The 5 C Challenges of Business-Driven IT Management and the 5 A Approaches to Addressing Them

To summarize to business people the main challenges of business-driven information and communication technology (ICT) systems management, we suggest "the 5 C challenges of ICT systems management": 1) cost-benefit relationship, 2) complexity, 3) conformance to higher-level objectives, 4) circumstances and their diversity, and 5) change. We also advocate the slogan "To address the 5 C challenges you need at least the 5 A approaches and a compromise." Here, the "5 As" are the main approaches for addressing the "5 Cs": 1) analysis of benefits and costs, 2) automation of management activities, 3) aims (objectives, policy) modeling and processing, 4) accommodation of different circumstances through customization and context-sensitivity, and 5) adaptability. We also discuss how these 5 Cs and 5 As relate to self-management, policy-based management, and contract-based management and how they can be used for presenting a new project on modeling and using business value information.