This is the first in a series of three articles targeted to technical leaders who are considering launching an asset management effort in their enterprise. The focus of this series of articles is to outline some key considerations and tasks for preparing your enterprise to work with software assets and to configure Rational Asset Manager (RAM) to enforce your governance.

To begin this article series there are three initial steps to consider for getting started with governed asset management using Rational Asset Manager, they are:

• Determine your audience
• Establish the governance
• Integrate with your environment

Other articles in the series will come over time to explore other areas such as RAM configuration tips or addressing cultural issues for reuse.

Many of the tasks and workproducts described in this article are found in the Asset Governance and Asset-based Development process. These processes are included in the Rational Asset Manager installation. You can also find updated plug-ins for these processes on the developerWorks site at: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/downloads/06/rmc_plugin7_1/#16

When you get there, look for the section shown in Figure 1. ...

Figure 1: Accessing the plug-in.

As with many software IT projects the human element quickly becomes the most important aspect. Applying asset management solutions in our enterprises are no different. As such the first step in this journey towards better asset management begins with understanding the people, their problems, and their appetite for certain solutions.

The target audience includes those who will produce the assets, those who will manage the repository, those who will use the assets, as well as the business stakeholders who have a financial interest.

Select the reuse scope

In this task identify your target audience. It is often a tendency to select a large scope to begin. There is wisdom in starting with a small scope and increasing the scope over time. The scope I am referring to is both people, and the types of assets with which they work. The greater the initial scope, the greater the need for more governance initially. The reuse scope may include multiple communities.

But what is a community? A community is a collection of users with a shared focus, including their roles and permissions and their assets. It is a hub for asset collaboration and sharing. A community may be created along a variety of boundaries, such as for an organization or a business unit, or perhaps for a role, such as a business analyst, or for a particular initiative or project, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: A community may be created along a variety of boundaries.

There may be many communities in the reuse scope, and generally the repository is created for the reuse scope. There may be asset sharing by the users amongst the communities. When defining communities, which ultimately will be expressed in Rational Asset Manager, there is a simple workproduct that can be used called a Community Map. This map (see Table 1) should be refined over time, beginning with a simple list of the communities, adding detail over time.

Table 1: A community map can be initially defined, then refined over time.

This simple workproduct can help organize your thinking on the communities, their roles and permissions, who the anticipated users are and so forth.

Rollout approach

Preparing the enterprise to work with assets means assessing several key areas. These initial readiness assessments are conducted during the Planning phase of the asset governance process, introduced above.

• Governance: is the enterprise willing and able to establish the policies and decisions providing the context for asset reuse within a reuse scope
• Process: where and when will the asset governance and asset-based development capability patterns be inserted into existing processes
• Opportunity: what are the opportunities for assets within a reuse scope
• Aptitude: what is the ability and willingness of teams and individuals to work with assets
• Tools: what are the tools, repositories, and their configuration to support work with assets Further detail on the questions in the assessments can be found in the asset governance process material, introduced further below.

A critical element to pursuing an asset management strategy is to have top-down management support. This is a necessary element not only to the asset governance process, but also to the selection and rollout to the audiences that will use this.

The top-down management support should not be confused with the rollout approach. The rollout should generally take a step-wise fashion, bringing on various communities and increasing the reuse scope over time. The ability to specify communities and to manage the reuse scope in Rational Asset Manager is a key technique for scaling the asset management effort in the enterprise. This is important not only for managing the enterprise's ability to scale the efforts to rollout in a controlled fashion, but also, it is important for the enterprise to allow time for cultural adoption of assets. Using language from Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail" [Hyperion, New York, NY, ISBN 1-4013-0237-8]; we typically will start with a sampling of the 'hit' assets to get started. We need to identify the governance processes and the needs of the audience seeking the 'hits' because of the economies of scale and the value they represent to the enterprise. However, as the enterprise matures in asset management the assets in the long tail can come into focus, along with the governance processes for them.

Organization templates

In this section I'll briefly focus on the organizational structure within which Rational Asset Manager will operate.

Determining the reuse scope, the organizational structure, and the level of formality for asset management is a critical early task. There are several organizational templates presented here to get your thinking started on an initial organizational structure for asset management. You may determine to rollout asset management initially based on one organizational template and then move to another organizational template in time.

There are several characteristics describing each organization template, including:

• Reuse scope: the intended reuse visibility, either the reuse is targeted within the community or across multiple communities at the enterprise level
• Governance board: the number and kind of governance boards, where they sit in the organization, and who funds them
• Domain experts: from where do the subject matter experts come to support asset manufacturing
• Produce: the location and resources creating, updating, supporting assets, and who funds them
• Manage: the location of the resources managing the repository and who funds them
• Use: the techniques and formality for reuse; the use of assets may be planned and/or opportunistic; planned use of assets implies the governance boards and those producing assets prepare the assets and policies with the knowledge of targeted consumers' needs, and those consumers have direction to use assets as part of their work

The organization templates are presented in increasing order of formality. There are pros and cons to each of the templates. The templates should be considered as starting points that you can refine to meet the needs of your enterprise. There is a loose relationship between the maturity of an organization and the specific template to use. Maturity includes several key principles such as:

• process maturity, the organization's processes are formalized and executed
• cultural acceptance of assets and reuse has been attained
• reuse opportunities exist within the named reuse scope
• funding and sponsorship has been determined

A mature organization has improved operational success with asset governance and asset-based development in the more formal organization templates presented here. However, a mature organization may decide to start with a less formal organization template and migrate to more formal organization templates when ready, whereas a less mature organization should stay with the less formal organization templates.

The less-formal organization templates presented below include:

• Ad-Hoc Community
• Self-Governed Community

The more-formal organization templates presented below include:

• Governed Community
• Enterprise Partial
• Enterprise Full

Organization template: Ad-hoc community

In this organization template, (see Figure 3) the style of reuse is very informal and ad-hoc. The reuse scope is targeted for the specific community, with no governance boards or policies. There are resources committed to managing the repository, generally these are part-time resources. The asset production and reuse is ad-hoc at best. The use of assets is opportunistic. If there are other ad-hoc communities there is generally no formal sharing amongst them.

Figure 3: An ad-hoc community

This kind of organization template is generally used when there is little top-down management support for the asset management effort. Although it may be used in a strategy where the enterprise has determined to begin their journey into asset management, containing costs initially to prove out value and reduce some initial risks.

Organization template: Self-governed community

In this organization template, (see Figure 4) the community supports asset governance, dictating the policies and structure by which the assets in the community comply. One or more governance boards are established and funded by the community. The reuse scope is at the community level, which may be a team, or a project, or some other boundary. The community funds resources to administer the asset repository. There is no formal asset production team, but it is expected that those who produce assets will comply with the policies from asset governance. The use of assets is planned and opportunistic.

Figure 4: Self-governed community organization

This kind of organization template is used when a team leader, a project leader, or perhaps a line of business owner determines to formalize the asset efforts within their influence. In larger enterprises there may be many of these communities, each with their own reuse scope and repositories which stand independent of each other but are adhering to their own rules.

Organization template: Governed community

In this organization template, (see Figure 5) asset governance is centrally funded with one or more asset governance boards whose policies cross many communities for the enterprise. The reuse scope is at the community level still, and each community funds and manages their own repository. The asset production is formalized with committed resources, which adhere to the governance policies. The community subject matter experts are close to the asset production activities, and often are the ones who produce the assets, or work closely with the asset production team. The use of assets is planned and opportunistic. Those who produce the assets follow key assets into the context of the asset consumers to help insure their success, as noted by the "support" line.

Figure 5: A goverened community

This organization template is used when multiple communities streamline their governance efforts to improve potential sharing or collaboration amongst their communities. The domain expertise resides in the respective communities along with the management of their repositories. By streamlining the governance while maintaining independent asset production and management, the communities can improve communication and align their objectives.

Organization template: Partial enterprise

In this organization template (see Figure 6), the asset governance is centrally funded and controlled. The asset repository and management is also centrally funded and managed, implementing governance policies. But the asset production is formalized in the respective communities, where the domain expertise resides. The reuse scope is at the community, cross-community, and enterprise level. The domain experts from the communities produce the assets or work with asset production teams in the communities. Those who produce the assets follow key assets into the context of the asset consumers to help insure their success, as noted by the "support" line. The asset use is planned and opportunistic.

Figure 6: In a partial enterprise model, asset governance is centrally funded and controlled, but production occurs in respective communities where domain expertise resides.

This organization template is used when there is top-down management support for both the asset governance and asset management aspects. This template streamlines the governance processes for all communities and reduces each community overhead by centrally managing the assets. This template is a typical next step from Self-Governed and Governed Community templates. In addition to the benefits mentioned, this template keeps domain expertise close to asset production and allows communities to come on board when they are ready.

Organization template: Full enterprise

In this organization template (see Figure 7), the asset governance is centrally funded and controlled. The asset repository and management is also centrally funded and managed. The asset production is also centrally managed, and domain experts from the communities participate in the central production team. The reuse scope is at the community, cross-community and enterprise level. In this organization template the experts from the centralized asset production team follow key assets into the communities to help ensure success using the assets (as noted by the "support" line in the image). The asset use is planned and opportunistic.

Figure 7: Full enterprise organization.

This organization template is used when there is top-down management support for asset governance, asset management, and centralized asset production. Certain software environments requiring a high degree of control over assets which will cross community boundaries may seek this template. The domain expertise may become too distant from the actual usage, which can cause improper asset specifications, requiring a strong requirements management and communication channel.

Summary

To begin with asset management we first need to understand the target audience who will produce, manage, and consume the assets. To help us do that we can use organization templates to determine how the enterprise will be structured to conduct asset governance and asset-based development, and who will participate in what major roles. With the reuse scope selected, the organization template selected, and the people and roles identified, we can begin defining the asset governance for the repository.

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About the author

Grant Larsen, Chief Architect - Asset Management for IBM Rational software, drives the asset-based development strategies through process, standards, tooling and reusable assets, such as patterns, to leverage software development investments.

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Table of contents

• Select the reuse scope
• Summary
• Resources
• About the author
• Comments

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