Click on the questions below to link to the response:
What is the difference between ATUM and the TBM Taxonomy?
ATUM is a specification that defines a comprehensive, best-practice financial model for IT. ATUM is composed of four key components of which the TBM Taxonomy is one.
Specifically, ATUM includes the following:
- TBM Taxonomy: The organization of the standard IT business model into cost pools (financial view), IT resource towers (IT view) and services (business view).
- Key Drivers and Allocations: The drivers and relationships that define the cost composition and allocation of costs within the IT business model.
- Data: The datasets and definitions required to construct the IT business model.
- Standardized TBM metrics and KPIs: The metrics to measure the performance of IT
What is different in the TBM Taxonomy v2.0?
The TBM Taxonomy V2.0 focuses on the services layer of the IT business model. This is the first formal endorsement of the services layer that the TBM Council has put forward. In addition, V2.0 also refines the Cost Sub-Pools and the IT Towers and Sub-Towers based on feedback from customers, changing technology trends and consistency.
When will the TBM Taxonomy v2.0 be finalized?
The TBM Council Board endorsed the TBM Taxonomy in November 2016.
What role does the TBM Council have with the TBM Taxonomy?
In 2014, the TBM Council board reviewed, commented on and ratified the Cost Pool and IT Resource Tower standards. In May 2016, the board approved the formation of a Standards Committee within the TBM Council. The Standards Committee will drive, review member feedback, refine and endorse the TBM Taxonomy and other TBM-related standards.
What is the TBM Council Standards Committee?
The TBM Council Standards Committee works with the TBM Council technical advisor, TBM Council members, partners, analysts and IT leaders to establish standards relevant to the discipline of TBM. The first standard tackled by the committee was the TBM Taxonomy V2. In 2017, the standards committee will focus on:
- Ongoing Taxonomy Evolution: Evolving the taxonomy and developing tools like the TBM Taxonomy Explorer for community engagement
- Metrics: extending standards to make metrics a first class citizen
- Cloud: Managing SaaS offerings & extending IaaS/PaaS through a public cloud provider forum
- Adoption: Pervasive TBM and standards adoption including on-boarding and start-up guides
Who runs the TBM Council Standards Committee?
The Standards Committee is co-chaired by James LaPlaine, CIO of AOL and a board member of the TBM Council, and Rahul Auradkar VP of Products at Apptio.
How should one provide feedback on the TBM Taxonomy?
Questions regarding the TBM Taxonomy V2.0 (or any ATUM-related questions) should be posted directly to the ATUM community site.
How is the TBM Taxonomy V2.0 Services different from the Business Services Reference List available in Cost Transparency R11.7+?
Apptio included a Business Services Reference List in the R11.7 Cost Transparency application released in Spring 2015. The Business Services Reference List uses a 4-tier service hierarchy (Service Type, Category, Name and Offering) that continues in the TBM Taxonomy V2.0. V2.0 expands the number of Service Types from 3 to 6 and provides a more thorough representation of service categories and services offered by IT and public cloud service providers.
When will the TBM Taxonomy and ATUM 2.0 be represented in Apptio’s offerings?
TBM Taxonomy V2.0 will be incorporated across Apptio’s product offerings. Cost Transparency, Infrastructure Benchmarking and Bill of IT will support V2.0 in H1 2017. Bill of IT will interoperate with Cost Transparency with specific guidance for customers who have been using V1.0. Service Demand Planning will support V2.0 in the H1 2017 release.
What does it mean for the TBM Taxonomy to “be available in product”?
In Apptio's current application releases, the TBM Taxonomy is available to customers through reference lists (cost pools, IT Towers and Business Services list). Most of the allocations and reporting is done using table values that are based on these lists. The TBM Taxonomy is embedded in a few places in the Cost Transparency application: Benchmarks are based on adherence to the Cost Pool and IT Tower categories. The IT Tower reports are based on a predefined mapping from IT Towers to Purpose. The Business Unit Invoice report has three separate sections based on the V1.0 Service Type. In the next release, Apptio's Cost Transparency product will work with both taxonomies, ATUM v1 and ATUM v2.
What’s the upgrade path from ATUM v1.0 to ATUM V2.0?
Apptio will publish specific guidelines and mappings for transitioning from the TBM Taxonomy V1.0 (released with R11.4) to V2 endorsed in November 2016. Benchmark data will be available for both versions to address the changes in IT Towers and Sub-Towers in V2.
Where can I find more information about ATUM?
More information regarding ATUM can be found on Apptio’s community site under under as well as the ATUM discussion board.