Business Centric Log Management (BCLM™): Systems Thinking

Business Centric LogManagement (BCLM™):

Systems ThinkingSystems Thinking

Gerard Ibarra, PhD

Overview

This is part two of a three part series describing the fundamentals of the Business Centric Log Management methodologyFor an overview of the process, please see For an overview of the process, please see Business Centric Log Management: Understand what to Log

Copyright © 2009 Buildwave Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2

Recap of BCLM

The BCLM methodology is a process that is a that identifies events that are critical to the systems based on the businessIt focuses on doing what is right for the It focuses on doing what is right for the companyIt steers away from looking at an individual service or department and look at them collectively instead


Business Centric Log Management

Methodology


What is Systems Thinking

In order to think in terms of a system, it is important to first know what a system is “A system is an assemblage or combination of

elements or parts forming a complex or unitary elements or parts forming a complex or unitary whole;…” (Blanchard, B. S., and Fabrycky, W. J., Systems and Engineering and Analysis (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1990)



An example of a system could be any of the following Vehicle Computer Computer Bicycle Traffic Street Light Airplane Road (e.g., land, cement, stripes, markers, and

lane separators – this is more of a static system)



Systems could also be part of a larger and more complex system For example, a transportation system is made up

of roads, vehicles, and traffic street lights where of roads, vehicles, and traffic street lights where roads are the means of connecting two points, vehicles are the means of moving people and things from the points, and traffic street lights are the means of efficiently and safely getting people and things between the points



In the above example, any of the systems, can affect the efficiency of the overall system Large road repairs causes traffic detours – the

shortest path from origin to destination is voidshortest path from origin to destination is void Excessive vehicles on the road causes congestion –

motorist must slow down and adjust their driving Broken traffic lights causes delays – motorist must

conform to using the traffic signal as a stop sign



When thinking in terms of a system, it is thus important to understand the affects that its subsystems may have on the overall system


Terms and Definitions

In this presentation, system refers to all the servers, services, and applications working together as one for a common purpose


ServersServices

ApplicationsSystem

Terms and Definitions

Example of a system as referred to in this presentation

*


*Each application resides in its respective server based on the service – for example, the Billing Application resides in the Billing Servr01 and Billing Server02 in the Billing Service

*

Understanding the System

Now that there is a understanding of what a system is, it is time to determine what the company calls its system Is it all the services of the company acting Is it all the services of the company acting

together to produce the service of the company Is it selected services that make up a system

where this system plays a niche in the company’s business and strategy



Is it various services that act as multiple sub-systems, and those subsystems work together to make up the system


System


After defining the system, map the services to the system by showing how they relate to each other and the systemFor example:For example: If Service A fails,

• Does the system fail• Does part of the services fail• Does it degrade system • Does some of the services degrade• Does anything occur



Is Service A dependent on Service B Can Service A dependent on B, but B not on A How much of an affect does Service A and B

together have on the system – is it more or about together have on the system – is it more or about the same than if they were to fail separately Is it possible that if Service A and B were to fail or

degrade together, that it would have less of an impact on the system than if they were to fail or degrade separately



The previous were examples of mapping the services to the systemThere are 2n-1 combinations, where n is the number of services


number of services For example, the sample space for Service A, B,

and C, defined by S= {A, B, C}, has 7 combinations: 2n-1 = 23-1 = 8-1 = 7

• S = (A) S = (AB) S=(AC) S = (ABC)• S = (B) S = (BC) S=(C)


Note that it is also important to determine the independencies of each service which increases the number of permutations For example,


For example, • Is Service A dependent on B

and B independent of A• Is Service B dependent on A

and A independent of B• Is Service A and B independent of each other• Is Service A and B dependent of each other


Once done, map the services and system to the business based on the events generated by the services – it may be necessary to generate new events to completely map the


generate new events to completely map the system to the business


Once mapped, rank the services based on the criticality to the system and businessUse only those events that have the greatest affect the system and business to monitor affect the system and business to monitor them respectively – base it on the Pareto principle, known as the 80-20 rule (Bunkley, N., “Joseph Juran, 103, Pioneer in Quality Control, Dies,” New York Times, March 3, 2008)


Benefits of System Thinking

Understand what is important to the business based on the systemReduce the noise (amount of events being tracked) and concentrate on monitoring what tracked) and concentrate on monitoring what is essential to the businessMake better decisions on the additions or modifications of servers, services, or applications based on how they affect the system and business


Conclusion

Know what is meant by a systemDetermine the system of the companyMap the services to the systemDefine the criticality of the events based on Define the criticality of the events based on the system and businessUse the 80-20 rule to monitor only what has the largest affect on the system and business


Conclusion

Improve the businessbased on systemsbased on systems

thinking


Contact Information
