TBM Framework & Taxonomy

I would appreciate input on how to classify the following specific item all the way through the TBM model, from Cost Pools on up:

-ITIL training for an IT Service Delivery director (manages Service Desk and Identity Management)

And generically, any "administrative" type expense such as training, supplies, travel.

Thanks much...

------------------------------
William Cox
IT Finance Manager
Ballad Health
TN
14233020248
------------------------------

@Lee Hawley @Bill Kasenchar @Matt Temple  @Steve Morley-- tagging some of our Standard committee members to comment/ help​​​​​

------------------------------
Niketa Purandare
Global Marketing Programs Manager
TBM Council
npurandare@tbmcouncil.org
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-22-2022 14:08
From: William Cox
Subject: Specific Use Case

I would appreciate input on how to classify the following specific item all the way through the TBM model, from Cost Pools on up:

-ITIL training for an IT Service Delivery director (manages Service Desk and Identity Management)

And generically, any "administrative" type expense such as training, supplies, travel.

Thanks much...

------------------------------
William Cox
IT Finance Manager
Ballad Health
TN
14233020248
------------------------------

Some foundational comments....

In many of my modeling solutions, I add flexibility to support assigning labor resources attributes of Cost Pool, Resource Tower, Application, Solution (eg Service or Product), Agile Team, Consumer, and others as needed.

I prefer to capture the attributes within budget and forecasts with some added features to handle anything not fully addressed. Of course, time bookings can be used to establish attributes, too, but many resources' capacity are not fully accounted for, so budget/forecast helps to close the gap. If budget and forecast is not an option, you can collect the data via surveys or other means.

I don't factor in the type of training a labor resource receives, travel, or other administrative expenses as a means of routing costs through a model. If needed, these costs can be highlighted by showing reports joining information from your Cost Source and Labor objects. For modeling labor expenses, I focus on what value/function the person is providing/supporting. Think of the person as an individual "service" component with its cost already fully baked. Don't try to "unbake" it. ;-)

I also don't try to associate administrative costs onto a specific person. Instead I look at the cost center's total Internal Labor costs in aggregate and send that volume onto the Labor object by appropriate weighting of each person. In this way, each person in a cost center will be impacted by administrative expenses incurred by other Internal Labor resources in the same cost center.

I also don't maintain any "breadcrumbs" of cost in context of specific people beyond the Labor object.

For your specific example...

Cost Pool = Internal Labor
Cost Sub Pool = Expense

I'm going to assume an even split of the person since you mentioned they support Service Desk and Identify Management without context, so the person's attributes (referencing my foundational comments)...

Resource Subtower = Security @ 50%​
Resource Subtower = IT Help Desk @ 50%

Solution (previously Service) Name = Identity & Access Management @ 50% (for the row relating to the Security subtower)

I wouldn't define the other 50% to a Solution since its Service Desk related, but if I had it would be:
Solution (previously Service) Name = Service Desk @ 50%​

​With the above info in hand...

I can move costs from Cost Source onto the person's record in the Labor object where the Resource Tower ​and Solution attributes are found.

Then, I can move the costs onto Resource Towers while maintaining "breadcrumbs" in the Resource Tower object to support the added attributes (eg Solutions in this example).

From Resource Towers, I know some of the cost in the Security subtower will take a bee-line route to the Identity & Access Management solution name in the Business Services object.

The other part of the person's cost was aggregated into the IT Help Desk subtower cost. All IT Help Desk subtower cost goes into the Tickets object (with whatever conditions dictated by your org) and/or other object based on your org's needs/rules.

If you permitted attribution to Solutions for the IT Help Desk subtower, you'll need to maintain that attribution through whichever object(s) the cost flows until it reaches the Business Services object.

Lastly, move the cost out of the Solutions object to the Business Units object....connecting directly to a Business Unit in cases of any specific attributes or "breadcrumbs".

------------------------------
Matt Temple
Transformation Excellence Manager
Accenture US - Partner
Long Beach CA
(714) 349-6102
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-22-2022 14:08
From: William Cox
Subject: Specific Use Case

I would appreciate input on how to classify the following specific item all the way through the TBM model, from Cost Pools on up:

-ITIL training for an IT Service Delivery director (manages Service Desk and Identity Management)

And generically, any "administrative" type expense such as training, supplies, travel.

Thanks much...

------------------------------
William Cox
IT Finance Manager
Ballad Health
TN
14233020248
------------------------------

Much appreciate your insights.  Thank you.

------------------------------
William Cox
IT Finance Manager
Ballad Health
TN
14233020248
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-07-2022 13:58
From: Matt Temple
Subject: Specific Use Case

Some foundational comments....

In many of my modeling solutions, I add flexibility to support assigning labor resources attributes of Cost Pool, Resource Tower, Application, Solution (eg Service or Product), Agile Team, Consumer, and others as needed.

I prefer to capture the attributes within budget and forecasts with some added features to handle anything not fully addressed. Of course, time bookings can be used to establish attributes, too, but many resources' capacity are not fully accounted for, so budget/forecast helps to close the gap. If budget and forecast is not an option, you can collect the data via surveys or other means.

I don't factor in the type of training a labor resource receives, travel, or other administrative expenses as a means of routing costs through a model. If needed, these costs can be highlighted by showing reports joining information from your Cost Source and Labor objects. For modeling labor expenses, I focus on what value/function the person is providing/supporting. Think of the person as an individual "service" component with its cost already fully baked. Don't try to "unbake" it. ;-)

I also don't try to associate administrative costs onto a specific person. Instead I look at the cost center's total Internal Labor costs in aggregate and send that volume onto the Labor object by appropriate weighting of each person. In this way, each person in a cost center will be impacted by administrative expenses incurred by other Internal Labor resources in the same cost center.

I also don't maintain any "breadcrumbs" of cost in context of specific people beyond the Labor object.

For your specific example...

Cost Pool = Internal Labor
Cost Sub Pool = Expense

I'm going to assume an even split of the person since you mentioned they support Service Desk and Identify Management without context, so the person's attributes (referencing my foundational comments)...

Resource Subtower = Security @ 50%​
Resource Subtower = IT Help Desk @ 50%

Solution (previously Service) Name = Identity & Access Management @ 50% (for the row relating to the Security subtower)

I wouldn't define the other 50% to a Solution since its Service Desk related, but if I had it would be:
Solution (previously Service) Name = Service Desk @ 50%​

​With the above info in hand...

I can move costs from Cost Source onto the person's record in the Labor object where the Resource Tower ​and Solution attributes are found.

Then, I can move the costs onto Resource Towers while maintaining "breadcrumbs" in the Resource Tower object to support the added attributes (eg Solutions in this example).

From Resource Towers, I know some of the cost in the Security subtower will take a bee-line route to the Identity & Access Management solution name in the Business Services object.

The other part of the person's cost was aggregated into the IT Help Desk subtower cost. All IT Help Desk subtower cost goes into the Tickets object (with whatever conditions dictated by your org) and/or other object based on your org's needs/rules.

If you permitted attribution to Solutions for the IT Help Desk subtower, you'll need to maintain that attribution through whichever object(s) the cost flows until it reaches the Business Services object.

Lastly, move the cost out of the Solutions object to the Business Units object....connecting directly to a Business Unit in cases of any specific attributes or "breadcrumbs".

------------------------------
Matt Temple
Transformation Excellence Manager
Accenture US - Partner
Long Beach CA
(714) 349-6102

Original Message:
Sent: 11-22-2022 14:08
From: William Cox
Subject: Specific Use Case

I would appreciate input on how to classify the following specific item all the way through the TBM model, from Cost Pools on up:

-ITIL training for an IT Service Delivery director (manages Service Desk and Identity Management)

And generically, any "administrative" type expense such as training, supplies, travel.

Thanks much...

------------------------------
William Cox
IT Finance Manager
Ballad Health
TN
14233020248
------------------------------

These costs should follow how they are budgeted. Generally, instructor led training would come into the outside services cost pool. And online training or other paid for training software would come into the software cost pool. At the towers level ITIL training would map to Delivery>>IT service Management while other administrative training, travel, supplies would probably map to IT Management .

Again I put emphasis on budgeting practices. Many IT organizations have centralized budgets for administrative activities, training, travel and supplies and the budgets fall under IT management and strategic planning or they fall under IT Finance. If this is the case then the costs should follow so that spend to budget variances align. If however each department or functional area has training, administrative and supplies then the purchasing and associated POs should be aligned to that org and that org budget and org spend aligned to a tower. At many organizations, even if these are budgeted at the organizational level travel may be central IT and therefore under IT management tower.

Above the tower level your allocation strategies will determine how these costs are spread to solutions, applications, services, etc. Often they are not attributable to a single service and roll up to some type of indirect cost like overhead. The indirect cost would then be proportionalized to all relevant services based on percent of service cost, FTE count or some other common - easy to explain metric

Hope this helps
You can reach out at
william.kasenchar@reisystems.com

------------------------------
Bill Kasenchar
Principal
University of Pennsylvania
PA
bmk@isc.upenn.edu
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-22-2022 14:08
From: William Cox
Subject: Specific Use Case

I would appreciate input on how to classify the following specific item all the way through the TBM model, from Cost Pools on up:

-ITIL training for an IT Service Delivery director (manages Service Desk and Identity Management)

And generically, any "administrative" type expense such as training, supplies, travel.

Thanks much...

------------------------------
William Cox
IT Finance Manager
Ballad Health
TN
14233020248
------------------------------

Much appreciate your insights.  Thank you.

------------------------------
William Cox
IT Finance Manager
Ballad Health
TN
14233020248
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-07-2022 14:11
From: Bill Kasenchar
Subject: Specific Use Case

These costs should follow how they are budgeted. Generally, instructor led training would come into the outside services cost pool. And online training or other paid for training software would come into the software cost pool. At the towers level ITIL training would map to Delivery>>IT service Management while other administrative training, travel, supplies would probably map to IT Management .

Again I put emphasis on budgeting practices. Many IT organizations have centralized budgets for administrative activities, training, travel and supplies and the budgets fall under IT management and strategic planning or they fall under IT Finance. If this is the case then the costs should follow so that spend to budget variances align. If however each department or functional area has training, administrative and supplies then the purchasing and associated POs should be aligned to that org and that org budget and org spend aligned to a tower. At many organizations, even if these are budgeted at the organizational level travel may be central IT and therefore under IT management tower.

Above the tower level your allocation strategies will determine how these costs are spread to solutions, applications, services, etc. Often they are not attributable to a single service and roll up to some type of indirect cost like overhead. The indirect cost would then be proportionalized to all relevant services based on percent of service cost, FTE count or some other common - easy to explain metric

Hope this helps
You can reach out at
william.kasenchar@reisystems.com

------------------------------
Bill Kasenchar
Principal
University of Pennsylvania
PA
bmk@isc.upenn.edu

Original Message:
Sent: 11-22-2022 14:08
From: William Cox
Subject: Specific Use Case

I would appreciate input on how to classify the following specific item all the way through the TBM model, from Cost Pools on up:

-ITIL training for an IT Service Delivery director (manages Service Desk and Identity Management)

And generically, any "administrative" type expense such as training, supplies, travel.

Thanks much...

------------------------------
William Cox
IT Finance Manager
Ballad Health
TN
14233020248
------------------------------

That's a great insight, @Bill Kasenchar! Most unfortunately, our budget data has a lot less detail than our costs'.​
I'll keep reflecting on the topic.

------------------------------
Guillermo Cuadrado
Senior Technical Manager
Amadeus Data Processing GmbH
Erding
+49 172 8696 790
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 12-07-2022 14:11
From: Bill Kasenchar
Subject: Specific Use Case

These costs should follow how they are budgeted. Generally, instructor led training would come into the outside services cost pool. And online training or other paid for training software would come into the software cost pool. At the towers level ITIL training would map to Delivery>>IT service Management while other administrative training, travel, supplies would probably map to IT Management .

Again I put emphasis on budgeting practices. Many IT organizations have centralized budgets for administrative activities, training, travel and supplies and the budgets fall under IT management and strategic planning or they fall under IT Finance. If this is the case then the costs should follow so that spend to budget variances align. If however each department or functional area has training, administrative and supplies then the purchasing and associated POs should be aligned to that org and that org budget and org spend aligned to a tower. At many organizations, even if these are budgeted at the organizational level travel may be central IT and therefore under IT management tower.

Above the tower level your allocation strategies will determine how these costs are spread to solutions, applications, services, etc. Often they are not attributable to a single service and roll up to some type of indirect cost like overhead. The indirect cost would then be proportionalized to all relevant services based on percent of service cost, FTE count or some other common - easy to explain metric

Hope this helps
You can reach out at
william.kasenchar@reisystems.com

------------------------------
Bill Kasenchar
Principal
University of Pennsylvania
PA
bmk@isc.upenn.edu

Original Message:
Sent: 11-22-2022 14:08
From: William Cox
Subject: Specific Use Case

I would appreciate input on how to classify the following specific item all the way through the TBM model, from Cost Pools on up:

-ITIL training for an IT Service Delivery director (manages Service Desk and Identity Management)

And generically, any "administrative" type expense such as training, supplies, travel.

Thanks much...

------------------------------
William Cox
IT Finance Manager
Ballad Health
TN
14233020248
------------------------------