Managing Around the Full Lifecycle of "Business Systems"
The overall work of informatization ranges from collecting business ideas, to requirements analysis and justification, system design and project planning, then to development and deployment into production, and daily operations. Full lifecycle management of “business systems” connects workflows across all stages into a coherent process.
Full lifecycle management of “business systems” includes: requirements justification before system build, project progress and risks during build, incidents and problems during operations, and continuously evolving requirements and changes. The lifecycle of a business system is like a bond connecting workflows across all stages, implying a coherent process.
The full lifecycle of a “business system” can be divided into five stages: “Justifying”, “Designing”, “Building”, “Operating”, and “Retired”.
Lifecycle & Management Processes
By dividing the lifecycle of “business systems” into stages, we define the job responsibilities at each stage, the configuration information to be maintained at each stage, and the management mechanisms and processes necessary at each stage.
Each stage in the “lifecycle” of a “business system” organizes corresponding processes, activities, tasks, and resources, enabling every ITSM process to connect within an overall process and forming archival management of the entire “business system” lifecycle.
The “business system lifecycle” describes the overall process of a “business system.” Through an integrated lifecycle, a business system is coordinated from project construction to post-construction operations, allowing the IT department to obtain a complete project record, relatively complete knowledge transfer, and collaboration between project construction and operations roles.
Full Lifecycle Attributes of “Business Systems”
At different lifecycle stages of a “business system” (justification, design, construction, operation, retirement), different attribute information needs to be maintained. It is recommended to divide the attributes of a “business system” into four categories:
- Requirements records and justification documents during the justification stage;
- System “functional modules” and “interfaces” defined during system design, which are the objects of requirements and defect records;
- System technical specification attributes gradually refined during system construction;
- Operations data such as incident records, problem records, and change records generated during system operation;
These attributes and archival information are generated and maintained by different processes throughout the lifecycle.
Ensuring the secure and compliant configuration of a “business system” involves, on one hand, checks before system go-live, and on the other hand, change control during operations. Therefore, some key attributes need to be checked before system go-live.