SMART Methodology (Solution Management and Request Tracking) The Only Authoritative Guide to Creating a Successful Application Support and Maintenance Environment.

About the Book

The New Discipline in IT: Applications Support and Maintenance (ASM)

Today's CIOs are charged with an ever-broadening range of responsibilities, chief among them aligning IT with business objectives, and using IT to move the business forward. New technologies and applications that provide businesses with efficiency improvements or competitive advantages are where CIOs' careers are made...or broken.

Now consider the fact that up to 90% of enterprise IT spending, and the bulk of CIO attention, is paid not to strategic priorities or future developments, but to the support of existing systems. Only recently have IT leaders begun to appreciate this fact, and that Applications Support and Maintenance (ASM) requires its own skill sets, culture and best practices. Formerly the silent majority of IT spending, ASM today is the newest IT discipline.

SMART Methodology: Best Practices in ASM

SMART Methodology: The Only Authoritative Guide to Creating a Successful Applications Support and Maintenance Environment, details what amounts to the industry's first established best practices in supporting, maintaining and enhancing existing applications. Based on more than 25 years of research, development and implementation, SMART Methodology details practices including:

• The Continuous Lifecycle Methodology
• Application Taxonomy
• Benchmarks and Service Levels
• Support and Maintenance Tools
• Support and Maintenance Maturity Levels
• Governance and Change Control
• Reporting and Documentation
• Corporate Culture

Rave Reviews for SMART Methodology

"The industry has been in need of a book like SMART Methodology for years"

"Finally a detailed, thorough and established set of best practices for ASM"

"Clearly based on seasoned, focused experience in supporting mission-critical IT applications"

"Thorough, well thought out, and the first book of its kind"

"SMART is a leading edge practice and should soon be the industry standard."

About the Author

Dr. Peter Thompson is President, CEO, and founder of RIS, the Applications Support and Maintenance Company. A recognized technology expert and successful entrepreneur, he built RIS from a one-person company in 1979 to a $40-million, 400-person firm with offices in Europe and across North America today. Dr. Thompson's expertise - and RIS' success in working with some of North America's largest and most successful companies - stems from a lifelong passion for problem solving, and longstanding focus on Applications Support and Maintenance (ASM).

Under Dr. Thompson's leadership, RIS was named one of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies in 2001, and one of Canada's top IT services firms for the past four years. In 2003, he was named the Information Systems Professional (ISP) of the Year by the Canadian Information Processing Society of Alberta. Dr. Thompson holds degrees from McGill, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Calgary.