Introduction to NonStop Operations Management

Operations Management and Continuous
Improvement
Introduction to NonStop Operations Management–125507
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Step 3—Developing an Action List
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Automate recovery tasks currently performed by the operators, for routine
(recurring) problems.
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Automate performance monitoring.
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Document all major system components and their configurations, and define the
actions to be taken when problems occur.
Step 3—Developing an Action List
After envisioning the improvements you want to make, analyze the relationships among
the tasks, decide which tasks are most important, determine the sequence in which to
implement them, and create an action list.
The order in which the actions on the list are carried out is important. For example, if
you introduce automation before you have implemented tools and procedures for
managing your system and application messages, you may not realize the full benefit of
the automated operator.
Step 4—Scheduling and Committing Resources
To ensure that the actions you defined are implemented and that the improvement
program progresses, you must:
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Adequately staff the project. For example, you could assign one or two senior-level
support personnel to dedicate 50 or 75 percent of their time to the project. You might
assign a senior-level operator to assess new tools and processes and help install and
configure those tools.
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Create a project schedule. The project schedule lists each task to be performed and
the time allotted to accomplish each task.
Step 5—Executing the Plan
After creating a project schedule, start executing the tasks according to your project
schedule.
Step 6—Assessing the Improvement Program
The improvement program must be measured and evaluated on a continuous basis.
Because both the technology and the business challenges your company faces will
always change, you must meet these challenges with further improvements. Periodically,
you want to:
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Determine your new maturity level and decide where to go from there. It is
important to stabilize your operations environment and to go from one maturity level
to the next without trying to skip a level. The improvement program is more likely to
succeed if you proceed in small, sequential steps.
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Propose further improvements
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Evaluate the improvement program itself by asking yourself the following questions: