Spin Control n. - One’s ability to obfuscate the original event while reframing the details focused on a diversion.
Having the ability to engage in a fact based conversation about the end-user-experience, instead of “spinning” infrastructure metrics and making assumptions about performance, is an elegant proficiency. Taking the emotion out of performance related problems for critical business applications is one of the intangible benefits that an APM solution can bring to your table.
Charmed by the deep insight and easily understood metrics of a well-defined dashboard (layout), your business leaders will begin to trust you over time as the performance metrics begin to align with the end-user-experience. Capturing their attention is critical, and aligning with their perceived expectations that will become YOUR reality is essential for an APM solution to be sustainable.
When designing a performance dashboard, you will want to display the appropriate level of detail so that one can ascertain the overall health of each business application. Consider the main sources of infrastructure metrics and how you will display the top down monitoring from the end user’s perspective. What other elements do you need to capture in order to paint the most accurate picture?
The numbers don’t lie, so why run the business leader through a complicated set of algebraic formulas when a simple average will do? Granted, there is a time and place to delve into the mathematical minutiae for the more complex analysis that will provide predictive analytics and help model user behavior. I’m suggesting that you start with the simple calculations first and then mature your dashboard over time.
Conclusion
The argument that system monitoring is just a nice to have, and not really a core requirement for operational readiness, dissipates quickly when a critical application goes down with no warning. Real-time monitoring metrics will give you answers to those questions that have gone unresolved over time and will help build a new level of trust with your constituents bridging the gap between IT and the Business.
You can contact Larry on LinkedIn.
Related Links:
New LinkedIn User Group: Application Performance Management (APM) Strategies: If you’re looking to connect with thought leaders and creative thinkers in the APM technology space join the Application Performance Management (APM) Strategies Group on LinkedIn.
For more information on the critical success factors in APM adoption and how this centers around the End-User-Experience (EUE), read The Anatomy of APM and the corresponding blog APM’s DNA – Event to Incident Flow.
Prioritizing Gartner's APM Model
Event Management: Reactive, Proactive, or Predictive?
