A management-aware software development process using design patterns

Abstract

The provision of quality-assured IT services through a service provider requires that all IT components involved in these services can be managed in an efficient and effective way. The necessary management infrastructure must be adapted to these IT components and must be standard-based to allow its integration into an overall management environment. The broad spectrum of applications differing in functionality and architecture together with the need for a deep correlation of the management infrastructure with the internal structure and processes of an application make it difficult to use pre-defined application management solutions off-the-shelf. The development process described in this paper addresses the problem by integrating the development of the management infrastructure into the software development process. The integration assures that the management infrastructure is adapted to the application to be managed. The infrastructure, including the management model as its core component, is based on the Common Information Model (CIM) standard. To support the development of the management model, a management design pattern catalog is introduced, that provides CIM-based patterns for the definition of standardized management models. The use of this catalog is demonstrated by an extension to the management model for the distributed Enterprise Resource Planning System R/3 of SAP AG.