium, BMC
necessary tools to properly plan, manage, and execute CONTROL-M, and BMC Remedy. This integrated
change with minimal disruption. ITIL-based approach to change management integrates
batch processing, CMDB, and service desk disciplines,
EMA’s Perspective to help ensure business service availability, even in the
Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) is a strong most complex environments.
supporter and advocate of an ITIL approach to en-
terprise management, including change management, About BMC Software
configuration management, CMDB, and service desk. BMC Software, Inc. [NYSE:BMC] is a leading provider
EMA is a strong supporter and advocate of batch pro- of enterprise management solutions that empower com-
cess automation, promoting wide use of batch process panies to manage their IT infrastructure from a business
automation solutions to deliver efficient, effective, and perspective. Delivering Business Service Management,
reliable business services. BMC Software solutions span enterprise systems, appli-
cations, databases, and service management. Founded in
With this innovative integration of CMDB and batch
1980, BMC Software has offices worldwide and fiscal
process automation, BMC Software is implementing
2005 revenues of more than $1.46 billion. For more in-
a combination of these recommended best practices,
formation about BMC Software, visit www.bmc.com.
combining them into a cohesive, integrated solution,
and delivering a unique value to enterprises. Integrating
batch processing with the CMDB provides a single
source of truth to manage change, with the confi-
dence that change management planning is accounting
for all critical processing, not just online applications.
Stakeholders are better informed, and can make better
decisions, to ensure change does not have unplanned
and adverse effects on critical business services.
It is worth noting that a CMDB is not necessarily a
simple implementation project, and enterprises should
carefully plan any such project, and set about to achieve
realistic goals in a realistic timeframe. However, a CMDB
is a critical part of a complete ITIL implementation, and
provides definite value in an ITIL-based configuration
and change management process. Any enterprise that
has systemic problems with managing change should
investigate a CMDB deployment such as BMC Atrium.
And where batch process disruption occurs as a result
of change, enterprises should also look at integrating
their CMDB with their batch processing. BMC Software
is leading the way in providing such a solution to achieve
this goal, providing unique and innovative value.

©2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Page 
 *97560*
About Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.
Enterprise Management Associates is an advisory and research firm providing market insight to solution providers and technology guidance to Fortune
1000 companies. The EMA team is composed of industry respected analysts who deliver strategic awareness about computing and communications
infrastructure. Coupling this team of experts with an ever-expanding knowledge repository gives EMA clients an unparalleled advantage against their
competition. The firm has published hundreds of articles and books on technology management topics and is frequently requested to share their
observations at management forums worldwide.

This report in whole or in part may not be duplicated, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or retransmitted without prior written permission of
Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All opinions and estimates herein constitute our judgement as of this date and are subject to change without
notice. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
©2008 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Corporate Headquarters:
5777 Central Avenue, Suite 105
Boulder, CO 80301
Phone: +1 303.543.9500
Fax: +1 303.543.7687
www.enterprisemanagement.com
1262.111208