Application Services Library Foundation

A few years ago, whilst on a business trip to the Netherlands, I met Remko van der Pols who had just created a new Best Practices Library specific to Applications Management. They called it Application Services Library (ASL) and made it public domain. Following a similar path to ITIL. In fact one of the reviewers was Brian Johnson an ITIL contributor. This is currently the only public domain application management standard in the world. THE ASL framework is based on best practices and includes all processes needed to provide a comprehensive application management service. It assists in creating standard work processes which help reduce costs and improve the quality of service.

For those with a specific interest in Application Management this provides much more detail than the Application Management book within ITIL, and yet is using ITIL terminology and shows where the touchpoints are. They currently have 3 books, the first one, A Framework for Application Management, ASL Self-assessment and a Management Guide (following the BSI format of books). As it was created in the Netherlands it was initially in Dutch and then translated into English only. ASL have teamed up with Business Information Services Library (BISL) also Dutch and has no English translation website as yet.

For those with a specific interest in Application Management, something that we will all have to move towards as we fast approach a virtualised Infrastructure, this resource is well worth the read. The main guide is about best practices for managing application development & maintenance and addresses the following:

a) Application Management, the increasing importance of maintenance and enhancement of Information Systems

b) The market demanding that application management becomes more professional and more forward looking.

c) No standard management processes with Best Practices differing between organisations and systems

d) ASL is there to try and address these issues by becoming a generic framework for application management

Who knows, as yet it is still in it's infancy with adoption, even within Europe, but as with ITIL it just needs some adoption from large organisations, with formal recognised training and we may have a new Best Practice on our hands. Something which could move into an ISO standard at some point (currently none exists!). As it is supposed to encourage future requirements, I'd like to see some whitepapers or drafts around how ASL assists in the Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) and the Virtualisation of Infrastructure and Applications.

Regardless it's worth a reveiw.