1. OVERVIEW › 1.1 Primary Areas of Application

1.1 Primary Areas of Application

The Batch and Operations Analyzer provides data and reporting
capabilities that aid in the management of complex z/OS
systems in the following areas:

o  Service Levels - Information provided by the Batch and
   Operations Analyzer can be used to establish and maintain
   realistic service-level goals and agreements.  In
   addition, information on system service levels, including
   such measures as batch turnaround time, can be used to
   track how well the I/S organization is providing computing
   resources to the enterprise.

o  Accounting and Chargeback - Batch activity files contain
   data in a form that is usable for basic billing of system
   resource use.  The data includes CPU time, I/O counts,
   lines printed, service units, job allocation information,
   and many other chargeable measures.  A standard interface
   to CA MICS Accounting and Chargeback permits accounting
   from SMF measures of batch, started tasks, APPC/MVS
   transaction programs (TPs), and, to a limited degree, TSO
   activity.

o  Capacity Planning -  The Batch and Operations Analyzer
   maintains a database of historical batch usage and
   performance data.  This facilitates growth trend
   projections at the system and organizational unit (e.g.,
   division or department) levels.

o  Performance Management  -  The ability to examine and
   analyze specific batch started and TSO session workloads
   to pinpoint system and operational problems is an
   important aspect of any performance tuning effort.
   Identification and subsequent correction of these problems
   can result in significant improvement in system
   performance.

o  Operational Issues  -  Changes to the operating
   configuration and the occurrence of specific system events
   can be tracked and monitored to ensure that procedures are
   followed and that resources are available.

o  System Availability and Reliability -  The Batch and
   Operations Analyzer provides information that can be used
   to monitor measures such as the number and causes of
   unscheduled IPLs.  At lower levels, availability and
   reliability information includes data such as the
   percentage of system ABENDs occurring for a particular job
   grouping or category.

o  Management Reporting  -  Users can extract, group, and
   summarize information directly from the database to
   create useful management reporting measures.  Management
   can establish service objectives for different types of
   batch work, such as job turnaround, and for the system as
   a whole, and then generate reports or one-page management
   summaries that compare actual service against the
   objective.  In addition to the standard management reports
   that are distributed with the system, users can easily
   create custom reports by using online facilities.
   Additional tools allow resummarization when the summarized
   data in the database do not directly address reporting
   needs.