Summary

Establish and maintain a strategy for capacity and availability management.

Description

A strategy for capacity and availability management is based on service requirements, failure and change request trend analysis, current resource use, and service system performance. Service system representations can help to develop a strategy for capacity and availability management. A strategy can address the minimum, maximum, and average use of services (i.e., service resources) over the short, medium, and long term as appropriate for the duration of the service.

It may be appropriate for some services to identify, plan for, and manage the availability of surge capacity or “reach-back” resources to respond to sudden, unexpected increases in demand. For some service types, the management of the obsolescence of certain resources and services factor into the strategy for capacity and availability management.

Service system design documentation can help to determine resources and aspects of the service system to be measured, monitored, analyzed, and managed. However, design documents may not be available or may not accurately and comprehensively reflect all aspects of the live service environment that affect capacity and availability. Therefore, it is important to monitor and analyze actual capacity and availability data. Service strategies, information from day-to-day service delivery and monitoring, and service requirements from current service agreements can assist with these determinations.

Refer to the Service Delivery (SD) (CMMI-SVC) process area for more information about establishing service agreements.


Refer to the Service System Transition (SST) (CMMI-SVC) process area for more information about preparing for service system transition.


Refer to the Strategic Service Management (STSM) (CMMI-SVC) process area for more information about establishing standard services.


The strategy for capacity and availability management can reflect factors such as constraints due to limited customer funding and the customer’s acceptance of certain risks related to capacity and availability.

The service provider may not be able to influence or control demand and resource adjustments but is still required to formulate a strategy that best meets service requirements. If the service provider can influence or control demand and resource adjustments, the strategy can be more sophisticated than in situations in which the service provider cannot exercise such influence or control.

Example Work Products



  1. Capacity and availability management strategy


Subpractices



1. Document resource and service use, performance, and availability.



2. Estimate future resource and service capacity and availability requirements.



3. Develop a capacity strategy that meets service requirements, meets the demand for resources and services, and addresses how resources are provided, used, and allocated.



4. Develop an availability strategy that meets service requirements and addresses delivering a sustained level of availability.

It may be appropriate for some services to include in the strategy an availability testing schedule, a service system maintenance strategy, and planned service outages.

Refer to the Service Continuity (SCON) (CMMI-SVC) process area for more information about preparing for service continuity.


Refer to the Service Delivery (SD) (CMMI-SVC) process area for more information about maintaining the service system.


Refer to the Service System Transition (SST) (CMMI-SVC) process area for more information about preparing for service system transition.



5. Document monetized costs and benefits of the strategy and any assumptions.



6. Periodically revise the strategy.

It may also be necessary to revise the strategy on an event-driven basis.