MOF and Service Management at Microsoft : MOF Update

Announcing: The Release of Microsoft Operations Framework 4.0 and the new MOF Online Forums

jasono — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:58:00 GMT

Hi all. I wanted to let everyone know about two exciting announcements. At MMS, the MOF team has announced the relesae of Microsoft Operations Framework 4.0 and the new MOF Online Community Forums , a new online home for the discussion of of all things...(read more)

Project Hana (MOF v4) updates Beta Release

jasono — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:43:00 GMT

The Frameworks team continued its journey along the winding road to Hana by releasing a significant beta update this past Friday. With this release we have now released initial versions of every core Service Management Function (SMF) with the exception...(read more)

MOF Update = Project Hana

jasono — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:07:00 GMT

The MOF Update has now moved into the earliest stages of our beta / Request for Comment period and as such has graduated from the generic MOF Update name to an official Microsoft codename. All of the update work to Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF)...(read more)

The Plan and Optimize Phase of the IT Service Lifecycle

jasono — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:33:00 GMT

Picking up from the last posting where I detailed our overall approach to the IT Service Lifecycle and briefly discussed the purposes of each of the four phases, today I wanted to drill into a bit more detail into the Plan and Optimize (P&O) phase....(read more)

MOF v.4 IT Service Lifecycle Defined

jasono — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:01:00 GMT

Development has continued at a frenzied pace over the past couple of months on the MOF update and we do have some work to show for it. But before I present the MOF IT Service Lifecycle, its phases, and our new graphic, I'd like to review a few of our...(read more)

We now resume our regularly scheduled broadcasts

jasono — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:47:00 GMT

I wanted to apologize for the perhaps disturbing lack of posts over the previous several weeks, but I'm afraid being a new father took more out of me than I would have believed possible. That said, work has continued apace and I would like to continue...(read more)

Temporary Interruption to the Regularly Scheduled Broadcast

jasono — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:16:00 GMT

Since I had promised a quick follow-up posting to the Operations and Support blog from last week, I wanted to explain my lack of postings. Earlier this week, my wife gave birth to our first child and as a consequence I am currently occupied with adapting...(read more)

The Operations and Support Phase of the MOF Lifecycle

jasono — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:25:00 GMT

We have now spent some time talking about IT Governance as well as the Business IT Planning phase of the lifecycle and so I wanted to jump ahead a bit from planning straight into the Operations and Support phase of the lifecycle, with emphasis on the...(read more)

The Purpose of IT Business Planning in the New MOF

jasono — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:27:00 GMT

IT business planning is an increasing important topic in the world of today's IT professional. We continuously see problems arising from not including IT operations early enough in the planning process which leads to services being designed with little...(read more)

Announcement: Windows Vista Service Lifecycle Management now available!

jasono — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:36:00 GMT

Windows Vista SLM is now available!...(read more)

What does IT governance mean to us?

jasono — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:23:00 GMT

For us, IT governance is a very simple concept with far-reaching implications that impacts everything we think about as examine the framework........(read more)

Our Mission Statement

jasono — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:51:00 GMT

Our Mission Statement: Ensure that IT does the right thing at the right time for the right reasons. Anyone who has ever heard me teach has heard me comment that I have a perhaps odd fascination with mission statements. I like the fact that something so...(read more)

Who is the audience?

jasono — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:58:00 GMT

Today someone posed the rather straightforward question of who is the true audience for MOF, and why we'd focus entirely on the IT pro? That's a very good question and it raises the point that I don't think we've done a good job to date in articulating...(read more)

Why focus on IT Governance?

jasono — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:12:00 GMT

You may wonder why a service management framework, or service lifecycle, would be built on the foundation of IT Governance. After all, governance isn't one of the sexiest or most enjoyable topics for the average IT pro. Yet, it can't be denied that corporate governance is critical for both establishing and maintaining shareholder trust. And as IT has become an increasingly significant part of the business' bottom-line, there is an increasing need to demonstrate transparency in such areas as decision making, performance, and ROI. Further, IT Governance becomes an even more significant topic in light of the rising pervasiveness of business process automation and the need for IT to attest to these automated controls. Whether or not the IT pro is enthused about the idea, they are being impacted through a top-down imposition of governance related tasks and activites that they often struggle to understand how to deliver against.

Regulatory pressures and compliance measures are other drivers of the IT governance discussion. Often, IT is faced with the dilemna of needing to respond, but lacking the clout or capability to do so, perhaps because they are unable to frame the issues in terms the business cares about. One possible mechanism for communication is a risk management methodology. Perhaps by helping IT and the business approach risk and mitigation as part of a governance discussion using a common vocabulary could be an effective approach?

Two other questions we'd love to see some specific feedback on:

What does IT Governance mean to the IT Pro?
In what ways are IT Pros addressing internal controls?

Thank you,

Jason Osborne

Frameworks PM

Welcome to the conversation

jasono — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:03:00 GMT

One of the goals I had when I first came to the Frameworks team at Microsoft was to open up the dialogue between the people writing the guidance and the people consuming the guidance - our customers, our partners, and our field. Over the past 18 months, we've been trying different ways of reaching out to see what sticks with you. This is our latest attempt.

This year, our team is going to be doing a significant overhaul to the core MOF IP. For our initial release, we will be focusing on the infrastructure lifecycle, IT Governance, and the activities of the IT pro. As part of this, we will also be revisiting the existing Process Model to reformat, sort, add, and remove SMFs as needed. As we work through the Process Model, we will also be identifying requirements and dependencies between the Process Model and the Team Model to prepare it for a new release as well. One of our goals for the new release of the Team Model is to use it to answer the "Who questions" the Process Model invariably raises. For example, every time we identify a specific task that needs to be done in the process model, we intend to identify the role that should be performing that task as well. Lastly, the current MOF Risk Management Methodology is under intense examination at as part of our focus on IT Governance.

For MOF to be successful, it truly needs to be a collection of best-practices culled from a wide audience. For our team to deliver that, we need your involvement. Please discuss, share your opinions, thoughts, and concerns below.

Thanks,

Jason Osborne

Frameworks PM