Unified IT Demand Management
An ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATES® (EMA™) Research Report
Written by Charles Betz, EMA Research Director
April 2012
Sponsored by:
IT & DATA MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS & CONSULTING
IT & DATA MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS & CONSULTING
Unified IT Demand Management
Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 1
IT Demand Management in Context................................................................................................ 2
2012 Survey Methodology................................................................................................................. 5
Summary of Key Findings................................................................................................................. 7
Demographics.............................................................................................................................. 7
Discussion.................................................................................................................................... 7
Other Results of Interest.............................................................................................................. 8
Conclusions.................................................................................................................................. 9
Detailed Findings............................................................................................................................... 9
Project Management.................................................................................................................... 9
The Decline of the PMO........................................................................................................... 12
Service Portfolio Management................................................................................................... 13
Service Management (Ticketed) Demand.................................................................................. 17
Continuous Improvement as Demand....................................................................................... 21
Prioritization.............................................................................................................................. 29
The Agile Trends........................................................................................................................ 36
Kanban, DevOps, and Prioritization.......................................................................................... 38
Demographics............................................................................................................................ 38
About Nimsoft................................................................................................................................. 46
References........................................................................................................................................ 46
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Unified IT Demand Management
Introduction
IT staffs are notoriously overburdened; stories of excessive overtime are common in the IT industry.
Often, this overwork stems from the combination of many different demands. IT staff juggle multiple
priorities: adding new functionality, troubleshooting and restoring service, and participating in the
many forms of continuous improvement seen in enterprise IT.
These multiple kinds of work frequently have no overall prioritization. IT staffers, therefore, find
themselves at the receiving end of multiple queues of work, with little or no guidance as to how to
manage the situation beyond “who is shouting loudest” (Figure 1).
Figure 1: IT overburden
The predictable result: poor IT service, not well aligned to business needs. Multi-tasking leads to
inefficient use of IT staff time – results take longer to deliver when people are switching between
priorities. Furthermore, the person shouting loudest may not represent the greatest value to the business.
Historically, IT organizations have tried a variety of ways to mitigate this problem. Some attempt to
keep a firewall between “development” and “operations” staff, but Enterprise Management Associates
(EMA) believes that current trends like DevOps, Agile, and Lean IT are making this a less and less
tenable approach.
Recently, the concepts of “unified demand management,” “single queue,” “single funnel,” “common
work management,” and related terms have emerged in IT management. Some vendors are increasing
the integration between their project and service desk systems, and others are starting to offer integrated
reporting across IT demand. With these types of integrations being fairly new, there are many questions
regarding implementation, value, approach, and so on.
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Unified IT Demand Management
This EMA paper is in two parts. The first section discusses the problem of IT demand management in
context. The second section reports the results of the survey on unified IT demand management. This
research builds on EMA research into service desk and IT financial management.
This research track uncovered clear industry concern and awareness of challenges around IT demand
management. It should help IT organizations and IT management software vendors understand how
their technology choices, solution architectures, and product positioning can be understood from a
perspective of unified IT demand management.
IT Demand Management in Context
EMA is seeing the following set of current influences in the IT management tools market (Figure 2):
• On the demand side, increasing pressure for agility and transparency in IT costs and service
management, with expectations of improved self service provided by increasingly consumerized
interfaces.
• On the supply side, Cloud computing in its internal and external manifestations, driving IT
towards more of a broker role in optimizing service choice, increasing service complexity, and
collapsing times for provisioning, deploying, monitoring and retiring the full gamut of IT services.
• In terms of execution, pressure for increased time to value, better tracking and priorization, and
desire for integrated IT management suites – point solutions requiring extensive integrations are no
longer desired, when comprehensive solutions are readily available at attractive price points
While the focus of this research is on demand management, the supply and especially the execution sides
also figured in. Strictly speaking, prioritization is an execution side activity, and will be explored more
thoroughly in further research on that topic. But improved prioritization requires demand management.
Figure 2: A new model for understanding IT
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Unified IT Demand Management
Traditionally, IT fragments its resources along functional lines (plan/control; build; run), and further
along whether work is formally or informally assigned:
• Project management work (typically represented as an expected percentage of some person’s effort)
• Ticketed work
• Informally assigned work, often of a “continuous improvement” nature
Historic barriers between project-centric “development” and ticket-centric “operations” have resulted
in finger-pointing, churn, and diminished IT value to the business. Increasingly, resources are called
upon for a greater and greater variety of work, in the service of accelerated end-to-end value. Agile calls
for “generalizing specialists,” and DevOps practices call for expanded breadth of awareness across the
IT value chain.
Understanding the demand for IT work independently of traditional boundaries is therefore key to
the next generation of IT management. Whether “new” functionality or “maintenance” effort, it’s all
just work, and traditional categorizations can obscure as much as they clarify. The value of IT to the
business is based on service utility and warranty, understood in terms of the business objectives at stake.
IT organizations should prioritize IT work according to those criteria. A first step on this road is simply
understanding the demand for IT services, whether a new functional module delivered for a critical
e-business service, or a repaired laptop expedited to a key sales rep in time to finish a contract proposal.
Portions of the following adapted from [1].
The “Accept Demand” process is defined as
Capture, prioritize, and authorize and track response to requests and identified needs for IT services. Example:
Accept request for new functionality in an HR system module. Accept request for end user provisioning.
Demand management operates across the service lifecycles, and any given demand request may impact
any lifecycle.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Demand is therefore ambiguous as a process, as it must function as the front end of many other IT
processes. It can be viewed as a form of registration and routing, or it can be viewed as a form of abstract,
master IT process of which all the others are subtypes. These issues are discussed in depth in [1].
Aggregate demand means all of the following processes:
• Project
• Release
• Change
• Service Request
• Core Transactional Delivery (i.e. infrastructure demand)
• Service Restoration
• Continuous Improvement
◦◦ Availability
◦◦ Capacity
◦◦ Problem
◦◦ Risk
◦◦ Continuity
• Service Retirement
It is not possible to manage the IT portfolio holistically unless all of this demand is understood.
Yet, modern practice tends to build distinct queues for each with the individual IT contributor required
to coordinate and prioritize across the incoming workstreams. This leads to overburden, poor morale,
and many forms of IT waste.
For example, a systems administrator might find themselves fulfilling service requests from development
teams for ongoing capacity enhancements, called upon to resolve a critical service outage, and also
tasked with building out a server cluster for a project. There are currently few if any IT management
suites that would provide an actionable view into that individual’s effort.
Figure 3: Basic demand management
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Unified IT Demand Management
Figure 3 graphically shows the relationship between the ideas of “pre-authorized” demand versus
“discretionary” demand.
From a business perspective, the diagram might be painfully obvious – of course one must fulfill
operational commitments before embarking on discretionary initiatives, and allocate resources to get
things done! But IT management is fragmented, and too often demand is qualified and dispatched with
no concern for resource availability, especially if the same resources are working disparate processes with
no aggregate visibility. This leads to the notorious problem of overburden in IT work.
Some promising approaches to solving this problem include:
• Next-generation IT management systems that consolidate project, service, and resource management
into one unified data model
• Implementation of Critical Chain execution management techniques [2]
• Kanban’s focus on minimizing work in progress [3]
But any technical solution will depend on accepting the idea of universal demand.
2012 Survey Methodology
To assess the practices and perceptions of today’s IT organizations concerning demand management,
EMA conducted a survey on the topic during January and February 2012. This survey-based research
explored the need for unified IT demand management in terms of managing the competition for IT
resources. Data is correlated by type of company, approaches to managing IT work, and the potential
need for new products. The survey targeted 150+ IT and business professionals responsible for
monitoring and/or managing business applications, and examined the following questions:
• How is work in organizations registered and tracked?
• How mature are enterprise users’ demand management processes?
• Do enterprise IT customers have a need for a unified view across project, operational, and
continuous improvement work?
• How do enterprise users approach service vs. project portfolio management?
• What major products are used to capture and manage IT demand?
• What features/functionality do enterprise users need in this area?
• What specific reporting and analysis approaches would work for enterprise customers?
• What terminology and messaging effectively communicates the “unified demand management”
problem and market space to potential customers?
Survey respondents were screened via a number of questions designed to exclude those who lacked the
technical and/or business knowledge necessary to provide knowledgeable answers. EMA specifically
selected IT and Line of Business professionals with knowledge relating to project management, service
management, and IT continuous improvement.
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Unified IT Demand Management
The following definitions were provided:
Service support is defined as the
overall set of practices which keep
IT services running, fit for purpose,
and available. It enables access to
and effective interaction with the IT
service.
The primary function concerned with
Service Support is the Service Desk,
and other functions such as:
• Incident Management
• Change Management
• Service Request Management
Service Support work is typically
shorter in lead time (measured in days
or weeks) and (when formalized as
Incidents, Requests, Changes, and so
forth) tracked as Service Desk tickets.
IT Projects are defined as relatively
long-term efforts (typically measured
in months) to add a new service or
application, or fundamentally change
an existing one.
Project Portfolio Management is
defined as the process by which
projects are proposed, prioritized,
funded, and monitored at a high level
for progress and risks.
Continuous improvement work fills
the middle ground between full
Projects and Service Support work. It
represents IT work/activities that are
“too small for a project and too big for
a service call.”
Continuous improvement activities or
initiatives may include:
A Project Management Office (PMO)
traditionally coordinates these
activities, as well as defining overall
project methodology (e.g., required
milestones) for an organization.
Finally, the PMO is often responsible
for coordinating the time tracking
associated with projects.
• Adding new functionality
(typically smaller increments) to
existing systems
• Problem (but not incident)
management (a.k.a. root cause
analysis)
• Capacity management initiatives
• Availability management
initiatives
• Service level management
initiatives
• Audit, risk, security, and
compliance initiatives
• Architecture initiatives
• Data and/or process quality
improvement (business or IT
originated)
• Improving existing systems,
without changing functionality
The following qualifying questions were asked:
What is your role in IT-related work as defined as service support?
What is your role in IT-related work as defined as IT Projects and/or Project Portfolio Management?
What is your role in IT-related work as defined as continuous improvement?
• Hands-on, directly involved
• Direct managerial oversight
• Overall executive oversight
• Directly involved as a planner
• Indirectly involved as a technical professional
• Indirectly involved as a manager/ executive
• Not in any way involved, just aware
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Unified IT Demand Management
Respondents were terminated if they answered one of these for all THREE areas:
• Indirectly involved as a technical professional
• Indirectly involved as a manager/ executive
• Not in any way involved, just aware
Other qualifying questions included the respondent’s company size and their role and functional area;
respondents from companies of less than 250 employees were excluded. Specifics are available on
request for EMA customers.
Summary of Key Findings
Demographics
• 70% of respondents were at a Director level or higher.
• 84% worked in IT, IS or Network. Of those, a plurality self-identified as Executive IT Management.
• The sample had a strong manufacturing presence, with 21% identifying that as their sector. Next
highest was Government at 12%.
• 96% of respondents had companies headquartered in North America.
• Over 50% reported corporate revenues of greater than $100 million, with fully 26% reporting
greater than $1 billion.
• 85% reported IT budgets staying the same or increasing from “last year to this year.”
Discussion
One of the most notable results from the survey is shown in Figure 4.
Are you aware of situations where poor coordination across
different types of IT demand has led to poor support of
business needs?
Yes
66%
No
34%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Column %
Figure 4: Business value of demand coordination
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60%
70%
Unified IT Demand Management
Much else in the survey was consistent with this message. IT organizations struggle with understanding
the demand for their services across its various channels, and have trouble prioritizing. They see value in
improving the practice of demand prioritization, and are interested in better tools to help them do this.
A minority of organizations (31%) actually had a practice called “demand management.” Its purpose
varied greatly, but IT financial management, service portfolio management, strategic planning, and
customer relationship management were the dominant themes.
To a surprising degree, organizations may be using Changes as registered in their service desk as a front
end to the software development lifecycle, and might benefit from improved flow between the service
desk and project or ALM solutions.
Of organizations that require a Project Management Office (PMO) to handle projects over a certain
budget amount, that amount is either static or increasing – evidence for a hypothesis that PMO
control is decreasing. The “radar ceiling” is going up and more things can “fly under” it. EMA has had
discussions with senior IT executives concerned about this trend and potentially decreasing governance
over IT investments.
Other Results of Interest
• Fully 60% of respondents reported having no capability to track project time billing, which was
surprising.
• Organizations with a PMO were more likely to see the value in a software solution that would help
them better track and prioritize across different kinds of IT demand.
• The industry still struggles with defining the following terms:
◦◦ IT Service
◦◦ Change
◦◦ Application
• 57% of respondents thought the ITIL CSI (Continual Service Improvement) Register would be
extremely or very valuable to them.
• The survey showed a statistically significant relationship between DevOps and Kanban. While only
a minority of companies were doing either (28% & 21%), those doing one were highly likely to be
doing the other as well. The companies most likely to be doing either practice were concentrated
in the high mid-market (2,500 to 9,999 employees).
• Additional analysis of respondents considering or implementing DevOps or Kanban showed:
◦◦ They were more likely to be “raising the ceiling” on PMO control (diminishing the authority of
their PMO).
◦◦ They were more likely to be aware of situations where poor coordination across IT demand led
to poor business support.
◦◦ They were more likely to favor improved prioritization mechanisms.
◦◦ They were more likely to see applications as services (rather than as technical components of
services).
◦◦ They were more likely to see a need for the ITIL CSI Register.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Conclusions
• IT organizations struggle with demand management.
• They are open to new approaches and tools for dealing with it.
• The relationship between PMO, service desk, and continuous improvement demand is evolving.
• The PMO is tracking IT services and requests for new project work are coming in through the
service desk.
• This interoperation calls for more work in terms of industry best practices, conceptual models,
master data management and IT management system integrations.
Detailed Findings
Detailed demographics are to be found at the end of this section.
Project Management
The existence of a dedicated PMO is important to an organization’s demand management strategy.
How does your overall IT organization handle the
management of IT projects?
We have a formalized Project Management
Office (may have a different name) that’s
focused on project portfolio managemen
65%
We have no formal organization that’s
focused on project portfolio management.
32%
Don’t know
3%
0%
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Column %
Figure 5: The existence of a formal Project Management Office is key to understanding an
organization’s demand management strategy. Nearly 1/3 do NOT have a PMO.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Which of the following functions is handled through a
centralized capability or process of some kind?
Project selection and funding
57%
Project resource management (assigning
employees and hiring contractors)
57%
Project prioritization
56%
Project execution (tracking and reporting
progress)
55%
Project issue, risk, and action item tracking
53%
Project proposals (sometimes called
ideation)
49%
Project methodology (required milestones)
44%
Project time billing
40%
Project auditing
31%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 6: Project activities handled through centralized processes
Regardless of whether a PMO (by any name) exists, there are discrete project lifecycle functions for
which an organization may or may not have a centralized capability (Figure 6). Most interesting is
the gap between centralized project selection and funding, and project time billing. Fully 60% of
respondents reported having no capability to track project time billing, which is surprising. This was
correlated to the size of the organization, but even in the largest organizations the lack of this capability
was surprising. This may indicate usage of other mechanisms for time billing, not tightly coupled to
project management infrastructure.
Cross analysis showed some peculiarities. We allowed all respondents to answer the question shown
in Figure 6, including those who said they had no PMO. All of those who indicated they had no
PMO nevertheless indicated they had SOME centralized capability for one or more of the core PMO
functions, whether it was ideation, prioritization, funding, or one of the others. Further research is
needed to better understand actual practices here.
The largest organizations (>10,000) showed a clear tendency to have centralized project funding and
resource management capabilities. However, it was the smallest organizations that were most likely to
centralize project ideation.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Which software solution(s) does your IT organization use
for project portfolio management?
47%
Microsoft Sharepoint
39%
Microsoft Excel
37%
Microsoft Project Server
18%
IBM Rational
16%
Oracle Primavera
HP Project and Portfolio Management
(formerly Kintana/BTO)
In-house developed
13%
13%
We do not use a central solution of any kind,
and cannot report on projects at an
CA Clarity (formerly Niku)
10%
8%
BMC IT Business Management
5%
Serena ALM
4%
Rally Software
4%
ServiceNow
3%
Nimsoft
3%
Planview
2%
Other (Please specify)
2%
Troux
1%
0% 5% 10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 7: Project portfolio management solutions
The preponderance of Microsoft solutions was a bit surprising. When cross analyzed with the size of
company, no significant difference was found. That means that, in this study, a company with revenues
of $1 billion was no less likely to use Microsoft products for project portfolio management.
In cross analysis, it was noted that organizations with no PMO were more likely to use Microsoft
solutions for some tracking, and tended to not use the heavyweight PMO-associated solutions like
Planview or HP. However, some use of such solutions was seen occasionally in organizations claiming
to have no PMO.
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Unified IT Demand Management
The Decline of the PMO
Does a project need to meet a certain budgetary threshold
before being tracked by the project portfolio management
capability?
Yes
47%
No
53%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Column %
What is that threshold?
4%
$0k up to $25k
$25k up to $50k
17%
33%
$50k up to $200K
16%
$200K up to $500K
13%
$500K up to $750K
10%
$750k up to $1M
1M or more
7%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Column %
How has this threshold changed in the past 3 years?
31%
Increased
67%
Stayed the same
1%
Decreased
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Column %
Figure 8a-c.: The changing PMO
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50%
60%
70%
80%
Unified IT Demand Management
These turned out to be three of the more significant questions. Taken as a whole, they demonstrate that
the traditional PMO is losing ground.
About half of companies require a PMO to govern project expenditures regardless of their size, but for
those who have put in a threshold, that threshold is either stable or (in a significant number of cases)
increasing. Essentially, this means that the “radar ceiling” is getting higher and there is potentially
less governance over IT work. The ceiling is statistically more likely to have increased in the larger
organizations. Further analysis showed it was significantly more likely to have increased in organizations
implementing leading-edge Agile practices of DevOps and/or Kanban.
In cross analysis, a discrepancy was noted in that nine responders who had previously said they HAD
no PMO, still indicated that the PMO was required for projects meeting a certain threshold.
Organizations indicating they had a formal “demand management” activity were highly likely to have a
budgetary threshold for the PMO, and more likely to have increased that threshold in the last three years.
Service Portfolio Management
Which statement best reflects your organization’s definition
of “IT service”?
An “IT service” is an operational production
system, and quality is based on availability
and flexibility.
22%
An “IT service” is something that the service
desk provides on request, such as user
assistance or new hardware, and qua
30%
48%
Both of the above
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Column %
Figure 9: Defining IT Service
Full text:
Which statement best reflects your organization’s definition of “IT service”?
• An “IT service” is an operational production system, and quality is based on availability and flexibility.
• An “IT service” is something that the service desk provides on request, such as user assistance or new
hardware, and quality is based on time to resolve, user satisfaction, and so forth.
• Both of the above
The purpose of this question was to understand how people defined “IT Service” for further questions
on service portfolio management. Notice that, while a plurality accepted both alternatives, for significant
numbers of respondents an “IT service” is a production system (perhaps called an “application”) and for
others – a full 30%! – “IT services” are ONLY what the service desk does.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Which statement best reflects your organization’s definition
of “Application” or “Application Service”?
An “Application” or “Application Service” is a
kind of production IT service and one way
that IT provides business value
48%
An “Application” is software, a technical
component of an IT service and not a service
in and of itself.
45%
7%
Neither definition fits my organization
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Column %
Figure 10: Defining “Application”
This question was important due to ongoing industry confusion about whether “Applications” can be
“IT Services” or not. This is a controversial question by all reports – it is something the author routinely
asks vendors and end users, and it never fails to generate opinions. There is no industry consensus; deep
divisions in IT usage are apparent.
Discrepancies in usage are apparent in vendor marketing
every day, with the more ITIL-aligned vendors tending
towards the view that “applications” are merely technical,
while more software-centric vendors (SDLC, ALM,
Agile, Enterprise Architecture, etc.) tending towards the
view that Applications are services.
This was confirmed by the research. Respondents
indicating implementation of DevOps or Kanban were
statistically more likely to see applications as services
(Figure 11).
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Respondents indicating
implementation of DevOps
or Kanban were statistically
more likely to see
applications as services.
Unified IT Demand Management
q11: Which statement best reflects your organization’s definition of “Application” or “Application Service”?
Total
An “Application” or
“Application Service” is
a kind of production IT
service and one way that IT
provides business value
An “Application” is software,
a technical component of an
IT service and not a service
in and of itself.
Neither definition fits my
organization
(A)
(B)
(C)
q38: Is your organization considering or implementing the concept of “DevOps”? Sample Size
Yes
Count
Column %
150
72
68
10
43
31
11
1
28.67%
43.06%
16.18%
10.00%
Bc
No
Count
75
26
44
5
50.00%
36.11%
64.71%
50.00%
Column %
A
Don’t know
Count
32
15
13
4
21.33%
20.83%
19.12%
40.00%
68
10
Column %
q41: Is anyone in your organization considering or using the Lean practice of “kanban”?
Sample Size
150
72
Yes
Count
32
23
9
0
21.33%
31.94%
13.24%
0.00%
Column %
Bc
No
Count
Column %
118
49
59
10
78.67%
68.06%
86.76%
100.00%
A
a
Figure 11: Definition of “application” significantly affected by use of DevOps and Kanban
(Also see Figure 32a-b, Figure 33a-c)
Respondents indicating they had a formal PMO (Figure 5) were also more likely to see applications as
services.
The largest organizations by revenue ($1 billion or more) were more likely to favor the terminology
that applications are services in and of themselves, as were organizations with higher IT budgets and
organizations with a formalized PMO. Organizations that tracked IT resources and ticketed activity by
service were also more likely to view applications as a form of service (Figure 13, Figure 18). They were
more likely to have a formalized “Demand Management’ capability (Figure 28a-b). Finally, they were
more likely to identify challenges in prioritization, poor coordination leading to poor business support,
and to see value in improved prioritization and solutions supporting it (Figure 29a-b, Figure 30a-b).
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Unified IT Demand Management
Which software solution(s) does your IT organization use
for service portfolio management? If your organization uses
more ...
Microsoft Sharepoint
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Project Server
IBM Tivoli IBM Rational
Oracle Primavera
We do not use a central solution of any kind,
and cannot report onIn-house
servicesdeveloped
at an
HP Service Manager
HP Project and Portfolio Management IBM
Rational
CA Unicenter
CA Clarity Nimsoft
Serena ALM
Digital Fuel
Other (Please specify)
Planview
NewScale
BMC IT Business Management
BMC Remedy
Prosight
Pacific Edge
47%
34%
33%
15%
13%
13%
12%
10%
9%
7%
4%
3%
3%
3%
2%
2%
2%
1%
1%
1%
0% 5% 10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 12: Service portfolio management products
Note: Due to an error in question preparation, “IBM Tivoli” and “IBM Rational” were combined as one
product, as were “CA Clarity” and “Nimsoft.” The assumption is that the data indicates use of one or the
other by the respondent for this purpose. EMA regrets this error.
The results here, while lacking in statistical significance, are nevertheless interesting. The relatively
high ranking given to IBM Tivoli was surprising to EMA staff. This ranking was consistent with when
solutions for service desk were queried upon (Figure 15).
Another notable aspect was the significant number of organizations using project portfolio management
solutions for the service portfolio.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Service Management (Ticketed) Demand
Does your organization formally assign and track resources
(personnel hours) by service or application, without the
need for a project?
52%
Yes
No
39%
9%
Don’t know
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Column %
Figure 13: Resource management by services
This is one of the most significant aspects of demand management. If resources cannot be traced back
to a service (application, infrastructure, or otherwise), then there are two alternatives:
1.
Everything is a “project,” for accounting purposes, and there may be a number of open-ended
projects (contrary to standard project management practices, which emphasize that projects
have an end date).
2.
There is a black hole of visibility for non-project work. It may be tracked at higher organizational
levels (purely through organizational rollup of time tracking), but the risk is that without
service traceability, this effort may be obscure to the business and the IT organization may be
placing itself at risk as an unexplained cost center.
Surprisingly, this did not vary by size of organization. Smaller organizations were as likely, or more
likely to tie resources to services without a project.
Organizations with a formal PMO were more likely also to track resources against services or
applications, without the need for a project.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Does your IT organization have one or more formalized
Service or Help Desk organization(s) that handles ticketed IT
work?
Yes
85%
No
15%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Column %
Figure 14: Formalized service desk
We did not expect any surprises here. The vast majority of IT organizations have a formalized service
desk. As would be expected, the percentage increased steadily as the size of the organization varied.
Which software solution(s) does your IT organization use
for its Service or Help Desk?
In-house developed solutions
Sharepoint
IBM Tivoli Service Desk
Other (Please specify)
HP Service Manager
BMC Remedy
MS Access
CA Unicenter
LANDesk
FrontRange
Hornbill
BMC RemedyForce
ServiceNow
Newscale
Nimsoft
Manual kanban boards
Planview (PPM/SPM/EPM)
Serena ITSM
1%
1%
0%
7%
6%
5%
4%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
5%
17%
9%
9%
10%
15%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 15: Service Desk tools
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22%
21%
20%
19%
20%
25%
Unified IT Demand Management
There were some surprises in this data as well. The variances given the sample size became insignificant,
but (as in Figure 12) IBM showed more market share than might be expected. Five respondents,
skewing towards smaller organizations, said they use manual Kanban boards. This is notable, given that
Kanban is just starting to gain mindshare in development circles and is rarely mentioned in the context
of operations.
BMC, between the core Remedy suite, RemedyForce, and now the Numara acquisition, would be
roughly equivalent to HP in terms of market share.
Which of the following kinds of work does your IT
organization track within its service desk software?
Incidents, outages, breakages, requests for
maintenance
77%
Problems (root cause analysis)
73%
Requests for system access (including
password resets)
72%
Requests for change
65%
Requests for end user equipment
61%
Requests for production services (e.g.
servers, databases)
61%
Other (Please specify)
1%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 16: Types of work tracked by the service desk
Notable in these findings were lack of any substantive mention of “other,” the 1% noted were just
indicating they didn’t have a service desk. The five categories of work therefore were comprehensive at
least to this sample.
It was surprising to see such a high percentage for problems as opposed to incidents, and it’s not
clear that respondents have a strict ITIL definition in mind. The author questions whether 73% of
organizations are truly doing root cause analysis.
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Unified IT Demand Management
How would your organization define “Requests for
change”?
A Request for change (or Change Request)
is a well defined change to a production or
preproduction environment, typicall
13%
A Request for change may be a request to
change the capabilities of a service, that may
involve developing and deploying
19%
63%
All of the above
None of the above
4%
0%
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Column %
Figure 17: Change definition
The full text of the alternatives (truncated in the graphic above due to tool limitations):
• A Request for change (or Change Request) is a well-defined change to a production or preproduction
environment, typically on a 4 week or less lead time.
• A Request for change may be a request to change the capabilities of a service, that may involve developing
and deploying new functionality, and may last longer than 4 weeks.
• All of the above
• None of the above
This is an important question, in that it shows the overlap of the Change concept with the software
development lifecycle. In some organizations, Changes are restricted to a well-defined, limited lead
time window. In others, Changes are more broad. And in yet others, Changes may be either.
Further research is needed; EMA analysts are skeptical that 82% of organizations are using their service
desks as a front end to their project portfolio. However, other questions reinforced the findings here
(see Figure 20).
There are considerable implications if the Change process is used to front-end the development lifecycle.
It means that Changes become very general and need significant routing effort up front. Some of them
will be routed to portfolio management for prioritization and approval. A request for a major new
functional module in a production application is very different than a request to power down a server
and replace its RAM, yet a generic definition of Change covers both. Minimally, one would expect
the requester to self-route to some degree; putting a staff gatekeeper in place to route such obviously
different requests would be wasteful.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Does your organization assign Service Desk tickets (for
example, Incidents, Changes, and-or Service Requests) to
one or more production services?
Yes, all
38%
42%
Yes, some
No
17%
3%
Don’t know
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Column %
Figure 18: Tickets assigned to production services
This question is related to Figure 13. Further analysis showed a valid correlation between organization
size and assigning tickets to services. Organizations that do not do so again run the risk of poor
transparency.
Organizations with a formalized PMO were more likely to tie tickets to production services.
Continuous Improvement as Demand
As a reminder, continuous improvement work fills the middle ground between full Projects and Service
Support work. It represents IT work/activities that are “too small for a project and too big for a service call.”
Continuous improvement activities or initiatives may include:
• Adding new functionality (typically smaller increments) to existing systems
• Problem (but not incident) management (aka root cause analysis)
• Capacity management initiatives
• Availability management initiatives
• Service level management initiatives
• Audit, risk, security, and compliance initiatives
• Architecture initiatives
• Data and/or process quality improvement (business or IT originated)
• Improving existing systems, without changing functionality
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Unified IT Demand Management
How are continuous improvement activities tracked within
your IT organization?
As ticketed items in our Service Desk
software solution(s)
46%
As projects in our Project Portfolio
Management software solution(s)
42%
As work in an Application Lifecycle
Management solution
27%
In end user productivity tools
27%
Through their own dedicated production
systems
25%
They are not tracked to my knowledge
Other (Please specify)
20%
1%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 19: How continuous improvement is tracked
Organizations with a formal PMO were more likely to use the project portfolio tool for continuous
improvement tracking.
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Unified IT Demand Management
You have indicated that some continuous improvement
activities are tracked as/through ticketed items in our
Service Desk software solution(s)
Adding new functionality (typically smaller
increments) to existing systems
62%
Problem (but not incident) management (e.g.
root cause analysis or proactive measures)
57%
Data and/or process quality improvement
(business or IT originated)
49%
Improving existing systems, without
changing functionality
48%
Audit, risk, security, and compliance
initiatives
46%
Service level management
42%
Architecture initiatives
41%
38%
Capacity management
36%
Availability management
0%
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 20: Continuous improvement in service desk
The findings are again surprising, but consistent with Figure 17, that the organizations surveyed to a
great extent do use their service desks to track requests for new functionality.
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Unified IT Demand Management
You have indicated that some continuous improvement
activities are tracked as/through projects in our Project
Portfolio Management solution
Adding new functionality (typically smaller
increments) to existing systems
63%
Improving existing systems, without
changing functionality
59%
Data and/or process quality improvement
(business or IT originated)
52%
Problem (but not incident) management (e.g.
root cause analysis or proactive measures)
51%
Architecture initiatives
48%
Audit, risk, security, and compliance
initiatives
41%
Service level management
35%
Capacity management
33%
Availability management
33%
0%
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 21: Continuous improvement in PPM
What is surprising across Figure 20 and Figure 21 is the fact that new, small-increment functionality
is being tracked in both Service Desk and Project Portfolio systems. Interfaces between these
systems are still not all that common, so the implementation practices here are not clear and further
research would be useful.
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Unified IT Demand Management
You have indicated that some continuous improvement
activities are tracked as/through work in an Application
Lifecycle Management Solution
Data and/or process quality improvement
(business or IT originated)
65%
Availability management
60%
Audit, risk, security, and compliance
initiatives
60%
Adding new functionality (typically smaller
increments) to existing systems
50%
Service level management
45%
Improving existing systems, without
changing functionality
45%
42%
Capacity management
Problem (but not incident) management (e.g.
root cause analysis or proactive measures)
38%
Architecture initiatives
38%
0%
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 22: Continuous improvement in ALM
Application lifecycle management is a sometimes controversial term for a category of software
that includes the SDLC but tends also to interface with release management and service portfolio
management. What is surprising is the degree to which availability management was cited, but given
that ALM systems were only 27% of the sample, we start getting into numbers that aren’t statistically
meaningful.
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Unified IT Demand Management
You have indicated that some continuous improvement
activities are tracked as/through end user productivity tools.
Problem (but not incident) management (e.g.
root cause analysis or proactive measures)
57%
Improving existing systems, without
changing functionality
52%
Data and/or process quality improvement
(business or IT originated)
50%
Capacity management
48%
Service level management
48%
Availability management
45%
Audit, risk, security, and compliance
initiatives
45%
Adding new functionality (typically smaller
increments) to existing systems
45%
Architecture initiatives
35%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 23: Continuous improvement in EUC
EUC tools were used by a minority of respondents for continuous improvement. Problem management
ranked highest here, which is somewhat surprising given that most service desk solutions have some
support for it.
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Unified IT Demand Management
You have indicated that some continuous improvement
activities are tracked as/through their own dedicated
production system.
Audit, risk, security, and compliance
initiatives
49%
Service level management
46%
Data and/or process quality improvement
(business or IT originated)
46%
Adding new functionality (typically smaller
increments) to existing systems
46%
Improving existing systems, without
changing functionality
46%
Capacity management
43%
Architecture initiatives
41%
Problem (but not incident) management (e.g.
root cause analysis or proactive measures)
35%
Availability management
30%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 24: Continuous improvement in dedicated system
It’s not surprising that audit, risk, security, and compliance, and service level management were ranked
highly here. Although neither is a robust tool segment, EMA staff have seen custom solutions built for
both these capabilities.
Considering Figure 19 through Figure 24 as a whole, it’s also interesting in general the extent to which
data and process quality improvement were ranked highly.
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Unified IT Demand Management
The next question had the following discussion:
ITIL 2011 proposes the CSI Register as a system of record for “all improvement opportunities.”
It would enable tracking benefits and assist in prioritizing improvement opportunities.
It would be integrated with other IT knowledge management and information repositories.
How valuable would such a system be for your organization?
ITIL 2011 proposes the CSI Register as a system of record for
“all improvement opportunities.” It would enable tracking benefits
and assist in prioritizing improvement opportunities. It would be
integrated with other IT knowledge management and informatio
12%
Extremely valuable
Very valuable
45%
30%
Moderately valuable
9%
Slightly valuable
4%
Not at all valuable
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Column %
Figure 25: ITIL CSI Register
The concept of the ITIL CSI register is consistent with other emerging industry guidance [4] and
EMA believes that, in the abstract, it is a good idea. Whether the market can accept yet another IT
management system is a different question, and since the CSI register basically just requires workflow
technology, EMA believes it can easily be subsumed into either ticketing or project systems.
More important than tooling is the cultural awareness among IT practitioners that continuous
improvement is an important form of demand and needs to be tracked and prioritized just like projects
and work orders. This becomes more and more apparent as organizations deepen their commitment to
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Unified IT Demand Management
methodologies like the Deming cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) or Six Sigma’s DMAIC (Define-MeasureAnalyze-Improve-Control). These high maturity approaches require great consistency and followthrough on the part of organizations; improvement initiatives must be tracked over time and not
handled episodically.
Organizations with a formal PMO, or implementing or considering Kanban or DevOps, were
statistically more likely to see greater value in the CSI Register concept.
The following text was presented for the next question:
For the purposes of this survey, Informal Demand is defined as:
• Work is informal if and only if identifying it requires interviewing those involved.
• Work is formal if and only if it can identified (e.g., reported on) without directly interviewing those
involved.
• A phone request directly from an end user to a support person, and not entered into any system, is
informal demand.
• Work tracked in any production system is by definition formalized.
Any kind of IT work (project, service support, continuous improvement) may be formal or informal.
Prioritization
How often do your IT resources find themselves challenged
or needing guidance in prioritizing across formal versus
informal demand?
11%
Frequently
39%
Often
33%
Sometimes
16%
Seldom
1%
Never
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Column %
Figure 26: Formal vs. informal demand
This question is fairly general and will start to show value over time if tracked longitudinally. As it is, it
lacks some context. However, it’s still notable that half of respondents opted for the higher values. This
is consistent with other responses in the survey.
Further analysis showed that organizations saying this problem happens “frequently” or “often” required
projects to meet a budgetary threshold (Figure 8a-c).: The changing PMO8), and were more likely to
formally assign resources to a service or application without a project (Figure 13). Organizations saying
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Unified IT Demand Management
“frequently” were also likely to identify an “IT Service” as strictly a production system (Figure 9), and
strongly likely to see value in the idea of the ITIL CSI Register (Figure 25). They were somewhat more
likely to have a formal “Demand Management” capability and strongly likely to
• indicate that IT resources were also challenged in prioritizing across formal demand
• be aware of situations where poor prioritization led to poor business support (Figure 29a-b)
• favor improving prioritization, and
• see a software solution enabling prioritization as valuable (Figure 30a-b)
Which of the following IT functions interact directly with
business users in helping to assess, respond to, and/or
coordinate the business users’ need for new, changed, and/
or ongoing IT services?
Help desk
53%
IT strategic planning
43%
Service desk
43%
IT customer relationship management
38%
Incident, problem, availability, and/or service
level management
Application management
38%
32%
Change management
31%
IT or service portfolio management
30%
Business relationship management
25%
Enterprise architecture
22%
Project portfolio management
21%
Office of the CIO
20%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 27: Customer facing IT functions
The above question (Figure 27) was asked to assess what organizations used for customer support at all
levels of the organization. Notable:
• Change management appearing as a customer-facing capability
• Enterprise architecture appearing as a customer-facing capability
• At least 20% of organizations have an “Office of the CIO,” a staff or coordination function for the
IT capability as a whole
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Unified IT Demand Management
The following text was presented to respondents for the next set of questions.
For the purposes of this survey, “IT Demand Management” is defined as the formal tracking, prioritization,
and coordination of all requests for work that are directed to the IT organization. It is the sum total of project,
service desk, and “improvement” work undertaken by the IT organization, whether at the request of an
external party or generated internally by the IT organization.
IT Demand Management is broken down into three major categories:
• Project work-traditionally handled by a Project Management Organization (PMO)
• Ticketed work-traditionally handled by the Service Desk
• Continuous improvement work-handled in various ways across IT
Does your IT organization have any process, activity,
practice, or function called “IT Demand Management”?
Yes
31%
69%
No
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Column %
What IT activities does it handle?
IT Financial Management
43%
IT or service portfolio management
40%
IT strategic planning
40%
38%
IT customer relationship management
Incident, problem, availability, and/or service
level management
Business relationship management
36%
34%
Application management
32%
Change management
32%
Project portfolio management
32%
Continuous improvement groups
32%
Enterprise architecture
30%
Infrastructure capacity management
30%
30%
Service request management
Service/help desk
26%
Business process management
26%
0%
10%
20%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 28a-b: Formal demand management
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30%
40%
50%
Unified IT Demand Management
The purpose of these questions is to understand what the words “Demand Management” mean in
practice to respondents. Notably, most respondents do NOT actually have a practice by this name.
That means, to some extent, the market may be greenfield – there is not a firm industry consensus on
what the term means.
Since only 31% of respondents said yes, the differences between the responses in Figure 28b are not
statistically significant, but it was surprising that IT Financial Management placed so highly. Clearly,
it is associated with Demand Management in some organizations. This was unexpected, as Demand
Management in EMA’s experience is more closely associated either with project portfolio, or with
infrastructure capacity (which ranked much lower in this data)1.
A majority of organizations implementing or considering DevOps or Kanban had a formally-titled
“Demand Management” capability, although what that capability actually DOES varied for that subset
as well (no activity listed was dominant). Organizations with a PMO were also more likely to have a
formalized Demand Management activity.
Organizations with the highest sales revenues (>$1bn) were much more likely to have a formalized
Demand Management organization, and NO governmental agencies reported having one (Figure 40).
However, the size of company as measured by employees in general did not determine whether there
was a formal Demand Management capability Figure 36. Size of IT budget did show some correlation
(Figure 41).
Organizations with a formal Demand Management capability were more likely to have a centralized
ideation process, centralized project methodology, and centralized time billing (Figure 6). They were
far more likely to have a formal Project Management Office (Figure 5). They were far more likely to
require a budgetary threshold for PMO coverage and somewhat more likely to have had this threshold
increase (Figure 8a-c).
Organizations with a formal Demand Management capability were much more likely to see “applications”
as services in and of themselves (Figure 10), and to track resources by service or application (Figure 13).
1
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Earlier versions of ITIL used Demand Management exclusively in the sense of infrastructure capacity.
©2012 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.enterprisemanagement.com
Unified IT Demand Management
How often do your IT resources find themselves challenged
or needing guidance in prioritizing across the different
types of formal demand they are receiving (project, service
desk, improvement activities)?
Frequently
13%
Often
31%
Sometimes
37%
Seldom
17%
Never
2%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Column %
Are you aware of situations where poor coordination across
different types of IT demand has led to poor support of
business needs?
Yes
66%
No
34%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Column %
Figure 29a-b: Demand prioritization graphically demonstrates the business impact of this problem
Organizations with a PMO were more likely to see resources frequently or often challenged in
prioritization, and poor coordination leading to business impact. Conversely, organizations reporting
poor prioritization leading to business impact were more likely to have a formalized PMO.
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Unified IT Demand Management
For your organization, how important is it to improve
prioritization across the different kinds of demand for IT
work (e.g. projects, operations, and improvement
activities)?
Extremely Important
20%
Very Important
42%
Moderately Important
26%
Slightly Important
9%
Not at all Important
3%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Column %
If there was a software solution that would help you better
track and prioritize across the different kinds of IT demand
(e.g. software development versus operations), in your
opinion, how valuable would such a solution be to your IT
organization?
Extremely Valuable
13%
49%
Very Valuable
Moderately Valuable
25%
Slightly Valuable
10%
Not at all Valuable
3%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Column %
Figure 30a-b: Importance and value of improved prioritization
Figure 30a-b again are more subjective questions, but it’s still notable the clear 62% majorities for the
top two alternatives. These seem to indicate a maturing market need.
Organizations with a PMO were more likely to see the value in a software solution that would help
them better track and prioritize across different kinds of IT demand.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Keeping in mind your IT organization’s needs, which of the
following should a unified IT demand solution manage?
55%
Changes
Service requests and work orders
53%
Incidents
53%
52%
Project issues, risks, and action items
Project milestones and deliverables
46%
Problems/root cause analysis work
46%
Infrastructure provisioning requests
41%
Service Level Management issues and
opportunities
41%
Releases
39%
Capacity or availability issues
39%
Resource assignments to projects
37%
Process or data quality improvement efforts
37%
Generic “improvement opportunities”
33%
Architectural assessments
33%
Audit items and responses
32%
Enterprise risks and responses (generally)
30%
Agile “user stories” (small increments of new
functionality)
17%
Other (Please specify)
2%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 31: What should demand management cover?
It’s not surprising in Figure 31 that Changes are at the top of the list, since this survey has repeatedly
shown that respondents use the term “Change” to indicate significant changes in functionality to a
system, and imply that Changes may gateway just as easily into Project Portfolio Management (Figure
17 and Figure 20). If Changes are understood this way, their combination with service requests/work
orders, project issues, risks, and action items, and project milestones and deliverables would indicate a
truly cross-silo set of functionality.
Continuous improvement activities seem to be prioritized lower, in general, and Agile “user stories”
have notably small response.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Organizations with no PMO were consistently much more likely to specify any number of the above
use cases, while organizations with PMO were less likely to see a need for the solution to manage any
specific use case, with the exception of Service Level Management issues.
The Agile Trends
Is your organization considering or implementing the
concept of “DevOps”?
29%
Yes
50%
No
21%
Don’t know
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Column %
Do you believe your current IT management systems can
support this move?
Yes
84%
12%
No
Don’t know
5%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Column %
Figure 32a-b: DevOps?
DevOps, from very obscure origins just a few years ago, is now recognized by 30% of respondents.
Interestingly, a statistically valid plurality of these respondents were concentrated in companies
with employees between 2,500 and 9,999. One conjecture is that DevOps takes root more easily
in companies big enough to feel the pain of slow releases, and yet small enough to be agile in doing
something about it.
Respondents to Figure 32b who did NOT feel their systems were ready cited poor integration between
development and operations systems, and immature automated deployment capabilities.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Is anyone in your organization considering or using the
Lean practice of “kanban”?
Yes
21%
No
79%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Column %
Which areas in your organization are
considering or using it?
Software development
66%
Operations
59%
44%
Service desk
38%
Infrastructure engineering
3%
Other (Please specify)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Which kanban approach are you using?
Manual (e.g. white boards and sticky notes)
66%
50%
Automated
0%
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 33a-c: Kanban
Note: Figure 33c should have had a “don’t know” option, for consistency with the DevOps question.
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Unified IT Demand Management
Finally, Kanban is making headway as well in one-fifth of the organizations surveyed. Like DevOps,
the clear plurality was in companies between 2,500 and 9,999. It was surprising to see the variety of use
cases Kanban is being applied to, as it is best known for its use in software development (and even there
is a leading edge practice). Applications in Operations, Service Desk, and Infrastructure Engineering
were all noted.
Kanban, DevOps, and Prioritization
Organizations implementing DevOps were also statistically more likely to be considering or using
Kanban and vice versa. Statistically, those implementing or considering DevOps or Kanban were both
more likely to:
• Have seen situations where poor coordination has led to poor support of business needs.
• See the improvement of prioritization across different channels of IT demand as “extremely
important.”
Organizations with a PMO were more likely to also be considering or implementing DevOps or
Kanban. This may be due to a third variable such as organization size.
Demographics
Which of the following best describes your role in the
organization?
CIO-CTO (IT Executive Management)
21%
IT-related Manager-Supervisor (or
Equivalent)
16%
IT-related Administrator
15%
IT-related Director (or Equivalent)
15%
IT-related Systems Analyst-ProgrammerEngineer
11%
Infrastructure Engineer (network-systems)
5%
IT-related Project-Program Manager
5%
IT-related Vice President (or Equivalent)
4%
3%
IT-related Software Engineer-Developer
IT-related Architect
2%
IT-security Manager
2%
IT-security Operations Staff
1%
IT-related Business Analyst
1%
0%
5%
Column %
Figure 34: Organization role
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10%
15%
20%
25%
Unified IT Demand Management
Which of the following best describes the department or
functional area in which you work?
IT-IS-Network
84%
Manufacturing-Production-Distribution
5%
Customer Service or Support-Technical
Support
4%
Executive-Corporate-General ManagementAdministration
3%
Communications-Telecommunications
2%
Engineering-R&D
2%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Column %
You have indicated that IT-IS-Network best describes the
department or area in which you work. Within this area,
which g...
36%
Executive IT Management
11%
Service Desk, Service Support, Help Desk
IT Operations Planning-Design
7%
IT Architecture
7%
Operations – Data Center
7%
Applications Development
6%
Project-Program Management
6%
IT Financial Management
4%
Business Analysis
4%
Operations – Network Operations Center
(NOC)
4%
Cross-domain Support Organization for IT
4%
Security
3%
Cross-domain Service Delivery organization
2%
0%
5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
Column %
Figure 35a-b: Functional area/sub-area
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Unified IT Demand Management
How many employees are in your company worldwide?
250 - 499
9%
16%
500 - 999
1,000 - 2,499
23%
2,500 - 4,999
14%
5,000 - 9,999
13%
10,000 - 19,999
10%
15%
20,000 or more
0%
5%
10%
15%
Column %
Figure 36: Number of employees
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20%
25%
Unified IT Demand Management
What is your role in IT-related work as defined as service
support?
Hands-on, directly involved
29%
Direct managerial oversight
19%
Overall executive oversight
18%
Indirectly involved as a manager- executive
15%
Directly involved as a planner
9%
Indirectly involved as a technical professional
9%
Not in any way involved, just aware
1%
0%
5%
10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Column %
What is your role in IT-related work as defined as IT Projects
and-or Project Portfolio Management?
Hands-on, directly involved
31%
Overall executive oversight
22%
Direct managerial oversight
19%
Directly involved as a planner
14%
Not in any way involved, just aware
6%
5%
Indirectly involved as a technical professional
Indirectly involved as a manager- executive
3%
0%
5%
10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Column %
What is your role in IT-related work as defined as
continuous improvement?
Hands-on, directly involved
28%
Direct managerial oversight
23%
Overall executive oversight
15%
Directly involved as a planner
14%
Indirectly involved as a technical professional
9%
7%
Indirectly involved as a manager- executive
Not in any way involved, just aware
3%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Column %
Figure 37a-c: Roles in service support, project mgmt. continuous improvement
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30%
Unified IT Demand Management
Which of the following best describes your company’s
primary industry?
Manufacturing - All Other (Not Computer or
Networking Related)
21%
12%
Government
Education
11%
Finance-Banking-Insurance
10%
Healthcare-Medical-Pharmaceutical
9%
Retail-Wholesale-Distribution
9%
Professional Services – All Other (Not
Computer or Networking Related)
7%
6%
Transportation-Airlines-Trucking-Rail
3%
Non-Profit-Not for Profit
Aerospace-Defense
2%
Media: Publishing-Broadcasting
2%
Telecommunications
2%
Consulting - All Other (Not Computer or
Networking Related)
1%
Hospitality-Entertainment-Recreation-Travel
1%
Marketing-Advertising-PR Agency-Market
Research
1%
Oil-Gas-Chemicals
1%
Utilities-Energy
1%
Other (Please specify)
1%
0%
5%
Column %
Figure 38: Primary industry
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10%
15%
20%
25%
Unified IT Demand Management
In which region is your corporate headquarters located?
North America
96%
Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA)
3%
Asia-Pacific (APAC)
1%
Rest of World
1%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
Column %
Figure 39: Region
What is your organization's annual sales revenue?
Less than $1 Million
0%
$1 Million to under $5 Million
3%
$5 Million to under $20 Million
10%
13%
$20 Million to under $100 Million
$100 Million to under $1 Billion
25%
$1 Billion or more
26%
Not applicable, I work for a government or
non-profit agency
12%
Don’t know
11%
0%
5%
10%
Column %
Figure 40: Sales revenue
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15%
20%
25%
30%
Unified IT Demand Management
What is your organization's annual IT budget?
Less than $1 million
9%
$1 million to less than $5 million
19%
$5 million to less than $10 million
13%
$10 million to less than $25 million
7%
$25 million to less than $50 million
11%
$50 million to less than $100 million
13%
$100 million or more
9%
Don't know
19%
0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18% 20%
Column %
Figure 41: IT budget
What was the percentage increase or decrease of your
organization’s annual IT budget from last year to this year?
Increased more than 75%
2%
Increased between 50% and 75%
5%
Increased between 25% and 50%
28%
Increased between 10% and 25%
16%
Increased less than 10%
34%
Stayed the same
7%
Decreased less than 10%
4%
Decreased between 10% and 25%
1%
Decreased between 25% and 50%
Decreased between 50% and 75%
Decreased more than 75%
3%
Don’t know
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
Column %
Figure 42: Increase/decrease
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0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
Unified IT Demand Management
For which of the following IT technologies or initiatives do
you have direct involvement in or a working knowledge of
a...
Systems Management
63%
Application Management
55%
Network Management
53%
Security
53%
Service Desk/Help Desk
51%
Virtualization
51%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
50%
Storage
49%
Change and Configuration Management
47%
IT Governance/Risk/Compliance
Management
47%
Software Development
46%
IT Asset Management/Financial
Management
45%
Capacity Planning and Optimization
37%
Business Service Management (BSM)
34%
Configuration Management Database
(CMDB)
31%
Service Portfolio Planning/Service Catalog
31%
Cross-domain Automation (e.g. run book, IT
process automation)
25%
None of the above
3%
0%
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
% Valid Cases (Mentions / Valid Cases)
Figure 43: Technology knowledge
Page 45
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Unified IT Demand Management
About Nimsoft
Nimsoft is a global leader in IT Management-as-a-Service. The company’s lightweight ITMaaS solutions
make it easy for enterprises and service providers to implement comprehensive, adaptable monitoring
and service desk capabilities essential for managing today’s dynamic computing environments. Learn
more at www.nimsoft.com.
References
1.
Betz, C.T., Architecture and Patterns for IT: Service and Portfolio Management and Governance
(Making Shoes for the Cobbler’s Children), 2nd Edition. 2011, Amsterdam: Elsevier/Morgan
Kaufman.
2.
Goldratt, E.M., Critical chain. 1997, Great Barrington, Ma.: North River. 246 p.
3.
Anderson, D.J., Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for your Technology Business. 2010,
Sequim, WA: Blue Hole Press.
4.
Carri, D. Integrated Compliance, Quality, and Process Management System. BPTrends Advisor,
2011.
About Enterprise Management Associates, Inc.
Founded in 1996, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) is a leading industry analyst firm that provides deep insight across the full spectrum
of IT and data management technologies. EMA analysts leverage a unique combination of practical experience, insight into industry best practices,
and in-depth knowledge of current and planned vendor solutions to help its clients achieve their goals. Learn more about EMA research,
analysis, and consulting services for enterprise line of business users, IT professionals and IT vendors at www.enterprisemanagement.com or
blogs.enterprisemanagement.com. You can also follow EMA on Twitter or Facebook.
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. “EMA” and
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