Capture component data

IT-Pedia® is a comprehensive IT product library that provides an up-to-date source of data about IT products of all types including, for example, hardware, software, and network devices. Alfabet FastLane provides an out-of-the-box integration with IT-Pedia that allows you to import components and the vendors that supply them to the Alfabet FastLane repository.

The IT-Pedia Model Catalog as well as the My Product Catalog are available for IT-Pedia integration. When an IT product is imported form IT-Pedia, it is imported as a component. Components and vendors already imported from IT-Pedia can be synchronized on a periodic and ad-hoc basis.

The following data will be imported with the component:

• Start and end dates: The following table shows the mapping of the IT-Pedia product dates to the attributes for components in Alfabet FastLane.

  IT-Pedia Product Date	Alfabet FastLane Component
  Release Date	Start Date
  End of Extended Support	End Date

• Lifecycle: The component lifecycle will be automatically created based on the lifecycle data in IT-Pedia. Components created based on IT-Pedia products may have the lifecycle phase Manufacturer Support or Manufacturer Extended Support. The following columns show in the IT-Pedia selector are relevant for mapping dates and lifecycle phases to Alfabet FastLane components:

  lifecycle

  The lifecycle describes the planned schedule of a current real-world object in different lifecycle phases of a product. Lifecycle phases will be different depending on the object class. Lifecycle phases for an application are Pilot, Production, Retired, and Sunset.

  • Release Date
  • End of Support
  • End of Extended Support

  The table shows how these IT-Pedia product dates are mapped to the start and end dates of the component lifecycle phases in Alfabet FastLane.

  IT-Pedia Product Date	Alfabet FastLane Component
  Release Date	Start date of lifecycle phase Manufacturer Support. The component's Start Date is the same date as the start date of the component's lifecycle phase Manufacturer Support .
  End of Support	End date of lifecycle phase Manufacturer Support.
  End of Support	Start date of lifecycle phase Manufacturer Extended Support.
  End of Extended Support	End date of lifecycle phase Manufacturer Extended Support. The component's End Date is the same date as the end date of the component's lifecycle phase Extended Manufacturer Support.

  Rules will apply about what shall happen when there are no dates in the relevant columns for IT-Pedia products.

  The following values may be displayed in the IT-Pedia Product selector:

  IT-Pedia Value	Meaning	Rule to Set Dates in Alfabet FastLane
  Expired	The product is no longer supported and the exact date is not known.	If no start or end dates exist for the component, the Start Date is set to the start of the last year and the End Date is set to the end of last year. If a start or end date already exists for a component, a lifecycle phase Manufacturer Support will be created using the same rule to create the lifecycle phase's start and end date.
  Discontinued	The product is no longer sold/distributed and the exact End of Sale date (which has passed) is not known.	If no start or end dates exist for the component, the Start Date is set to the start of the last year and the End Date is set to the end of last year. If a start or end date already exists for a component, a lifecycle phase Manufacturer Support will be created using the same rule to create the lifecycle phase's start and end date.
  Not Applicable	The product does not have the related date because the product is one where no date would be relevant per manufacturer.	The Start Date and End Date will remain undefined (NULL).
  Not Yet Announced	The product has been researched and the publisher has not released or provided any public end-of-life data.	The Start Date and End Date will remain undefined (NULL).
  Indefinite	The support for this product has no specific end date.	The Start Date and End Date will remain undefined (NULL).
  Not Yet Published	The product was researched but the manufacturer/publisher did not publish the date.	The Start Date and End Date will remain undefined (NULL).
  Pending Research	The product has not been fully researched to confirm the date.	The Start Date and End Date will remain undefined (NULL).
  Unprocessed	The product has been added to ITMC Lifecycle™, but has not been synced to IT-Pedia yet.	Ignored
  Known	The product has been researched and a related date was published. Applies to ITMC Lifecycle only.	Ignored

• Vendors: The vendor that supplies the component will be specified based on the Manufacturer of the imported product. If the vendor already exists in the repository, the vendor will be automatically associated with the component. If the vendor does not yet exist in the repository, it will be automatically added to the repository along with the new component based on the Manufacturer.

Import components and vendors from IT-Pedia. In the navigation panel, go to Components to open the data workbench for components.

1. Click the three vertical dots  button in the right corner of the toolbar and select Import from IT-Pedia.
2. Specify whether you want the data to be imported from Model Catalog or My Product Catalog.
3. Click the Update button to fill the selector with initial data.
4. You can use the following fields to enter search criteria to find the IT products to add to Alfabet FastLane. You can enter the name or just part of the name.
   • Product: Enter the name or part of the name of the products you want to find.
   • Version: Add the version number to limit the results found based on the product name.
   • Edition: Add the edition to limit the results found based on the product name.
   • Manufacturer: Enter the name or part of the name of the manufacturer of the products.
   • Model: Enter the product model name to find the products.

Review the IT-Pedia product data for components. Components that have been imported from IT-Pedia will be added to the Components data workbench.

• Click Structure and select relevant columns for various IT-Pedia product attributes such as Product Name, Product ID, Manufacturer Name, Manufacture ID, Model Name, and Model ID.
• You can add columns to the data workbench to ensure that your components and IT-Pedia are aligned:
  • To ensure that a component is kept-up-to-date with information in IT-Pedia, click Structure and select IT-Pedia Enrichment. In the IT-Pedia Enrichment column, select Yes if the component shall be included via the update job that runs daily.
  • To ensure that the My Product Catalog is also updated with the component data in Alfabet FastLane, click Structure and select Synchronize with IT-Pedia. In the Sycnhronize with IT-Pedia column, select Yes if the component shall be included when you trigger synchronization via   > Synchronize with IT-Pedia.
• You can view a composite of all information about the IT-Pedia product that a component is based on. In the data table, click the navigate  button of the component you want to view. In the content area, click More > IT-Pedia Data to view all relevant information about the IT-Pedia product.

Review the IT-Pedia product data for vendors. Vendors that have been imported from IT-Pedia will be added to the Vendors data workbench.

Synchronize the My Product Catalog in IT-Pedia with your component data.

Typically a scheduled batch job will run daily in the background to synchronize component information in the My Product Catalog. You can also trigger the synchronization on an ad-hoc basis at any time.

1. Ensure that the Synchronize with IT-Pedia column is displayed in the data workbench and select Yes for the components that shall be included when you trigger synchronization.
2. Click the three vertical dots  button in the right corner of the toolbar and select Synchronize with IT-Pedia.

The products used to create components in Alfabet FastLane will be updated in My Product Catalog in IT-Pedia. The component's start and end date as well as lifecycle and vendor information will be updated. Components that have been deleted in the repository will also be deleted from My Product Catalog.

Merge duplicate components.Duplicate components can be merged to a selected component.

1. Click the three vertical dots  button in the right corner of the toolbar and select Merge Duplicate Components.
2. A window opens showing a list of duplicate components based on the IT-Pedia ID. Select a component that shall be the master component and click OK. The master component will remain in the repository and the other components will be deleted. Any local components, platform elements, or IT capabilities assigned to the deleted components will be moved to the new master component.
3. Click the three vertical dots  button and select Synchronize with IT-Pedia to delete the components in IT-Pedia and update the My Product Catalog.

In Alfabet FastLane, responsibilities are documented via the concept of roles , whereby each role is based on a preconfigured role type or a custom role type defined by your company. In contrast to an authorized user who has read/write permissions, a person assigned a role for an asset will not have read/write permissions based on the role definition. The role is primarily for documentation purposes to provide information about stakeholders interested or responsible for the asset. If the user should have read/write permissions, they must either be the authorized user of the asset or assigned to an authorized user group associated with the asset.

Alfabet FastLane provides out-of-the-box role types that enable you to understand who is responsible for your IT assets in your IT portfolio. Additional role types that are relevant for your company can also be added.

To define the users and organizations that have a role for an component, click the navigate  button of the component to open the content area. Go to the Overview page and scroll to the Responsibilities view and open it. Click in a column cell to open a selector to define a role for the component. Depending on the role column, you may be able to select a person or an organization. Switch between Person or Organization in the selector.

A user can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:

• Architect: A person who is responsible for the governance of the component.
• Business Owner: A person who owns the component and is responsible for managing the functional requirements.
• IT Owner: A person who owns the component and thus typically responsible for approval decisions.
• Stakeholder: A person who has an interest in the component and therefore requires read-only access permissions.

An organization can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:

• Business Owner: An organization that owns the component and is responsible for managing the functional requirements.
• IT Owner: An IT organization that owns the component and thus typically responsible for approval decisions.
• Operations: An IT organization responsible for the operations of the component.
• Stakeholder: An organization that has an interest in the component and therefore requires read-only access permissions.

An evaluation is a measurement of the performance of a component. Preconfigured indicator types and possibly custom indicator types added by your company are available to evaluate and are used in various analyses in Alfabet FastLane. Indicator types that are colored orange can be automatically computed by the system. All other indicator types must be manually defined.

Define the component's indicators. Click the navigate   button of the component to open the content area. Go to the Overview page and scroll to the Evaluations view and open it. Select an indicator type and click Edit Indicator or click Group Edit to open a dialog where all indicator types can be edited that are not automatically computed by the system.

Update computed indicators. Click the Calculate button to update computed indicators via the Calculate button. The indicators will be recalculated based on the current data.

The component lifecycle describes the succession of stages that the component goes through over time. A robust component lifecycle management includes versioning and planning for successor components to ensure that IT continues to support critical business areas.

Not all company's document their component lifecycles and it is not mandatory in Alfabet FastLane. However, robust component lifecycle management is key to the health to the business and helps you to understand identify and manage lifecycle conflicts. By documenting the lifecycles of the components in your technology portfolio, you will be able to identify which components are approaching end-of-life but have no defined successor components. Furthermore, you can understand which applications are at risk if the relevant technologies are no longer available.

In Alfabet FastLane, a component lifecycle consists of the following stages:

• Manufacturer Support: Indicates that the technology is relevant to be used in a production environment.
• Manufacturer Extended Support: Indicates that the technology is still available, but should be avoided for use in a production environment.

The active period of the component is the time between the component's start and end date. Each lifecycle phase is aligned with the proceeding and succeeding lifecycle phase that has been defined. Typically, the object state is set to Active during the lifecycle phase Manufacture Support. Gantt reports that visualize the component lifecycle will also reflect the component’s active period which is when the component is actually being used in the enterprise. This object state typically corresponds to the component’s start and end dates and should be set to Active when the active is in use.

Define the component's lifecycle. Click the navigate   button of the component to open the content area. Go to the Overview page and scroll to the Lifecycle view and open it.

• Add lifecycle phases to the component's lifecycle. Include lifecycle phases by setting a checkmark in the checkbox for the lifecycle phase in the left pane. Only lifecycle phases that are selected can be defined.
• Set the start and end of a lifecycle phase. In the timeline, select a lifecycle phase (colored bar) and drag the handles to define the start and end dates for the lifecycle phase. Select the Keep Phases Duration checkbox to retain the current definition in the adjacent lifecycle phases . If you do not select the Keep Phases Duration checkbox, the adjacent lifecycle phases will increase or decrease proportionally.
• Set the start and end of the active period. Click the red bar for the active period and drag the handles to define the start and end dates for the active period. The selected object’s start and end dates will change correspondingly.
• Align the start and and of the active period with the lifecycle phase. Click Align Active Period to automatically align the start/end dates of the active period with the start/end dates of the lifecycle phases that begin and end the active period.