Establish a Program to Enable Effective Performance Monitoring
Maximize the benefits of infrastructure monitoring investments by diagnosing and assessing transaction performance, from network to server to end-user interface.
- Organizations have grown from mostly on-premises hardware to a hybrid environment with a mix of on-premises, legacy, and cloud.
- Organizations invest heavily into monitoring and tracking software, however, the business value that these investments generate is limited at best.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- While a hybrid IT environment offers many benefits, the increased complexity means that it is difficult to truly understand transaction performance as it flows through the application infrastructure.
- Application performance monitoring (APM) tools have the power to provide end-to-end visibility into application performance, however, these tools do not work out of the box. APM implementations often lose value when the organization buys a tool reactively without considering business requirements.
Impact and Result
- Organizations need to focus on the basics of infrastructure flow mapping and transaction profiling to establish a relevant baseline before engaging vendors. The chief enterprise architect needs to be involved in the transaction mapping process and help establish a common frame of knowledge for all members of the application and infrastructure teams.
- All transactions are not created equally. A project that seeks to implement enterprise-wide performance management is doomed to fail. Focus on providing performance management support for a subset of the most critical transactions first. This will give the IT team an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the technology and support subsequent rollouts.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Boyd Gaming
Guided Implementation
10/10
$70,082
20
Los Angeles County Office of Education
Guided Implementation
2/10
N/A
N/A
I still don't know what the next steps are. The email had a lot of information that seemed to mostly be copy/paste from existing sources. I need ... Read More
The Juice Plus+ Company
Guided Implementation
9/10
$127K
20
American Automobile Association, Inc.
Guided Implementation
5/10
N/A
N/A
Workshop: Establish a Program to Enable Effective Performance Monitoring
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Determine Transaction Criticality
The Purpose
- Determine critical business transactions.
- Establish a scoring criteria to evaluate each transaction at an enterprise-wide level.
- Determine the relative criticality of each transaction.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Prioritized list of critical transactions.
- Identified area of focus for the performance management pilot.
- Documented transaction dependencies.
Activities
Outputs
Create a project charter for the performance management pilot.
- Completed project charter for performance management
Determine critical business transactions.
- Document key business transactions in the Transaction Impact Analysis Tool
Establish scoring criteria.
- Modify scoring criteria in the Transaction Impact Analysis Tool
Analyze and prioritize each transaction.
- Establish performance management pilot transactions based on transaction prioritization
Module 2: Document Infrastructure Flows
The Purpose
- Visualize your production environment through infrastructure flow mapping (IFM) and transaction profiling.
- Kick-start the baseline process by breaking down transaction flows and identifying interdependencies.
- Capture current-state baseline statistics.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Improve clarity around the production environment through IFM and transaction profiling.
- Create a common framework and knowledgebase for all members of the IT team.
- Establish the current-state performance baseline.
Activities
Outputs
Execute infrastructure flow mapping.
- Completed infrastructure flow diagrams for key business transactions
Execute transaction profiling.
- Completed transaction profiles for key business transactions
Capture baseline statistics.
- Completed current-state baseline metrics by referencing the Transaction Impact Analysis Tool
Module 3: Leverage Baseline Insights and Plan Next Steps
The Purpose
- Determine additional projects that can benefit from the performance baseline.
- Determine target-state baseline requirements.
- Assess the gap between the current and target performance metrics.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Outline project next steps by leveraging the insights from the performance baseline and documenting them in the Insight Handbook.
- Engage the production team and outline business requirements for the target baseline.
- Determine the current performance gap.
Activities
Outputs
Document planned next steps in the Insight Handbook.
- Completed Insight Handbook
Discuss desired-state performance metrics.
- Documented desired-state metrics in the Transaction Impact Analysis Tool
Analyze the gap between current and desired transaction statistics.
- Documented gap analysis in the Transaction Impact Analysis Tool
Module 4: Determine Go/No-Go Decision
The Purpose
- Leverage the gap analysis and determine the go/no-go decision for additional performance management investments.
- Create a business case to justify and demonstrate the benefits of additional performance management.
- Communicate baseline insights and project next steps to management.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Outline project next steps by leveraging the insights from the performance baseline and documenting them in the Insight Handbook.
- Completed business case document to justify the value of performance management.
- Align needs and expectations through the Executive Presentation.
Activities
Outputs
Complete phase 3 of the Transaction Impact Analysis Tool.
- Completed Transaction Impact Analysis Tool
Complete the business case for additional performance management investments.
- Craft a business case that outlines the quantitative and qualitative benefits of performance management
Communicate with all stakeholders regarding baseline insights and project next steps.
- Create an executive communication document that summaries progress to date and outlines future endeavors
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Guided Implementation 1: Kick-start the performance management pilot
- Call 1: Establish key components of the project charter and outline project timeline.
- Call 2: Review transaction impact analysis and document transaction dependencies.
- Call 3: Prioritize transactions based on business impact.
Guided Implementation 2: Establish and evaluate current performance baseline
- Call 1: Introduce infrastructure flow mapping and transaction profiling.
- Call 2: Review transaction metrics and outline tracking plan.
- Call 3: Analyze baseline results and leverage insights to kick-start related projects.
Guided Implementation 3: Build the case for additional investments
- Call 1: Document the quantitative and qualitative benefits of performance management.
- Call 2: Assess the go/no-go decision and review the Business Case Template.
- Call 3: Review the Executive Presentation template.
Contributors
- Andreas Grabner, Technology Strategist, Dynatrace
- Jonah Kowall, VP Market Development and Insights, AppDynamics
- Jean Yves Lamour, Digital Sales Development Representative, CA Technologies
- Time Hengen, Business Development Manager, Nastel Technologies
- Three anonymous contributors
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