2.1 Management Policies

A variety of management policy definitions exist due to different viewpoints and different intentions. Common to all, the following definition can be given [Koch 97]:

A management policy defines the desired behaviour of a system or of several system components.

There are a number of reasons why management policies are advantageous for the specification of the desired behaviour. Most of them are a result of the properties of policies:

• Management policies provide for the possibility of centralising knowledge. They are defined at a single or just a few places. This reduces the danger, that similar situations might be interpreted differently by managers reacting differently to the same problem.

• The policy definition extracts management knowledge from experts. This knowledge can be reused. Repeatedly solving the same management problems can be avoided.

• The policy concept is very expressive and can be used for a variety of different management areas.

• As opposed to a reactive management approach, policies aim at describing operational strategies.

• A common format for describing management information in many areas creates a potential for higher rate of automation.

• Policies can support narrowing down the gap between high-level management objectives and enforceable management actions.

The last item is one of the strengths of the policy approach although it is not easy to accomplish. Refinement is necessary to create a set of enforceable management actions from a high-level policy (objective). By refinement, a policy is bound to the actual information systems environment and a policy hierarchy is created.

In the following sections, different policy approaches are described giving a more complete definition and understanding of management policies.