Skip to content

Service Portfolio Review process

A Service Portfolio needs to be maintained to continuously meet the user’s requirements for services and the criteria defined from HIFIS side. Therefore, the primary goal of the Service Portfolio Review process is to check whether the services in and the processes around the Service Portfolio continue to fulfill defined requirements. To specify it in more detail, there are three Review types that might be considered in each review: - 1) Services in Portfolio: check whether the services in Portfolio continue to meet the service selection criteria and ensure that service information is up-to-date - 2) Service selection criteria: check whether the service selection criteria continue to meet HIFIS’ requirements for Helmholtz Cloud Services - 3) Portfolio processes: check whether the Portfolio processes described in this Process Framework are efficient, up-to-date and supportive for the handling of Helmholtz Cloud Service’s lifecycle.

For each Review type checklists were worked out to document the result of each checkpoint in a structured and transparent way. A review might be conducted for one Review type or a combination of Review types.

At least once a year a regular review including all Review types should be conducted. The review should be conducted in autumn (September/October) of each year to be able to integrate the results into the next yearly report. Whenever required, it is possible to trigger an ad hoc review. This might include a specific Review type or a combination of them.

The roles involved in the Service Portfolio Review process are the Service Owner (service provider) and the Service Portfolio Manager (HIFIS). The main tool supporting the Review process will be Plony where the review checklists will be integrated.

The triggers for the Service Portfolio Review process are: - the regular review interval is reached - an ad hoc review is required

If the review is triggered by major service information being changed, only the corresponding service is reviewed in form of an ad hoc review.

Whenever a review is triggered, the first action to be taken by the Service Portfolio Manager is to check the Review register for ideas. Anytime someone discovers potential for improvement, one can write down ideas in the Review register. Once a review is conducted, the register is checked for content and the ideas written down there are evaluated (and potentially taken into review). The Review documentation is then created (based on the Review checklist) and is filled with some general information on the planned review. The ideas from the Review register plus what else needs to be reviewed forms the review’s scope. What needs to be reviewed is defined by a regular review interval being reached or the reason why an ad hoc review is required. There are checklists available for each Review type which should be individualized according to the defined review scope. The preparation of the review is then completed.

Before the review of service information is triggered in Plony, the Service Owners should be informed about the planned review via E-Mail. As soon as the button triggering the review is pressed by the Service Portfolio Manager in Plony, the Service Owners automatically receive a notification mail from Plony, asking them to check whether the service information is still up-to-date.

The process steps performed for each Review type are the following:

  • 1) Review of services in Portfolio:
    • Every Service Owner needs to check whether the service information are still up-to-date. They can either confirm service information being up-to-date (if all mandatory fields are filled in Plony) or create a change request adapting the service information. After submitting the change request to HIFIS, the Service Portfolio Manager will review it and discuss it with the HIFIS Team, if necessary. It might be a result of the discussion that the HIFIS Team wants the Service Owner to adapt the change request. In this case the change request is given back to the Service Owner with feedback, asking the Service Owner to adapt and submit the change request again. If the HIFIS Team agreed to implement the changes requested, the Service Portfolio Manager accepts the change request in Plony and documents the changes in the Review documentation. The Service Portfolio Manager finally checks for each service if Exclusion criteria are still fulfilled. Services which fail to fulfill Exclusion criteria (and why they fail) are documented in the Review documentation.
  • 2) Review of service selection criteria:
    • Add, adapt, or delete service selection criteria. Changes made are documented in the corresponding Review object.
    • If Exclusion criteria were added or adapted, it is required to verify that all services in Portfolio fulfill these adapted criteria. Therefore it is checked whether adapted Exclusion criteria are still fulfilled by each service in Portfolio. Services which fail to fulfill Exclusion criteria (and why they fail) are documented in the corresponding Review documentation.
  • 3) Review of Portfolio processes:
    • Evaluate how currently established processes work and if there is a need for adaptation. Processes are adapted if required. Adaptations made are documented in the corresponding Review documented.
    • Since many processes are build into supporting tools, it is required to evaluate whether workflows built in the tools need to be technically adapted, too.

Whenever a review of services in Portfolio and a review of service selection criteria are conducted at the same time, it is recommended to perform the review of service selection criteria first in order to avoid double work.

After the review is conducted, the results made for each Review type are summarized into the Review documentation’s preliminary results. Consequently, the HIFIS coordinators need to be informed about the preliminary results/ bigger changes implemented or recommended due to the review since they have a VETO right here. HIFIS coordinators are free to inform HIFIS Steering Committee about conducted changes/ ask for their approval. Depending on the HIFIS coordinators’ feedback, it might be necessary to integrate their feedback into the preliminary results in the Review documentation and send the adapted Review documentation for approval again.

If the VETO right is not used, the HIFIS internal changes e.g. on Process Framework, Documentation, HIFIS Website or any other HIFIS internal document/tool are conducted. The Review documentation is then finalized. However, some postparation tasks still need to be done after review closing.

In case of a regular review being conducted, the date for the next regular review according to the defined review interval needs to be set. Also, the Review register needs to be emptied by the ideas that have been implemented during this review. And, as a very last task, it is highly recommended to document lessons learned during the review. Think about what could have gone better and write down lessons learned for the next review to run smoother!

If a service doesn’t fulfill exclusion criteria anymore, this may lead to service Offboarding or degradation to an Associated service.

For the whole process visualization and step-by-step explanation please check the corresponding files.