PROPOSING A COMPREHENSIVE FRAMEWORK FOR ITSM ...

PROPOSING A

COMPREHENSIVE

FRAMEWORK FOR ITSM

EFFICIENCY

2013MASI05

Master’s (Two years) thesis in Informatics (30 credits)

Mohammadreza Farmand

Name 1

Name 2

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Title: Proposing a comprehensive framework for ITSM efficiency Year: 2013

Author: Mohammadreza Farmand

Abstract

Nowadays, the main concern for IT-related service sector in organizations is to improve IT-

Service Management (ITSM) by reducing cost of service in conjunction with growing in their

efficiency and effectiveness. Particularly in IT firms, these concerns are much more imperative

where the ITSM framework is the main section of providing service and feedback to managers.

However, a challenge is that this significant service segment is ineffective by customers (I.e. IT

managers) since IT maintenance and IT operations are unnoticed by IT related research.

Academia together with industry demand a better knowledge and information of IT service

management to work closely in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the system

function.

In this research study, it is attempted to review the situation of ITSM framework (I.e., Metrics)

about evaluation method based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and best practices for IT-

Service Management process in DB Schenker and to compare them with other corporations. At

first, the researcher has done an extensive literature review on the earlier works of Metrics for

IT Service Management. After extracting needed information, it is governed in an innovative way

to make it more effective and efficient, then run a case study for better understanding of the real

situation and to compare literature and real world. The researchers mainly choose Swedish

companies as successful companies in IT management to review ITSM framework (i.e. KPIs).

Keywords: Comprehensive framework for ITSM, ITISM metrics, ITIL framework, Quality of

Service

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Acknowledgements

This master thesis has been written in efficiency of IT Service Management framework at the

Department of IT and Business, University of Borås.

First of all I would like to appreciate Dr. Anders Hjalmarsson who assisted me to conduct my

research properly.

I also would like to thank Nicklas Salomonson Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in Business

Administration at the School of Business and IT, University of Borås, and Hannes Göbel

Doctoral student at School of Business and IT and Director of Innovation Lab in University of

Borås, for the unfailing support, in whole process of writing thesis. The support encouraged me

to discover new methods for challenging with problem and difficulties.

Jun 2013

Mohammadreza Farmand

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Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 7

1.1 BACKGROUND ......................................................................................................................................... 7

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM .................................................................................................................... 8

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY AND EXPECTED OUTCOME .................................................................... 8

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .......................................................................................................................... 9

1.5 TARGET GROUP ....................................................................................................................................... 9

1.6 EXPERIENCE AND BACKGROUND OF AUTHOR ............................................................................. 10

1.7 DELIMITATIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 10

1.8 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ............................................................................................................... 11

2 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................................... 12

2.1 RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE .................................................................................................................... 12

2.2 RESEARCH STRATEGY ......................................................................................................................... 13

2.3 DATA COLLECTION METHOD ............................................................................................................. 14

2.3.1 Primary data ...................................................................................................................................... 14

2.3.2 Secondary data .................................................................................................................................. 15

2.4 DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURES ......................................................................................................... 15

2.5 STRATEGIES FOR VALIDATING FINDINGS ...................................................................................... 16

2.6 RESULT PRESENTATION METHOD .................................................................................................... 17

3 THEORETICAL FRAMES OF REFERENCES ........................................................................................... 18

3.1 KEY CONCEPTS ...................................................................................................................................... 18

3.2 SUBJECT AREAS RELEVANT FOR THE RESEARCH ........................................................................ 19

3.3 PREVIOUS RESEARCH .......................................................................................................................... 20

3.4 RELEVANT LITERATURE SOURCES .................................................................................................. 22

3.5 KNOWLEDGE ON ITSM FRAMEWORKS ............................................................................................ 24

3.6 NEEDS OF ITSM IN ORGANIZATION .................................................................................................. 24

3.6.1 Organizational requests for improvement of ITSM measurement .................................................... 26

3.7 IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT BASED ON THE IT INFRASTRUCTURE LIBRARY ........................ 27

3.7.1 Successful IT Service Management through ITIL process adoption ................................................. 28

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3.7.2 ITIL V2.0 / V3.0 framework ............................................................................................................. 30

3.7.3 Service support process ..................................................................................................................... 32

3.7.4 Service delivery ................................................................................................................................. 33

3.7.5 Process level of evaluation framework of metrics ............................................................................. 33

3.7.6 Control objectives for information and related technology ............................................................... 38

3.7.7 Benefits of ITIL- ITSM ..................................................................................................................... 39

3.7.8 Metrics for IT service management process ...................................................................................... 40

3.7.9 How to measure business- IT alignments .......................................................................................... 41

3.7.10 Performance Measurements .............................................................................................................. 41

3.7.11 Positive and negative consequence of measurements ........................................................................ 43

3.7.12 PMs Development phase ................................................................................................................... 44

3.8 DECISION MAKING PROCESS ............................................................................................................. 45

3.8.1 Service Quality .................................................................................................................................. 46

3.8.2 Quality management system .............................................................................................................. 47

3.8.3 The new Gaps model ......................................................................................................................... 50

3.8.4 SERVQUAL development ................................................................................................................ 51

3.8.5 SERVQUAL measurement aspects from different views ................................................................. 51

4 EMPRICIAL FOUNDATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 53

4.1 PURPOSE .................................................................................................................................................. 53

4.2 CASE STUDY BACKGROUND .............................................................................................................. 53

4.3 PROCEDURE ............................................................................................................................................ 54

4.4 THE INTERVIEW ..................................................................................................................................... 54

4.5 FINDINGS ................................................................................................................................................. 55

4.5.1 Measuring operation .......................................................................................................................... 56

4.6 STUDY ON COMPREHENSIBLE FRAMEWORK MODEL ................................................................. 59

4.7 EMPIRICAL STUDY RESULTS .............................................................................................................. 61

5 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS............................................................................................................................ 64

5.1 ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................................ 64

5.2 SOLUTIONS TO ENHANCE ITSM FRAMEWORK EFFICIENCY ..................................................... 66

5.3 RESULT SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 68

6 DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................................... 70

6.1 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................... 70

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6.2 IMPLICATIONS FOR THE SUBJECT AREA......................................................................................... 70

6.3 EVALUATION .......................................................................................................................................... 71

6.3.1 Method evaluation ............................................................................................................................. 71

6.3.2 Result evaluation ............................................................................................................................... 72

6.4 POSSIBILITIES TO GENERALIZE ......................................................................................................... 72

6.5 IDEAS FOR CONTINUED RESEARCH ................................................................................................. 73

7 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................................. 75

8 APPENDIXES ................................................................................................................................................... 78

8.1 INCIDENT MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................... 78

8.1.1 Example of HAVERBLAD IT Management AB .............................................................................. 81

8.2 SERVICE DESK ........................................................................................................................................ 81

8.2.1 Example of Service Desk .................................................................................................................. 85

8.3 CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT ..................................................................................................... 86


8.4 CHANGE MANAGEMENT ..................................................................................................................... 90


8.5 RELEASE MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................................... 94


8.5.2 Example of Pink Elephant ................................................................................................................. 99

8.5.3 Example of KPI Library .................................................................................................................. 100

8.6 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT/ICT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT .................................. 101

8.7 SERVICE LEVEL MANAGEMENT (SLM) .......................................................................................... 103

8.8 PROBLEM MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................. 105

8.8.1 Example of HAVERBLAD IT Management AB ............................................................................ 109

8.9 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT .............................................................................................................. 110

8.10 CAPACITY MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................ 112


8.11 IT SERVICE CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT ..................................................................................... 115


8.12 AVAILABILITY MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................................ 119

8.13 SECURITY MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................ 123

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8.14 BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE METRICS .................................................................................................. 125

8.15 CONTINUOUS SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS (SIP) ........................................................ 129

8.16 RISK MANAGEMENT ........................................................................................................................... 131

8.17 DOCUMENTATION MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................. 134

8.18 COMPETENCE, AWARENESS AND TRAINING (CAT) ................................................................... 137

8.19 METRICS FOR PROGRAM AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT .......................................................... 140

8.20 EXAMPLE OF OTHER METRICS ........................................................................................................ 142

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1. INTRODUCTION

The main purpose of this chapter is to describe the problem and to have an overall view on the

study. In this chapter, first the author describes the background of the topic and secondly, the

reasons that persuaded the author in the selection process.

1.1 Background

In today’s highly competitive business environment, information plays an important role.

Companies need to derive and share information as much as possible in an efficient way. This

resource nourishes other resources of the company and it is an infrastructure for many other

activities of the business. IT provides a standard operating environment to conduct these business

activities.

As IT environment grows, its management becomes much more difficult and complex due to the

volume and complexity of its hardware and software applications (Kumbakara 2008). In this

complex environment many issues should be considered to increase the efficiency and

effectiveness of the system. IT Service Management (ITSM) has been shaped to manage this

complex environment with incorporating different management methods. According to

(Mesquida, Mas et al. 2012): “ITSM is a process-oriented discipline which combines process

management and industry’s best practices into a standard approach for optimizing IT services”.

ITSM nowadays is considered as a key issue in the IT area (McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010). With

a comprehensive management framework, organizations would integrate and centralize different

IT operations.

Academics and practitioners have tried to make some standards for ITSM. Some examples of

these Standards are: ITIL (Information technology infrastructure library), ISO/IEC 20000,

COBIT (Control objectives for information and related technology) and DMTF (Distributed

management task force). The main task of all of these standards is to deliver the best quality IT

service to the customers and fulfill the business needs and requirements.

In each of these standards, many methods and measurements are introduced to assess the IT

operations and to help them increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the system. Measuring

the performance of IT operations is very important and service measurements play an important

role in ITSM. In this research study, first the author reviews these measurements and then he

tries to interconnect them to each other and orchestrate them for better incorporation onto the

practical environment.

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1.2 Statement of problem

Although many academics and practitioners have tried to consider ITSM from different

perspectives, this subject needs to be further developed. Increasing the quality of services is the

main concern of many managers in the IT area; and much works have been done previously for

the development of special standards in this area. Publishers of these standards mentioned many

issues for the improvement of IT services. Measuring these services is one of the issues that are

addressed by many academics and practitioners. There are many measurements in these

standards from different views. In some situations, this bulk of measurements make the

incorporation of them harder to incorporation for the managers and experts. This study tries to

review all these measurements and orchestrate them with a different point of view.

1.3 Purpose of the study and expected outcome

In this research study, the author tries to have both theoretical and empirical points of view. At

first, a comprehensive view on ITSM and its different standards is provided. The author tries to

cover all the needed issues for the analysis part. The expectation from the discussions in this part

is to extract measurements for evaluating ITSM performance and use them for the next part. In

the second part of study, the main purpose of author is orchestrating extracted measurements for

increasing the sufficiency of the standards and to find a comprehensive framework for IT service

management efficiency.

Main objectives

- Giving an overview of ITSM and its frameworks.

- Comparison of different frameworks to extract the strengths and weaknesses of them.

- Surveying and assessing the development of ITSM frameworks in selected companies.

To find out the problems and challenges of the ITSM implementations.

- Propose a practical framework to increase the ITSM efficiency.

- Defining and clarifying different ITSM metrics to incorporate them to the framework.

- Propose a comprehensive framework to improve ITSM efficiency.

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1.4 Research questions In this research study the author tried to design appropriate research questions to fulfill the

objectives of the research. Based on the purposes of this study, the author defined a main

questions and some sub-questions which are mentioned below:

Main question:

How to improve ITSM efficiency in order to make a better contribution to IT industries?

Sub-questions:

What are the operational needs related to ITSM framework and how to improve ITSM

efficiency?

What are the main strength and weakness points of the ITSM Performance in the practical

areas?

What are the Impacts of ITSM-ITIL (best practices) on IT/business operation?

1.5 Target group

The results from this research study can be useful for two groups of people.

1. The academics that their focus is on the IT service management and its various stages

from meaning to implementation phases

First, this research study can be beneficial for academia and researchers who want to increase

their knowledge about ITSM issues and its role in IT area. As mentioned above, one of the main

purposes of this study is to give an overview on ITSM concept. To achieve this, the author

reviewed many academic sources such as different journal papers and books to gather the

appropriate information. Therefore, we can say this research study is a good reference for people

who want to know more about the ITSM from its different definitions and advantages to various

considered issues from different academics.

2. IT managers and specialists who their main consideration is how to implement ITSM-

ITIL (Best-Practice) particularly in IT organizations

Second, in this research the author also considers the practical environment. This task is done

with gathering information from different companies which are pioneers in this area. In this part

different issues from the barriers of implementing ITSM from considering metrics to increase the

efficiency of the system are provided. So people who want to find out how ITSM and its

different issues are considered in practical environment can benefit from this part. So IT

managers who request to find the answer of questions such as: “What skills are needed in order

to make ITSM more effective and efficient in an IT organization?” and “How can ITSM be

managed in an innovative way to make it more useful and operative?” can benefit from this

study.

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1.6 Experience and background of author The researcher obtained bachelor degree in Information technology, E-commerce from

Australian University of Wollongong in Dubai in 2008, immediately after graduation the author

start took an internship in The Network Center Company in Dubai-UAE. The author served as

the Net Work Administer as his main responsibility and worked with different products as well

as Check Point software which is decrease security complexity and lowers total cost of

ownership and also Extreme Network which provided the solutions for the company’s open

network and provided a platform for improved business agility and different management

products. While working in different project he found his interest in improving IT Service

Management framework in IT corporations. Presently, the researcher is taking Master’s degree in

Informatics with specialization in Co-Design of Business and IT, 120 ECTS at Högskolan i

Boras. By collecting skills and knowledge foundation, through master courses and experiences

from different assignments, the author has the skills and ability in performing research in the

field of informatics.

1.7 Delimitations As mentioned above, in this study the author covers both theoretical and empirical part of the

issue. As many books and articles have been published in the area of ITSM concept the author

has to select some specific parts to review based on his goals. These issues can be summarized

in: The definitions of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and IT Service

Management Framework (ITSM), the needs of comprehensive ITSM framework, advantages of

using ITSM and its different framework and benefits of using ITIL best practice. In practical

part, because of some constraints such as lack of time and companies to undertake survey at, the

author has to limit himself to some limited number of companies for running his empirical part.

So the author limits the empirical part to some interviews and information which he gathered

himself from practical environment.

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1.8 Structure of the thesis

Introduction

In introduction part, the infrastructure of the

thesis is discussed. Some Issues like the

background of the research, purpose of the

study, research questions and target group are

provided.

Methodology The methods which author applied to his

research study are discussed in methodology

part. The methods for data collection, strategies

for validating the thesis and analysis method

are the parts which are presented by author in

this section.

Theoretical frame of references

In theoretical frame of references chapter, the

author presents concepts which he mentioned

in his goals and makes the theoretical structure

with reviewing previous academic works to

use in analysis part.

Empirical study

In empirical study chapter, the author tries to

gather some practical information about the

ITSM to use in analysis part with running

some interviews with companies.

Analysis

In this part, the author makes connection

between theoretical and empirical part.

Different information gathered from theoretical

and empirical part will be analyzed in this part

with using mentioned methodologies.

Discussion

In discussion section, the conclusion of the

study and its implication are provided by the

author. Moreover, in this part the researcher

evaluates the research and presents ideas for

developing the concept.

Table1 Structure of the thesis

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2 METHODOLOGY

In the methodology chapter, the author discusses about the methods used in different parts of the

thesis. This chapter presents research strategy and research approaches. Moreover, at the end of

this part the author presents the proofs of validity and reliability of the research study.

2.1 Research perspective

As stated, mainly there are two different scientific paradigms in this regard. According to him,

the concept of paradigm refers to value, judgment, norms, standards, perspectives, myths,

theories, frames of reference and approved procedures which is derived from the people and is a

representative of their thoughts and action. The theory of knowledge has two main paradigms:

Positivistic paradigm

When the knowledge is objective, scientific and tangible in nature the positivism paradigm

comes in to account. As positivistic paradigm is tangible and objective, its basis should be

contained in the nature. So, the basis of this concept is mainly from experiment, quantitative

measurement and logical reasoning. This kind of paradigm is achieved through performing

rational, logical and reasonable approach. Other issues like emotions, beliefs and feelings are not

well suited in this kind of paradigm. In conclusion, this paradigm can be achieved via verifying

hypothesis and different theories.

Hermeneutic paradigm

If emotions, beliefs and feelings are applied in the research then it can be assumed that

hermeneutic paradigm is achieved. The researcher of this kind of paradigm demonstrates his own

perception of the issues. So this kind of paradigm is called “the concept which tries to review and

develop theories and the interpretation and understanding of texts” in the academic views. The

data in this paradigm comes from different theories and the researcher explains them based on

his own feelings.

The overall structure of this research work is built on the positivistic approach. As mentioned

earlier, the researcher builds his research upon reviewing the academic resources. So the basis of

the thesis comes from scientific and rational resources. The second type of data comes from

empirical study. The researcher tries to connect these parts by deploying his own explanation and

understating from the information. So in this part the research has somehow a hermeneutic

approach.

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Research studies can be categorized into two main approaches to conduct in a scientific research;

quantitative and qualitative researches (Bryman & Bell, 2011).

In quantitative research, the researcher uses numerical data in his study and tries to make

connection between variables. Therefore, the quantitative research goal is to develop

mathematical models or different hypotheses. In the opposite, there is other type of research

which is Qualitative research. In this type of research, the author mainly uses the methods such

as observation, analyzing text and documents, interviews, recording and transcribing to develop

his research study. Explanatory questions such as ‘Why’ is the basis of this type of research. To

summarize, qualitative researcher is “subjective” and quantitative research is “objective”.

As mentioned in previous parts, in this research the author uses information from different

academic resources and practical environment. As it is clear the nature of his concept of this area

of concern is considered as managerial issue. So information used in this study is qualitative and

has the subjective nature.

2.2 Research strategy

The main purpose of this study is to help IT managers/organization realize possible influence or

significance which brought by IT Service Management Processes Metrics and to give IT

managers and IT users a useful reference when they try to establish or improve a ITSM

framework efficiency.

To fulfil these purposes, this research includes both theoretical and empirical study. In order to

achieve the goals of the research, it is important to have an intensive text investigation through

different academic resources in the theoretical part. It is also important to acquire appropriate

information through extensive communication with the people in the empirical part. The aim of

the author in this research study is to present a research based on theoretical studies with

considering empirical data gathered from practical environment.

Firstly, the author reviews different academic resources to build his theoretical foundation. After

reviewing the literature of the concept comprehensively, the researcher enters a practical

environment with performing a case study and an interview with a company such as DB

Schenker. Finally, after gathering enough information the researcher analyses the information

with setting up a connection between the information gathered from practical environment and

the literature. Generally our research strategy is divided into two types of research strategy;

Exploratory and explanatory.

Empirical research study

The empirical investigations are guided by the outcomes of experiments or observation

based on the facts and realities that are made by the researcher. Based on the explanatory

studies in the empirical study, for finding the comprehensive framework for ITSM the

researcher is going to compare different perspectives of the same condition in various

companies to attain a final model that are used to support and make the theoretical

findings durable (Chisnall, 1981; Noon 1983 ). Finally, the researcher could draw that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypotheses

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something important like collecting related evidences has been added to the body of

knowledge. Here in this thesis, case study is used as empirical research approach to

analyze specific research unit.

Case Study

According to Blatter (2008; 2008), case studies were fundamentally needed for the

primary research strategy at the inception of modern social science. Here, the proposed

research strategy is a case study. The need of the thesis is to analyze different qualitative

elements of ITSM framework and ITIL strategy guide. According to Oates (2006), the

most common methods for data generation are questionnaires, interviews and

observations. Thus, in order to gather information on the elements of IT service

management efficiency, Interviews are highlighted as the most operative and effective

method .This will be similar to most qualitative methods as informative, holistic and

recognize multiple realities that answers questions relying on “what”, “who”, “why” and

“how” it can be improved.

Theoretical studies

Exploratory study deals with the conditions where the problem is not very clear and is

used for better understanding the problem. At the first stage, there are unlimited numbers

of perceptions and academic studies for collecting the knowledge about IT service

management (Cooper and Schindler 2003; Blumberg, Cooper et al. 2008, 1998).Then, the

theoretical study will develop the conceptual model in order to present answers for the

research questions. Moreover, in the analysis and result chapter comparative analysis

method will focus on both studies’ result where inconsistency may be clarified. Based on

the comparative analysis method the new conceptual model will be offered.

2.3 Data collection method

As mentioned before in the structure of thesis part, the author in this research study first is going

to have a review on the academic resources related to the subject area. After gathering valuable

academic information from valid resources the author will continue the study with gathering

needed information from selected companies. Data used in this research can be categorized in

two main parts: Primary Data and Secondary Data.

2.3.1 Primary data

Primary data is the one that comes from practical experiences. Personal experiments such as

interviews and direct observation are the example of this type of data. In these methods, all the

information of the experiments is important for the researcher and gathering information as much

as it is possible is the key issue for success.

In this research study, the author selected the interview method to gather appropriate information

for verifying the theoretical part for achieving the defined purposes. In a point of view, there are

mainly two types of interview sampling: probability and non-probability. Probability is a kind of

sampling which the selection of interviews is random. Conversely, in non-probability method

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interviews are determined and the selection method is not random based. Referring to the

research strategy in which the information of theoretical part should be compared by the

information of practical ones, verified information is important for the author. Therefore, the

author selected some determined interviews for gathering needed information.

In the interviews the author seeks to gather some information related to the metrics for managing

ITSM such as ITIL V3/V2 and COBIT. Using practical information to serve as an aid to

introduce and categorize these metrics can be the main purpose of this part. To achieve this goal,

the author had some cooperation with innovation lab of Borås University who were involved in

an ITSM project and also conducted some interviews with IT manager of DB Schenker

Company which is credited as the pioneer company of logistics. DB Schenker is an organization

which provides transports, logistics and information services globally. More information about

this company is provided by the author in empirical part.

Qualitative interviews are normally categorized in unstructured, semi-structured, and structured

(Bloom & Crabtree, 2006). The author tried to arrange the semi-structured interview with an

expert in this company which could give reliable information. Some open and close questions

have been selected to conduct the meeting. To better conduct the interview, the researcher sent

some general questions before the meeting. But to have more challenge during the interview

some specific open questions have been selected to be asked in the meeting.

2.3.2 Secondary data

Secondary data includes information from scientific articles, documents, websites and other

valuable records. This data builds the foundation of the research and considers as a valuable

resource to evaluate and validate the study. Commonly gathering secondary data from its

resources is done through qualitative methodologies.

2.4 Data Analysis procedures

To achieve his research goal, the author should have a comprehensive analysis while performing

appropriate methods. Strauss & Corbin (1990) mentions the significance of the processes in

research study and also stress to provide special attention to it. Data analysis processes are the

most significant phase in writing research articles in order to support inclusive decision making

processes and to provide reliable outcome (Strauss and Corbin 1990).

As we mentioned earlier in section 2.1, we had selected the qualitative perspective approach

where an inductive approach is practical to our thesis investigation. According to (Backman

1998) data analysis in the qualitative research is a difficult task. Once information managed for

analysis, the relevant data to research question will be shaped according to unrelated, relevant

and general value data to research question.

In the analysis and results chapter of both theoretical and empirical studies which investigates the

research sub-questions is answered and these results will go through a comparative analysis

according to characteristic of this study where the data will be assessed and results will be

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presented. According to Mills (2008), comparison is the most important aspect in the analysis of

great number of social science research, which essentially follows from the frame of reference.

Generally, it happens between different objects, such as individuals, groups, cases, settings,

themes, statements, different points in time and interviews (Mills 2008).

At the first step, the researcher of this study grouped theoretical findings based on the required

information from reliable resources (e.g. academic resources). Then the researcher gathers the

information from real world by running some interviews with DB Schenker Sweden, the

empirical results are then used to analyse our theoretical studies with the facts and metrics

obtained from various organizations for comprehensive IT service management framework

issues. The next step is to analyse and to compare the results through comparative analysis based

on the classified data that are allocated at the final step in order to explore new result. Finally,

concluding the subject according to arguments from last two parts.

2.5 Strategies for validating findings

Reliability is: “The degree of consistency between two measures of the same” (Mehrens and

Lehmann 1987). It defines a research as “reliable” when it is consistent and the results are not

different from the results of the same studies. As mentioned before, the basis of this research is

built on academic resources. The researcher tries to select the most important and reliable one in

the area of ITSM concept. So it can be assumed that the theoretical part has the accepted level of

reliability from the researcher’s point of view. In empirical part, the researcher has selected some

of the best known companies to run his interviews and gather appropriate information. The

people who had been interviewed are experts in the related area and the researcher used his

knowledge which was acquired from theoretical part to make the empirical part as reliable as

possible.

If the researcher can measure what has been defined at the beginning of the research in the end

we can say the research has validity. There are two kinds of validity:

1. Internal validity

Internal validity is defined when we can appropriately connect the theoretical part with empirical

one we can say the research has internal validity. For instance, in this research the researcher

used interview method. And he gathered some information from different people. If the

interviews performed in its best way the information has validity and we can make connection

with reliable information from theoretical part.

2. External validity

External Validity is defined when the research can be generalized. To summarize, it refers to the

degree use of using the results in the future. In this research, since the results are the combination

of theory and empirical study it can be fruitful for academics and practitioners to use and develop

this concept.

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2.6 Result presentation method

The researcher of this study chose written format for his work. As the purpose of this research is

making contribution to the selected area with giving appropriate information this format has been

selected. Figures and tables have been selected to make information more visible for the reader.

The Harvard system is used by the author for referring the sources. In Harvard system, the name

of author and the publish date are provided when an issue is used.

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3 THEORETICAL FRAMES OF REFERENCES

3.1 Key concepts

IT Service Management (ITSM): IT management focuses on the management area of IT

processes such as IT services and products. According to, Silva Molina, E. j. a. p., Leonel and

Flors, Jonny and Vargas, Norman (2005), IT management should be included in the IT

Governance process. But, there is an obvious difference between IT management and IT

governance. The term IT management mainly concentrates on the effective supply of IT services

and products and the management of IT functions. But, IT governance focuses on broader areas

such as “performing and transforming IT to meet present and future demands of the business and

clients”. According to Rakesh, “Good IT governance is about creating a learning organization

and culture of effective IT decision making” (Silva Molina 2005; Rakesh 2009).

IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL): ITIL models Verson2/Version3 illustrate the most accepted

guidance for enterprise IT operations to meet the need of services and products in order to

provide cost-effective and efficient IT operation inside the Government Computer Center (GCC).

COBIT: The Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) governance

has been generated by Information System Audit and Control Association (ISACA). COBIT is a

combining tool that gives permits the managers to link the activity among technical issues,

control requirements and business risks. The first Version of COBIT was produced in 1996 and

the latest version released in 2007 as V4.1 (Grembergen, 1997).

Metrics: “ metric is just another term for a “measure” or “meter” that shows the performance of

the system based on percentages or means. Metrics identify what is to be measured for IT such

as: technology processes and services. Metrics deliver the feedback mechanism that allows

management to navigate, control and guide IT toward strategic objectives under continuous

improvement process” (Brooks, 2006).

Performance Measurements (PMs): According to Lohman, Fortuin, &Wouters, “PM is an

activity that managers perform in order to reach predefined goals that are derived from the

company’s strategic objectives (Lohman, Fortuin et al. 2004).

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): is a metric, value or quantity and it is a type of

performance measurement. The KPIs provide the opportunity to compare against an internal or

external object in order to indicate of performance, such as benchmarking of inside performance

with external criteria (Ahmad and Dhafr 2002; David 2010).

Quality Management System (QMS): Quality Management System (QMS) is the

organizational step-by-step improvement structure, procedures, analysis and necessary resources

to implement QM (Hank 2006).

SERVQUAL: a multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality.

19

3.2 Subject areas relevant for the research

In this section, we discuss subject areas that contribute in obtaining the results of our research

questions. We narrowed down the key concepts in the subject areas as:

1. Knowledge on ITSM Frameworks and essential needs of ITSM in IT industries.

2. ITSM based on The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

3. Decision-making Process.

The diagrammatical representation below clarifies how the subject areas are relevant for our

research question and how they help to answering it.

Figure1 Relation of three subject areas

20

3.3 Previous research

To the best of the author’s knowledge there is no obtainable work which performs the collection

and comparison of different IT Service Management processes and metrics from different IT

corporations on real life process data. Nevertheless, there are several works that are highly

related to this academic work and influences ITSM process and operation framework.

First of all, there are several works on the application of Implementing ITIL-ITSM using best

practices, standards and management techniques.

In “Key performance indicators: developing, implementing, and using winning KPIs”, David

(2010) presented different approaches to find critical success factors over 300 performance

measures and how to brainstorm the performance measure. Also in the second edition of the

book he illustrated that how to track and identify organization’s KPIs in order to increase the

success factors (David 2010).

Jurison (1996) argues that Information Technology (IT) can provide important benefits, but in

great number of cases these benefits are captured by other stakeholders and not captured by the

firms that made the investment; he also proposed a framework for distribution of IT

benefits(Jurison 1996).

In “ITIL: What It Is And What It Isn't”, Hank M (2006) examined in the measuring techniques of

successful companies when implementing the ITIL-best practice. He describes Service Support

and Service delivery and explains its stress on ITSM-ITIL best practice that it does not stand

alone and it could be successful when applying with other practices. The authors suggest that

there are three certain tasks such as, appropriate goal setting through a Process Maturity

Framework (PMF), rigorous auditing and reporting through a Quality Management System

(QMS) and Project Management and a Continuous Service Improvement Program (CSIP), to

support ITIL-usage. Furthermore, he also provided more information about business-aligned IT

process and continuous improvement of the operational and tactical elements specially those

processes that focused on service quality by clients and users (Hank 2006).

Apart from the other works on Improving the efficiency of IT service management field, there is

a real life example of a case study which is focusing on IT framework and Service Strategy

process of Steel Manufacturing Enterprise (SMC) which are related to the subject area of this

thesis. In a manufacturing enterprise, Zhong and Xin (2010) used integration of COBIT and ITIL

best practice to improve ITSM framework, they also introduced an approach to service strategy

evaluation framework in SMC by providing indicators for different evaluation process in order to

improve the result from ITIL implementation and to increase the improvements on changed IT

processes, they use different approaches to find the problem of Business-IT alignment in SMC.

The approach aims at minimizing the difficulty of business-IT alignment in importance within

the IT community. In the same article Bartolini et al (2006), has suggested an IT Management by

Business Objectives (MBO) method, which is a special method to ensure business strategic

objectives-IT alignment, by defining a new system for decision support in ITSM. It is closely

related to the ITIL component in operational level and tactical level of theoretical research

(Bartolini, Salle et al. ; Zhong and Xin).

http://hb.summon.serialssolutions.com/link/0/eLvHCXMwVV27CgIxEFwQQURLTesHeHK53CZ3paiHhXYitpNNUlr5_5j4QCynW1iY3WFnWKJVn0ICDEvwkieKyxtJzy44LToievx9bpj9yGlY0HU4XHbH6vMHoEKmV-ZKxNR16mIW3-xa-AiG88VSCN3UMDFIZ4O2Noty33AUKyVwGcAOQOP1kuYohvH74xUsC4rGKXc3qnLvVLkCRZNbf9y329P5DadfuIGikVm3Tx-eM0g

21

In “E-government: ITIL-Based Service Management Case Study”, Meziani and Saleh (2010)

developed a service management self-assessment plans for the government agency to support

continuous quality improvement of IT processes based on ITIL governance- gap analysis

methods with the respect to ITIL standards (Meziani and Saleh).

In “Managed IT services: the role of IT standards” Narayanan (2008) argues the practical issues

based on standards and the management of IT services delivered by external or outsourced

service providers. Here, the purpose of the authors is to assist IT organizations to understand the

significance of having a mutual standard for managing IT services (Narayanan 2008).

Grembergen and Haes (2009) illustrated a set of best practices (COBIT Framework) for

management, control and assurance of information technology, and categorized them around a

logical framework based on 34 IT processes.

Marrone and Kolbe (2011) studied the benefits of both operational and strategic of IT Service

Management. The research outcome indicates that as the implementation of ITIL increased, the

number of realized benefits increased, like: the levels of maturity of the Business-IT alignment.

Jung-Oh, Sang-Geun et al (2008) suggested an effectively measuring method about maturity of

security management supporting.

However, there are some other studies about IT Service Management metrics ‘influence in IT

Corporation decision-making.

Shatzkin (2005) emphasizes on the needs of publishers to review their own metrics in order to be

sure they are not leading them into wrong business decisions (Shatzkin 2005).

Ahmad and Dhafr (2002) illustrated the creation of KPIs in industrial areas. They also presented

a new methodology, a critical evaluation and a few examples of implementing KPIs are included.

Lohman and Fortuin et al. (2004) analyzed the case study carried out at the european operations

department of Nike. Their results are related to continued enhancement of PMS, the act of

similar enterprises for PM and the standardized metrics role. It also proposes that improving

PMSs must to a large scope not be considered as a “ design ” effort; instead it must be

considered as a “co-ordination effort” (Lohman, Fortuin et al. 2004).

However, there are more studies about Measuring Service Quality and development of

SERVQUAL.

Parasuraman, A, Zeithaml, Valarie A and Berry, Leonard L. (1994) in their article highlighted

the arguments and evidences that are necessary for a balanced assessment and evaluation of

service quality measurement such as underlining unresolved issues. Also in the research “a

conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research” Parasuraman and

Zeithaml et al. (1985) illustrated the most importance of service quality model (Parasuraman,

Zeithaml et al. 1985; Parasuraman, Zeithaml et al. 1994).

22

In SERVQUAL: A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Service

Quality”, Parasuraman (1988) presented information on the improvement of SERVQUAL scale

from the studies of different researchers for measuring customer perceptions of service quality in

organizations, this study focused on perceived quality as a scale of SERVQUAL (Parasuraman

1988).

The author’s experience shows that users benefit from the efficiency improvements accrued by

appropriate service strategy in whole ITSM implementation. He continue to work with IT

Service management (Tactical-service delivery and Operational-service support), and Continues

Service Improvement to increase IT service management indicators in IT industries.

3.4 Relevant literature sources

In previous research discussion, a few studies related to ITSM and implementing ITIL-best

practices into organizational framework were presented that could provide direct help and

references. This topic follows the criteria in chapter two. The related literature was selected from

“Metrics for IT Service Management book, online databases were searched at University of

Borås Libraries, Innovation-lab and internet. A great number of e-journals were browsed by

topic and databases were searched by the key words.

Databases: used were, ACM Digital Library, Wiley Online Library, EBSCO, ScienceDirect,

SpringerLink and Blackwell Synergy.

Key words: IT Service Management, Service Management, IT Infrastructure Library, ITIL,

ITSM best practice, Comprehensive framework for ITSM, metrics for ITSM, ITIL process

framework. All the referenced articles in the literature review were issued in peer-reviewed

journal that serve as a research sources for both academic researchers and experts.

Brooks, P (2006) emphasizes on the implementation of IT Service Management in his book

―includes practical information on the provision of useful and meaningful metrics‖. He provides

specific examples and templates for the use of each metric (Brooks and Forum 2006).

Pollard, C. and A. Cater-Steel 2009 article: “Justifications, Strategies, and Critical Success

Factors in successful ITIL Implementations in U.S. and Australian companies: An Exploratory

Study” was published in Information Systems Management”. It is a peer-reviewed scientific

journal. The authors deem that not all ITIL implementations are successful and some have been

dissatisfied with the outcomes. Some conclusion from exploratory study, illustrated that,

successful implementations applying ITIL V2 framework into their ITSM process. In this

research also authors divided Critical Success Factors (CSFs) into different parts in order to

assist IT managers such as, interdepartmental communication and collaboration, use of

consultants, training and careful software selection, creating an ITIL-friendly culture, executive

management support, process, and customer-focused metrics. This study will give reference to a

successful IT service management framework.

Zhong, Y. and W. Xin 2010 article: “An ITIL based ITSM practice: A case study of steel

manufacturing enterprise” was published in - Service Systems and Service Management

(ICSSSM), 2010 7th International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management,

23

IEEE. In this paper authors illustrates the importance of the practical process to implement the

ITSM in one of steel manufacturing corporations. And divided the service strategy in this firm to

four main parts: Change Management, Resource Configuration, Accident Management and

Release Management (Zhong, Y. and W. Xin).

Meziani, R. and I. Saleh 2010 article: “e-government: ITIL-based service management case

study”. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on information integration and web-

based applications & services, published in ACM. In this paper the authors introduced the ITIL

framework in order to accomplish Quality Service (QS) and overcome problems related with the

growth of IT systems. This research is valuable to be a reference

Bartolini, C., M. Salle, et al. 2006 article: “IT service management driven by business objectives

an application to incident management” published in IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and

Management Symposium.

McLaughlin, K. and F. Damiano article: “American ITIL”, published in ACM. McLaughlin, K.

and F. Damiano argue about how college using ITIL, containing, Problem Management, Incident

Management, developing internal Operating Level Agreements (OLA's), establishing Service

Level Agreements (SLA's) and creating metrics. It is closely related to the second part of

theoretical research that allows managers to decide and make meaningful metrics that the

customer/users can understand.

McNaughton, B., P. Ray, et al. 2010 article: "Designing an evaluation framework for IT service

management" Published in Information & Management. The authors are believed that, there is a

lack of research and study on benefits of implementing and using ITIL processes have been

predicted. Therefore, The authors goals is to present a design of a holistic evaluation framework

for improvement of ITSM framework with particular focus on ITIL.this study will give reference

ITSM-ITIL benefits in organizations framework.

Parasuraman, A., V. A. Zeithaml, et al. 1994 article: "Alternative scales for measuring service

quality: A comparative assessment based on psychometric and diagnostic criteria" Published in

Journal of Retailing. They also authored "Reassessment of Expectations as a Comparison

Standard in Measuring Service Quality: Implications for Further Research” which is published

in" The Journal of Marketing. These researches are valuable to be references.

Silva Molina, E. J. a. P., Leonel and Flores, Jonny and Vargas, Norman 2005 article: “How to

identify and Measure the Level of Alignment between IT and Business Governance”. It is peer-

reviewed scientific journal and was presented in PICMET conference. The main part of this

article contains a new perspective and preliminary concepts on how to measure the level of

alignment between IT and business governance. However, the authors believe that, the main

reasons why organizations fail to achieve the full potential of their Information technology

investment is related to the lack of alignment, between information technology and business

strategies. This research is valuable to be a reference.

24

3.5 Knowledge on ITSM frameworks

During the last two decades, the ITSM-related frameworks have provided better systematic

approach to the management of IT services in the fields of IT operation to continual

improvement, implementation and design (Marrone and Kolbe 2011). For example, different

studies have concentrated on the adoption of IT Service Management (ITSM) as a “specific

service oriented best practice” (Marrone and Kolbe 2011). According to Winniford et al. (2009),

about 45% of US corporations are operating an ITSM while 15% are preparation its usage

(Winniford, Conger et al. 2009).IT service management is somehow the quality customer service

that tries to ensure that customer needs and expectations are met at all times. (Tan, Cater-Steel et

al. 2009). IT organization need a structure approach for measuring IT service support process

such as using IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL, ISO20000), Control Objectives for Information

and Related Technology (COBIT), Six Sigma, Enhanced Telecom Operation Map (ETOM) and

Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), Microsoft’s Operations Framework (MOF), IBM Systems Management

Solutions Lifecycle (IT Process Model) and HP IT Service Management Reference Model are

emerging as some of the more popular Standards in IT Service Management, Governance,

Quality and operation issues (Brooks 2006; Hank 2006; Tan, Cater-Steel et al. 2009;

McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010). According to the “IT Governance Institute (2008) ITSM

framework with the highest adoption rate is IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) with 24%, followed

by Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) with an adoption rate of

14%” (Marrone and Kolbe 2011).

3.6 Needs of ITSM in organization

ITSM increases the level of the communication efficiency between business departments. And

provides a structure in order to plan, research and implement IT services. The needs of ITSM in

organizations can be changes in the ways they operate, communicate and do business and also

develop and innovate, gain market advantage and differentiate themselves to their end customers

(Brooks 2006). In addition, ITSM allows companies to internally govern and follow to the set

global standards (Mior 2008).

25

However, the types of the ITSM benefits and allocation among stakeholder group can be

different based on the purpose of the system and managerial goals. Therefore, In order to attain

the maximum level of efficiency we must first identify IT and business goals to understand better

the needs of organization, managers and stakeholders. (Silva Molina, Plazaola et al.). According

to Jurison (1996), “stakeholders are all those parties who affect or are affected by a corporation’s

actions, behaviour, and policies. Thus, IT investment made by stakeholder or IT management

based on different business demands can be issues mentioned below:

- “Take customers as centre and provide IT services that meet customer’s demands.

- Enhanced quality.

- Low cost IT service in company.

- Better response to the client needs.

- Evaluating service delivery precisely” (Jurison 1996).

For better understanding of the ITSM concept in organization, reviewing the ITSM component

would be useful. ITSM components consist of Process, Technology, Manpower (people),

Organization, and Security, which is recently added to organization construction to develop the

system security (Park, Kim et al. 2008; McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010). Figure 1 illustrates the

component of ITSM.

Figure2 ITSM components

Processes

The most important element to construct ITSM system (e.g.IT business process facilitates

and keeps up IT service).

High secure manpower and organization

To provide better IT service level and arranges proper tasks in organization.

Technology and security

To provide best possible tools and automated solutions to develop process in higher level

of efficiency and safety

People Organisation

Technology Process

ITSM

26

As mentioned earlier, IT service is connected to the four fundamentals of Information

Technology Service Management (ITSM). So when IT is aligned with the business strategy and

the organization, it can do what it wants to do. Furthermore, IT and new technologies enable the

organization to do new things that were never possible before (Silva Molina, Plazaola et al.). The

strategic outcome is that the overall business benefits from effective IT-related service and IT

benefits that are integral to the company’s business plans will be delivered to the maximum

economical value. Two alignment directions can be identified;

One on the way that IT is aligned to business and the other, on the way that business can be

aligned to IT, both directions are equally important.(Jerry 2003; Marrone and Kolbe 2011).

However, new studies try to provide a solution for clarifying the confusion about IT values such

as cost, management methods and process of development for parities, managers and

researchers. For instance, the most cited ones concentrate on three different reasons among many

other explanations in the field of ITSM such as,

1. “Inappropriate measures,

2. Inappropriate unit of analysis,

3. Failure to account for time lag” (Jurison 1996; Marrone and Kolbe 2011)

3.6.1 Organizational requests for improvement of ITSM measurement

In ever-growing market, IT management is the key issue and one of the most significant aspects

of organizational control. E .j. Silvia Molina et al, (2005) expressed that, “the lack of association

between IT and Business strategies is one of the main reasons why projects fail to realize the full

potential of their investments”. Thus organizations rely upon IT service management to enable

them to achieve their company vision and goals by facilitating the new system and management

methods. For example, The key issue in having a new system design is to provide benefits as

well as set up new IT service management system which is followed by creating competitive

advantages for different tactical opportunities rather than developing operational

efficiency(Jurison 1996). Moreover, as Notowidigdo reports: “new strategic systems can be

considered either internal, having direct benefit to the company, or external, having direct benefit

to customers”(Notowidigdo 1984).Therefore, new IT Service Management requested by IT

manager and investor decision to accept cost and receiving some benefits.

There are several progresses, which have created a request for organizations to grow their IT

service management. First, “co-operation must to be improved along the IT management and

offer more flexibility, less cost, faster introduction on new products to clients and decreasing

delivery times. Several organizations are managed functionally”. For instance, around the

following levels of production, it might be difficult to manage the supply chain; such as sales,

marketing, purchasing, distribution, and manufacturing (Lohman, Fortuin et al. 2004).

Secondly, better IT management is not only important across functional borders, but also across

countries. For instance, sales and marketing turn to be as centralized, the organizations change

with the local products, services, products and customers to the organization that serves

particular products for the whole Europe. Therefore, it is essential to manage supply change and

IT service management to a European level of standard in order to move “product distribution,

marketing, demand management and distribution” to a European scale. Thirdly, linking

measurements operation across chain of separate departments as a result of providing better

27

service opportunity to end-consumer is another critical issue which must be considered(Lohman,

Fortuin et al. 2004). According to Lohman (2004), there are five different problems in

organization regarding the lack of IT management such as,

- “Lack of unit and cohesion structure between metrics.

- Insecurity and doubt about what to measure.

- Decentralized.

- Lack of communication among users and producers of PI (Performance indicator).

- Spread IT infrastructure” (Lohman, Fortuin et al. 2004).

The new style of IT management vs. Traditional styles IT management

According to Marquis, H. (2009) the new styles of IT Service are complex communication and

collaboration system, including business oriented service support in that IT services, are

managed by technology department and planned based on the business demands. The main

important change in organizational management system is to support how they collaborate to

achieve an objective. For instance; if the ITSM are well designed and followed the line with

business requirements, they can capture the control of the system. Like what Information

Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) really espouses (Brooks 2006; Marquis December

2009).

Another issue is the communication. The communication is a vital part of IT services

management and is a two-way process. So it is important to integrate requirements from the

various stakeholders and use their involvement throughout to improve service delivery and

process operation (Brooks 2006; McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010). On the other hand, the

traditional style of IT management function is silo-based which the structure is a little different

from process and performance (hardware/software, help desk, application management and

network system). For instance, almost every business uses silos to gather specialist into groups

such as in medicine, military and education. Usually, this silo makes group technologies and

their technologists into convenient units (C. Rudd 2004; McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010).

3.7 IT Service Management based on the IT Infrastructure Library

Within the last few years, majority of companies such as consulting organizations and vendors

have declined IT service management methodologies to skip into the ITIL concept and

implemented the ITIL framework to set of descriptive management documents to develop ITSM

frameworks. ITIL is a continuous technique of managing and operating of IT which is based on

providing high quality service by dealing with the needs of a complex system and customer’s

request for flexibility and changes in order to increasing customer’s satisfaction, determining

business-IT alignment and continuously improving tactical and operational level of business

performance in order to focus on service quality (McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010; Marquis

December 2009).

28

ITIL developed in 1980 by the UK’s Office of Government Commerce, with the name of Central

Computer and Telecommunications Agency. ITIL illustrates the most accepted guidance for

enterprise IT operations and provided cost-effective and efficient IT operation inside the

Government Computer Centres. For instance, recently each Request For Proposal (RFP) from

government and project activity needs an ITIL based response. in addition ITIL is used in a

combination with one or more other best practices to manage IT such as, “ISO 27000 (a standard

for IT security), COBIT (framework for IT Governance and Controls), Six Sigma (quality

methodology), TOGAF (framework for IT architecture)” (Zhen and Xin-yu 2007; Tan, Cater-

Steel et al. 2009; Marquis 2009).

3.7.1 Successful IT Service Management through ITIL process adoption

In order to have a successful IT structure in an organization, we should understand the difference

between process and performance. Process illustrates the work presented by people. However,

often, managers consider that a process shows an organizational structure. For example,

according to (Marquis December 2009) 45% of IT organization will be crashed as a result of

misunderstanding process and performance. However, this chaos might be caused by

organizational refusal to it. Moreover, according to Marquis (2009), a study by Evergreen

System showed that 72 % of companied that answered a questioner found the main difficulty to

ITIL adoption in their business is organizational resistance as a result of lack of knowledge in

understanding ITIL goals. As ITIL stated that; ITIL process approach means that process has to

be controlled and managed over more than one area surrounded by traditional hierarchical

construction (Marquis December 2009).

However, effective ITIL Implementers indicate that their success did not come from, consultants,

software changes, training, and work-structure. But in order to succeed we must involve

leadership skills and empower staff at different stages. According to McNaughton; “There are

50,000 ITIL certified professionals worldwide and 24.1% of IT managers in large organizations

are familiar with the ITIL standards” (McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010; Marquis December 2009).

On the other hand, one of the important reason for ITIL collapse in organization is because

organizations think ITIL is a “project you do” and when is over is done. For instance, successful

organizations mostly use other best practices, management techniques and standards when

implementing ITIL (Hank 2006).

29

There are three main practices needed to support ITIL usage as below.

First Practice: project management and a Continuous Service Improvement Program (CSIP):

The CSIP is doing ITIL and is a formal process of including:

“Managing the process of change needed to move an IT organization.

Stakeholders

Establishing goals”(Hank 2006)

Second Practice: appropriate target setting through a Process Maturity Framework (PMF): Some

famous PMF selections are:

“Capability Maturity Model/Integration (CMMI, CMM)

COBIT Governance” (Hank 2006)

Further, the PMF is to recognize “organizational and process maturity and capability” like,

“where” to implement and “when” to start implementing method based on ITIL.

Third Practice: Rigorous auditing and reporting through a Quality Management System (QMS)

ITIL(Hank 2006).

Table2. The four perceptions of using ITIL within the organization 1. Management Perspective

Highest level in organization which is to certify that other units (financial, business and

collective user) are correctly deliberated in the evaluation (McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010).

2. Technology Perspective

To provide a positive effect on different parts like: technological efficiency, IT personnel and

resource efficiency, and specific IT related costs and budgets (McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010).

3. IT Users Perspective

Who are interacting with IT help or service desk for their needs like; systems, technology,

equipment, products and services of the IT department on a daily basis to support processes

(McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010).

4. IT Employees Perspective

IT department’s personnel includes: first and second support, network and database

administrators, security personnel and application owner (McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010).

30

3.7.2 ITIL V2.0 / V3.0 framework

ITIL models were mainly designed to meet the enterprise’s need of services and products. The

most important difference between ITIL V2 and V3 is the new style of lifecycle structure. ITIL

V3 published on May 2007, which is the latest and the best model of ITIL, is looking for

implementing feedback-loops, by managing process in a rounded method. ITIL V3 tried to

provide the alignment of their ITSM processes and overall business requirements. The life cycles

are designed, created and transitioned into the live environment, which is supported and

constantly improved and retired at the end of life cycle. (McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010). ITIL V2

consists of the old structure of Service Support and Service Delivery. Moreover, many

organizations developed their own ITIL models in order to increase the service level, reduce cost

and improve Security such as: Microsoft and HP, Procter & Gamble, Caterpillar, State Farm and

Boeing in the USA. Organization such as Procter & Gamble, Caterpillar, State Farm and Boeing

have incorporated aspects of ITIL and IT Service Management into their IT Management

strategies (Meziani and Saleh).

Figure3 The ITILV2 framework (Wang Zhen Wang and Zhang Xin-yu Zhang 2007)

The process model of ITIL includes the collection of different service management processes.

But it’s totally unfeasible to implement several processes at the same time, which is lead directly

to disapproval of the lower level of process integration and staff. The main part of ITIL V2.0

framework is Service management components, which includes Service support unit. It describes

the processes required for those IT service daily support and maintenance and Service Delivery

sub units which cover up the process involved in planning and delivering IT Services. In

addition, Application Management module details the processes required to manage an

application through all stages of its application lifecycle. And, Security Management focuses on

cross-cuts many of the processes in the other modules of the framework (Wang Zhen Wang and

Zhang Xin-yu Zhang 2007).

31

ITIL V2.0 ITIL V3.0 Service Delivery

Financial Management.

Capacity Management.

Service Level Management.

Availability Management.

IT Service Continuity Management.

Service Strategy

Financial Management.

Demand Management.

Service Portfolio Management.

Service Support

Incident Management.

Problem Management.

Change Management.

Configuration Management.

Release Management.

Service Design


Service Level Management.


Service Catalog Management

Supplier Management.

Information Security Management.

Transition Planning & Support ICT Infrastructure Management

Supplier Management.

Service Transition

Change Management.


Release Management.

Service Validation & Testing

Knowledge Management.

Evaluation Management. Security Management


Access Management.

Service Operation


Problem Management.

Request Management.

Access Management.

Event Management.

Service Mgmt. Technical Management

IT operations Management.

Application Management.

Business Management


Access Management.

Continual Service Improvement

7step Service Improvement process

Business Perspectives

IT Governance

IT Portfolio Management.

Application Management

Knowledge Management.

Table3 ITIL V2.0 /V3.0 processes

32

3.7.3 Service support process

Most of the ITSM Organizations consider Service Support process as a difficult task. Difficulties

are mainly due to the following reasons: - IT organizations do not have a structured approach for measuring IT service and service

management processes.

- “Tools used by service support teams do not enable effective measurement”.

- IT service management standards and framework don’t provide practical examples on

how to measure support process.

- There are too many options what to measure in service management (Lahtela, Jantti et al.

2010).

Therefore, IT organization needs a structure approach for measuring IT service support process

such as ITIL V2 /V3 or the other reliable sources to increase IT quality of services. So,

implementations of the service support process are chosen as a priority to support as a result of

continuity improvement in ITSM.

As it’s illustrated in the table3 and table4, IT service support process includes five main steps,

Service Support

Process

Description Example

Incident Management “Restores normal service operations

as quickly as possible”

“Virus Attack, Server crashes.

Hardware alarm, Turn down and

decline of system performance”

(McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010)

Problem Management “Prevents incidents from happening

and minimizes the impact of

incidents that cannot be Prevented”

“All incidents that are not fixed

basically with known errors”


Change Management Controls the lifecycle of all changes

Release Management Implements approved changes to IT

services

“To provide solution for the

problems like parameter, adjust,

patch, configuration changes,

upgrade of system version and

server”.

Configuration Management “Maintains information about

configuration items required to

deliver an IT service, Including their

relationships”.

“Tracking, Reporting and

controlling all equipment’s”.


Table4 Service Support-Operational Level (Tan, Cater-Steel et al. 2009; Wui-Gee, Aileen et al. 2009)

33

3.7.4 Service delivery

Service delivery management recognizes business and technology units, associations and the

influence that they have by using KPIs which is to directly secure business processes KPIs and

objects. So this type of equipment model provides organization with the key question regarding

service availability, compatibility and impact on specific business processes. The table below

represents IT service delivery in tactical level (Silva Molina 2005).

Service Delivery Description Service level management Negotiates service level agreements

Financial management Manages an IT service provider’s budgeting, accounting

and charging requirements.

Capacity management

Ensures that the capacity of IT services and the IT

infrastructure is able to deliver agreed

Service level.

IT Service continuity management Manages risks that could seriously impact IT services

Availability management Defines, Analyses, plans, measures and improves all

aspects of the availability of IT service.

Table5 Service Delivery-Tactical Levels (Tan, Cater-Steel et al. 2009)

3.7.5 Process level of evaluation framework of metrics

Metrics are as certain as a “meter” or “measure” that are identified to show development and

performance of the system based on simple descriptive statistics like means or percentages.

Moreover, a practical metrics have been specified for each of the ITIL processes and in each

metrics they measure the advantage and consequences of the whole process rather than

performing a particular metrics used to control and monitor a progression. For instance;

according to Brooks, P (2006) IT service management tools facilitate many metrics and most of

the metrics will be interesting to people in the related departments with the same activities. There

are three kinds of metrics to improve the quality level of evaluation framework such as

effectiveness, capability and efficiency.

- Effectiveness: is related to the performance of an attribute relative to a target or standard.

- Capabilities: is related to the shape distribution of performance of the attribute

- Efficiency: is leading to the cost of delivering a service, resource usage and time.

These aspects could be matched into any technology, process or service that is mainly focusing

on strategic, tactical and operational process from the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) set of best

practices (Brooks and Forum 2006; Stewart and Yuk-Hee 2007; Gupta, Prasad et al. 2008).

34

Service Support Domain – Operational Level

Incident Management

An incident is an intimation of some errors or the failure of some components in an IT

system. “In a typical service desk, incident is either reported by the customer or

automatically generated by the system monitoring” (Gupta, Prasad, & Mohania, 2008).The

main goal of incident manager is to minimize interruption in the business activities and

ensure availability of service (Forte, 2007).

Service Desk

Service desks are requested to report IT problems in the enterprise system. It is a single point

of contact (SPOC) which is basically for the users who need assistance for operating their IT

systems, such as incident management, configuration changes, information and customer’s

problem which is managed by a leve-1 person. Moreover, the Service desk owns and

manages various tasks, such as dealing with tracking and communication by handling the

closure phase and transmitting messages. The Service desk is known as the “Notification”

which is in different cases function. (Gupta, Prasad et al. 2008).

For example, Incident is an indication of some errors in an IT system component; the

majority of historic database incidents are maintained at the service desk. Therefore, the

level-1(L1) person attempts to make the customers satisfied with their requests as much as

possible.

- L1 Person Method: the L1 (Level 1) person could check the service request by searching the

earlier reports of an incident. If it cannot resolve the incident, then a new request is created in

the form of an Incident ticket to initiate the different level of ITSM process. According to

Forte, the functional aspect clarifies who is responsible for resolving the incident and finds

an incident. The Service desks are known as the “notification or recognition phase” to seek

for collecting the Incident type and source, “what information is available additional details

and responsibility for the response” (Forte 2007).Also, the problem management process

would provide the method to find the source of incident(s) to avoid the similar problem in the

future. For example, customers can report problems by employing with different methods

such as “web based, e-mail or telephone” (Gupta, Prasad et al. 2008).

Configuration Management

Is responsible for maintaining the information about configuration items required to deliver

an IT (Meziani and Saleh).There are Some indicators for the configuration management such

as “rate of change management failures caused by original information errors, rate of no

corresponding request service items, rate of unable to execute configuration after changes

occurred” (Meziani and Saleh).

35

Change Management

This is an effective process for implementing changes required by the organization. All the

changes need to evaluated, approved, implemented, and checked. Some of indicators of

change management are rate of change failure, rate of urgent change, rate of unable to

execute the change management process, service interrupt caused by the change (Meziani

and Saleh ; Zhong and Xin).

Release Management

It is a way to communicate and manage expectations of the customer during the planning and

rollout of new releases. For example, for each server, “there should be built an account for all

equipment with attributes such as the type, configuration, duration of equipment, diagnosis

history, change and repairing reports” etc. (Meziani and Saleh ; Zhong and Xin 2010).

Operations Management/ICT Infrastructure Management

To manage and deliver high quality ICT service in line with business requirements in the

areas of Design and Planning, Deployment, Operations and Technical Support.

36

Service Delivery Domain – Tactical Level

Service Level Management (SLM)

“The goal of Service Level Management (SLM) is to maintain and improve IT service

quality, monitoring and reporting upon IT service achievements and investigation of actions

to eliminate poor service” (Meziani and Saleh).

Problem Management

Manages the lifecycle of all problems and minimizes the impact of the incidents that cannot

be prevented (Meziani and Saleh).

Financial Management

It is to manage an IT service provider's budget accounting and charging requirements

(Meziani and Saleh).

Capacity Management

The purpose is to ensure cost-justifiable IT capacity always exists and that it is matched to

the current and future identified needs of the business (Meziani and Saleh).

IT Service Continuity Management (ITSCM)

To support the overall business continuity management process and risks that could seriously

impact IT services (Meziani and Saleh).

Availability Management

Defines analyses, plans, measure and improves all aspects of the availability of IT services


Security Management

“To manage and control the security management process to meet external/internal security

requirements as it is found in SLAs, contracts, legislation and the company security policy”


37

Strategic Level

Business Perspective Metrics:

The goal of business perspective metrics is to deliver effective IT/Business alignment.

Appropriate alignment of business and IT is the Quality of Experience (QoE) (Brooks and Forum

2006; Forte 2007).

Continuous Service Improvement Programs (SIP)

The metric objective is to improve current process operation in line with business requirements.

(Brooks and Forum 2006; Forte 2007).

Risk Management Metrics

It is owned by the availability management process though a number of other areas using risk

management (Brooks and Forum 2006; Forte 2007).

Documentation Management

It is owned by the configuration management which helps to keep documentation control

standards (Brooks and Forum 2006; Forte 2007).

Competence, Awareness and Training (CAT)

To ensure that target levels of training and competence are met and maintained in the

organization to the level required by ISO20000 (Brooks and Forum 2006; Forte 2007).

Metrics for Program and Project Management:

It’s owned by the project office, which is “followed by appropriate project and programmed

standards of delivery, by use of Prince2 or similar project method standard” (Brooks and Forum

2006; Forte 2007).

38

3.7.6 Control objectives for information and related technology

The Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) governance has been

generated by Information System Audit and Control Association (ISACA). COBIT is a

combining tool that gives permits the managers to link the activity among technical issues,

control requirements and business risks. The first Version of COBIT was produced in 1996 and

the latest version released in 2007 as V4.1 (Grembergen, 1997). According To COBIT

"governance of information systems is the reference of leaders and the board of directors, it

consists of structures, command and operation processes leading the IT of the enterprise to

support its strategies and business objectives, and allow them to expand” (Grembergen, 1997).

COBIT frameworks of 34 IT processes split into four coherent parts of process. In each of the

processes it defines the “scope, purposes and then lists and develops”. The four process are

divided into four areas (van Grembergen and de Haes 2009).

1. “Plan and organize (PO): Strategic dimension of IT governance

2. Acquire and implement (AI): Gather all process that impact resources

3. Deliver and Support (DS): Devoted to service offered to clients of the CIO

4. Monitor and Evaluate (ME): Controlling and monitoring everything” (Grembergen, 1997).

ITIL versus COBIT

Both methods share the same concepts and values concerning on the management of IT services.

But, ITIL structure approach is based on daily IT Service users and project managers for

monitoring. However, COBIT in the same way provides the needs of business and the desire to

associate supply with demand (Grembergen, 1997).

Table 6 shows the different phases and processes gathered from service delivery and service

support process defined by ITIL and COBIT.

ITIL COBIT

SERVICE

DELIVERY

Service Level management.

Financial Management for IT

Services.



Availability Management.

DS1 Define and manage service

levels.

DS2 Manage third-party services.

DS3 Manage performance and

capacity.

DS4 Ensure continuous service.

DS5 Ensure systems security

SERVICE

SUPPORT


Change Management.

Release Management.


Problem Management.

Service Desk.

DS6 Identify and allocate costs.

DS7 Educate and train users.

DS8 Assist and advise customers

DS9 Manage the configuration.

DS10 Manage problems and

incidents.

DS11 Manage data.

DS12 Manage facilities.

DS13 Manage operations

Table6 ITIL/COBIT Processes (Silva Molina 2005; van Grembergen and de Haes 2009)

39

3.7.7 Benefits of ITIL- ITSM

There is a wide range of different published peer-reviewed journal and conferences to examine

the success factors of IT implementation especially in the field of ITSM-ITIL. According to the

Hochstein’s research study on ITIL, it is still on early stages. For example , The main benefit of

ITIL drove from “adapting and then following ITIL guidance through focusing on doing the right

things in the right order according to the decision of management, staff, vendors, customers and

users based on the business demand” (Marquis December 2009). The following table indicates

the summary of advantages recognized by ITIL based on the Hochstein’s research study based

on different aspects.

In New Zealand, Australia, and

United Kingdom

in six German companies

Concentrating more on IT service management Client/service orientation and the quality of IT service

More predictable communications Better efficiency due to standardization

Enhanced consultation with IT groups within the

organization

Process automation, transparency and comparability

through process monitoring and documentation

Smoother negotiation of service level agreements Business profitability and customer service quality are

always dependents on a high availability

Seamless end-to-end service Security of IT service and the performance (Meziani

and Saleh).

Table7 ITIL benefits (Porter 1996; Hochstein 2005; Potgieter BC 2005; Frank 2008; Marrone M 2010)

Moreover, According to Porter (1996) proposed that “improvements created by the ITIL best

practice do not lead to improvements for any organization”. Porter argues that a company should

focus on both the operational effectiveness and the strategic positioning. Also, continual

improvement is necessary to stay relevant in the market” (Porter 1996; Marrone and Kolbe

2011). In addition, an international survey on 441 organizations observed the benefits that ITIL

delivered to the IT firms. These research studies are based on two main questions such as “How

operational benefits and How strategic positioning of the IT organizations, specifically how the

perceived level of business-IT alignment maturity evolved as the adoption of ITIL increased”

(Marrone M 2010).

40

Here, is the summary of the result,

- If adoptions of ITIL increase, the number of realized operational benefits increases

accordingly.

- The higher the implementation of ITIL: the greater the operational and strategic benefits

to the organization.

Therefore, the study comes up with four fundamental remarks to that show the responsibility of

ITIL will increase “IF”:

- “The perception of the level of Business-IT alignment increases.

- The number of realized benefits increases.

- The usage of metrics to measure the benefits of the implementation increases.

- The numbers of benefits provided by IT that are acknowledged by the business Increases”

(Marrone and Kolbe 2011).

According to McNaughton et al (2010), McLaughlin and Damiano and Meziani and Saleh the

most essential parts of the organization which gets benefits from ITIL implementation is divided

into following areas:

- “Improved availability reliability and security of mission critical IT service.

- Improved end-users Satisfaction through a more professional approach service delivery.

- Document and communicate roles and responsibilities in service provision.

- Optimized IT infrastructure to provide for existing and anticipated business requirements.

- Reduce Cost / Known and manageable IT costs.

- More effective change management, enabling the business to keep pace with change and

drive business change to its advantage.

- Improved business productivity, efficiency and effectiveness.

- Increased skills and experience” (McLaughlin and Damiano ; Meziani and Saleh)

-

3.7.8 Metrics for IT service management process

Metrics for IT Service management or "metric" is just another term for a measure. Metrics define

what is to be measured for IT as well as: technology, processes and services. Metrics deliver the

feedback mechanism that allows management to navigate, control and guide IT toward strategic

objectives under continuous improvement process, and changing the process over time (Brooks,

2006). Moreover, the most important aspect in ITSM metrics is how to measure the stakeholder

benefits. For instance, the measures must be well understood and accepted by managers in

different level of organizations. According to Jurison, (1996), “The measures must be selected on

the basis of their ability to reflect the objectives of the stakeholders of the IT investment”

(Jurison 1996).

For instance, it has been estimated that IT expenditure of large amount of companies in the US

has profit margin at 2.2% of all revenues. Moreover, in the previous research study for the

Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA), by Helen Kang et al, it recognized that, “IT

and other related communication expenses represent over 20% of organizations’ total

expenditure” (Kang and Bradley 2002). Also, McNaughton et al. claimed, “The important factor

41

that comes from IT today is based on the assurance that business performance grows constantly,

is measurable, and can be delivered at standard levels”. Also according to him, there are 50,000

ITIL certified professionals worldwide and 24.1% of IT managers in large organizations are

familiar with the ITSM-ITIL standards (McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010).

Every organization might use different techniques and approaches to improve measurements

process and performance (e.g. ITIL, ISO/IEC2000, and COBIT). These techniques could be a

comprehensive measurement method for individual processes and services to support fulfilment

of business. The two most important parts of ITSM in every organization are service desk and

help (Brooks 2006).

3.7.9 How to measure business- IT alignments

There are different literature studies that reviewed the various measuring approaches of “How

alignment should be measured and what should be measured”. Avison et al. (2004) concluded

that there is no agreement on the factors that can measure Business-IT alignment (Avison, Jones

et al. 2004; Marrone and Kolbe 2011). Researchers like, Das et al. (1991), Reich and Benbasat

(2000) and Luftman (2003) use multi-dimensional scales to measure the alignment as following

steps.

- Das et al. suggest five elements: “Formality, scope, participation, influences and co-

ordination” (Das, Zahra et al. 1991).

- Reich and Benbasat recommend four elements: “Shared domain knowledge, IT

implementation success, communication between IT and the business, and connection

between IT and business planning” (Reich and Benbasat 2000).

- Luftman considers six conditions while measuring: ”Communication Maturity,

Competence/Value Measurement Maturity, Governance Maturity, Partnership Maturity,

Scope and Architecture Maturity and Skills Maturity” (Jerry 2003).

3.7.10 Performance Measurements

Performance measurements (PMs) tasks are one of the most important subjects among

management accounting and operational research study in the past years. According to Lohman,

Fortuin, &Wouters noted that, “PM is an activity that managers perform in order to reach

predefined goals that are derived from the company’s strategic objectives. (Lohman, Fortuin et

al. 2004).In traditional PMs method the purpose is to reduce direct cost by lowered material cost,

higher amount of usage and huge volume of direct labor efficiency. On the other side, in recent

manufacturing methods and service process, focus is merely on comprehensible measures such

as quality, flexibility, and amount of time the process takes (Lohman, Fortuin et al. 2004).

Generally there are four types of PMs such as, Key result indicators (KRIs). Result Indicators

(RIs).Performance Indicators (PIs).and Key performance indicators (KPIs), “which tell you what

to do to increase performance radically” (David 2010).According to different sources and studies

the main significant aspects of performance are as bellow.

42

- Resources:

- “Expenses (e.g. service costs, distribution cost).

- Assets (e.g. inventory carrying costs)” (Bowersox and Closs 1996).

- Flexibility:

- “Volume flexibility: ability to respond to changes in demand.

- Delivery flexibility: ability to respond quickly to tight delivery requests.

- Mix flexibility: ability to respond to changes in the mix of products demand.

- New product and modified product flexibility: ability to respond to demand for

new products” (Bowersox and Closs 1996).

- Output:

- “Financial (e.g. sales, profit, return on investment).

- Time (e.g. customer response time, delivery lead time, on-time deliveries).

- Quality (e.g. reliability, shipping errors, customer complaints)” (Bowersox and

Closs 1996; Lohman, Fortuin et al. 2004).

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

According to the literature study, the Key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric, Value or

quantity. Values can calculate from any activity or process and it relates to collected data. The

KPIs provide the opportunity to compare against an internal or external object in order to

indicate of performance, such as, benchmarking of inside performance with external criteria.

However, the collection of different types of performance measure must be suitable for the

company’s strategic purpose and to shape competitive environment. For instance; “if technical

leadership and product innovation are to be the key source of a manufacturing company’s

competitive advantage, then it should be measuring its performance in this area relative to its

competitors” (Ahmad and Dhafr 2002; David 2010).In general the measured KPIs are divided

into six parts as below:

- “Safety and Environment,

- Flexibility,

- Innovation,

- Performance,

- Quality,

- Dependability” (Ahmad and Dhafr 2002)

In addition, if the service corporation comes to the new ideas in order to improve it and

differentiate in the market situation, it must control and monitor the process precisely to reach to

the desired level of quality. For instance, it is necessary the organizations whether is in the

service area or industrialized sector selecting different range of appropriate metrics to balance

them. But, majority of the organization utilize common principles to organize their systems.

Such as; accounting organization using common accounting principles as a short-term measures

which have to be frequently reviewed and calculated like, financial performance indicator,

technical performance indicator and efficiency indicator (Ahmad and Dhafr 2002).

43

3.7.11 Positive and negative consequence of measurements

Measurements improve performance and show the values in organization. The positive benefits

can be weighed against the negative consequences of not having a measurements program.

Table 8 shows the Positive and negative aspects of having measurements program(Brooks 2006;

Smith 2012).

Table8 Measurements advantages and disadvantages(Brooks 2006; Smith 2012)

Positive consequence of metrics Negative consequences of metrics

Provide the necessary tools to control an

organization

Reduces visibility resulting in loss of control

Make it easier to concentrate on the important

matters

Increases focus on "noise" instead of "what's

important”

Well-presented metrics make it easy to spot the

danger at time of correction it.

Decreases morality in an organization

Improve the morality in an organization

Inspires unhealthy political competition

Stimulate healthy competition between

process owners

Increases risk

Metrics help align IT with business goals.

Benefits are not apparent or realized

Drives efficiency, effectiveness and quality.

Cost effectiveness is not understood

Helps reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Customer complaints that can bring

improvements are lost

Inspires continual improvements

TCO not optimized

44

3.7.12 PMs Development phase

Firms must install processes and operate them continuously to review the system and

implementation design in order to use a collection of performance measures. Below table

summarized the steps of PMs Development phase.

Steps Actions

1 Clearly define the firm’s mission statement.

2 Identify the firm’s strategic objectives using the mission statement as a guide (e.g. profitability, market

share, quality, and cost).

3 Develop an understanding of each functional area’s role in achieving the various strategic objectives.

4 Develop global performance measures capable of defining the firm’s overall competitive position to

top management.

5 Communicate strategic objectives and performance goals to lower levels in the organization.

6 Assure consistency with strategic objectives among the performance criteria used at each level.

7 Assure the compatibility of performance measures used in all functional areas.

8 Use the PMs.

9 Periodically re-evaluate the appropriateness of the established PMs in view of the current competitive

environment.

Table9 PMs development steps (Andy, Mike et al. 2005).

Review process

To involve a measure that might be removed or deleted in a case of changing goal process

and strategy.

Implementing phase

The firm should allow the measurement to be done frequently by collecting and processing

the data while putting systems and procedures in place.

Design phase

To recognizing the key objectives and measurement design (e.g. Data Availability).

Data Availability: is one of the most significant aspects in design phase due to

updated PMs after implementation. According to Kaplan and Norton (1993) there

are different methods to provide better design for new system, such as:

“highlighting data collection, interview, collecting information and

documentation from seminar” (Kaplan 1993).

Use phase design

Mangers evaluate the measurement outcome to measure the strategy and process efficiency

(Lohman, Fortuin et al. 2004; Andy, Mike et al. 2005).

45

Here, are the four types of approaches to design and PMs Plan as following steps,

1. “Asking Methods: to find the needs of manager (Interview, group discussions, planning

meeting and surveys)

2. Prototyping: Is a set of primary requirement via communication with users of the system.

Requirements are updated or changed until the user is satisfied

3. Planning methods: To design suitable measure depends on the firm, like process, strategy

and customers.

4. Existing report: Useful source of information to be used to plan and design the PMs, (e.g. It

is possible to recognize the relevant report available in different levels in organization for

managing process)” (Kaplan 1993; Lohman, Fortuin et al. 2004).

3.8 Decision making process

Decisions made in metrics are based on absolute numbers, percentages and ratio, choosing

wrong metrics for the process might have negative impact on the businesses in long terms.

Metrics are absolute and do not clarify why things are good or bad. Many organizations use

efficiency metrics rather than incomplete metrics as a result of measuring only a portion of the

right productivity and not the false productivity which might lead to incorrect actions. According

to Shatzkin (2005), “most publishers really need to review their own metrics to be sure they are

not leading them to bad business decision” (Shatzkin 2005). For example, the Company would

be able to monitor performance and goal’s fulfilments with the form of the performance

indicator. As the earliest international manufacturing strategy survey (IMSS), which was carried

out in different parts of the globe found that, organizations use different indicators to measure

market performance and their company.

Additionally, to facilitate viewing effectively the standpoint of the full system and measuring all

aspects of manufacturing productivity, the organization must use an “improved methodology”.

This type of appropriate measurement methodology provides advanced management to

concentrate on limited sources which have the greatest influence on the product efficiency.

Moreover, it makes it possible to reach additional production capabilities as well as new

technology or new machinery. For example, the areas of quality, delivery, reliability, cost, and

delivery lead-time are the most important aspects of manufacturing performance to measure, and

analysis (Ahmad and Dhafr 2002).However, for each company it is significant to set priority to

the overview of performance gaps in order to identify the importance of each measurements and

performance area based on specific company’s policy, market situation and environment(Ahmad

and Dhafr 2002).also, the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for manufacturing performance

approach are different from each other based on the level of importance between cost, quality,

flexibility, delivery and inventory. For instance, the project survey that has been done to

recognize that KPIs performance are used by manufacturing strategy illustrated that,

profitability, conformance to specifications, customer satisfaction and overhead cost are the most

important elements to measure (Ahmad and Dhafr 2002).

46

3.8.1 Service Quality

The concept of Service Quality (SQ) becomes very important among researchers and IT

managers. IT is as an alternative need for measuring IT performance in IT department, It is

specifically vital for organizations to realize and measure customer’s perception of IT service

and listen to their needs in order to improve the level of service quality and performances within

an organization. First, Quality of IT service is specified and then turns into management control

as results of expanding a conceptual model of IT service quality and associated measurements

method (Kettinger and Lee 1994; Pitt, Watson et al. 1995). Service quality is divided into three

service delivery characteristics such as, Intangibility, Heterogeneity and Inseparability of

manufacturing and consumption.

The most important benefits of service quality characteristics are:

- “Improved decision making via greater information timeliness and quality

- Improved user satisfaction

- Cost saving

- Improve revenue

- Superior user ability and heavier system usage” (Galletta and Lederer 1989; Kang and

Bradley 2002).

47

3.8.2 Quality management system

Quality Management System (QMS) is the organizational step-by-step improvement structure,

procedures, analysis and necessary resources to implement QM (Hank 2006).Hence, in order to

have successful ITIL, it must utilize QMS regularly to manage quality improvement. According

to Marquis, H (2006), “the output of the new or improved process must be examined consistently

to certify it is accomplishing the desired function with the required degree of conformity”(Hank

2006).

Plan-do-check-act lifecycle/Deming Cycle

Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) by W. Edward demining’s and key attributes by Matt

Evans:

As Bushell Sylvia (1992) stated that, Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), “often called the Deming

Cycle, which develops decision making by translating the scientific hypotheses testing into a

management tool for implementing proposed plans.” PDCA is a perfect and matchless decision-

making tool since it only needs the ideas to be tested on a small measure before they are

implemented extensively (Bushell 1992). According to W. Edward and Matt Evans, the process

framework is divided into different sub-processes as a continual life cycle form (Evans 2005;

Smith 2012).

Figure4 Edward Demining Life Cycle

Tuning (Plan)

Implementation (Do)

Monitoring (Check)

Analysis (Act)

Adminstration

Reporting

48

The below table represent the responsibility of each sub-processes during decision-making

process.

Deming Cycle Responsibilities Tuning (Plan) Identifying improvement opportunities and

recommendations for the subject process that is being

measured.

Implementation (Do) Implementing the recommended changes through

normal change management processes.

Monitoring (Check) Responsible for the data gathering, calculations and

validation of the required measurements.

Analysis (Act) Comparative, causal and predictive analysis of the

measurements to determine what corrective actions

may be required.

Administration (Additional sub-process) Administration of the activities associated with the

maintenance of the metrics and measurement database.

Reporting (Additional sub-process) Reporting the findings and recommendations to

management and various stakeholder groups, keeping

them informed and aware.

Table10 Demining Cycle Responsibilities (Evans 2005; Smith 2012)

49

Key Attributes by Matt Evans:

Continuous improvement of technology service and doing value-based measurement service

needs an IT organization to implement different activities based on “what they want to achieve

and not on what they want to measure”. The main achievement of IT must be the effective

alignment of services with the present and the future requirements of the business and its

customers (Evans. 2005). The below table shows some of the key attributes provided by Matt

Evans (2005) that should be measured during the plan-do-check-act lifecycle of IT metrics

management (Evans. 2005).

Attributes Explanation Vision Identifying the people, processes and technologies that are

required to support the future state vision.

Assess Evaluate the current state of any existing measurement

system

Staffing IT measurement is primarily built around people with clear

roles and responsibilities to ensure efficiency

Documentation

The IT measurement process should also be captured and

documented.

Communication Is required for measurement sustainability and ensures the

entire organization understands and supports the program.

Consistency The core building blocks of measurement should be

established with consistency in order to minimize

measurement costs.

Control With the advent of IT governance, Sarbanes-Oxley and other

legislative requirements, metrics and measurement should be

monitored for completeness, accuracy, validity and

appropriate authorization prior to commencement of any

related activities.

Prototype/proof-of-concept A prototype measurement project may be a key activity in

demonstrating value to the business.

Prioritize Any measurement results should be used as an input for

prioritizing the service improvement program portfolio.

Reporting

Measurement results need to be rationalized, rolled-up and

reported in a non-technical format, to the appropriate

business audience in order to add business value.

Bottom Line IT measures must have context to have meaning. The

appropriate context derived by deciding and investments in

measurement to provide business value.

Table11 Key Attributes By Matt (Evans. 2005)

50

3.8.3 The new Gaps model

The new conceptual model of IT service quality is developed by combining three different stages

of services into a new “gaps model”, IT clients are concerning about the limitation that is

imposed on IT suppliers based on, “Technology, organization and personnel” (Parasuraman,

Zeithaml et al. 1985; Kang 2002; Kang and Bradley 2002).

The table below illustrated the seven different gaps model between customers and suppliers of IT

service as a new conceptual model of IT service quality (Parasuraman, Zeithaml et al. 1994;

Parasuraman, Zeithaml et al. 1994).

Different GAP Models GAPs

Between suppliers and clients of IT service

Gap 1: “the difference between IT suppliers’ and

customers’ perceptions of ideal level of IT service”.


customers’ perceptions of acceptable level of IT

service”.


customers’ perceptions of actual level of IT service”.

Between customers of IT service

Gap 4: “the difference between IT service level

customers would like to receive, and what they would

accept, given the limitations due to personnel,

technology and other organizational factors”.

Gap 5: “the difference between IT service level

acceptable to customers, and the actual level of IT

service perceived by customers”.

Suppliers of IT service

Gap 6: “the difference between IT suppliers’

perception of what customers require, and the level of

IT service they can provide given the constraints due

to personnel, technology and other factors”.

Gap 7: “the difference between IT service level IT

suppliers can provide and the actual level of IT service

being provided”.

Table12 Seven steps gaps models (Parasuraman, Zeithaml et al. 1985; Kang and Bradley 2002)

51

3.8.4 SERVQUAL development

“SERVQUAL means to measure the scale of Quality in the service sectors” and it is developed

in the mid-80s by three researchers Zeithaml, Parasuraman& Berry (1988), as a multiphase and

systematic research study to focus on measurement of Service Quality.

Moreover, survey questions were created and distributed based on IS SERVQUAL in order to

measure the gap between customer expectations and their knowledge of user views of service

quality and their satisfaction with the IT services (Parasuraman 1988). The table below

represents one part of summary analysis of potential framework which is collected by

McNaughton et al., (2010). The purpose is to manage greater improvement on service quality.

Method Description What is

assessed

Applicability

to ITIL

Complexity Level of

prescription IS Adapted

SERVQUAL

“Developed in

marketing to measure

service quality through

the constructs of

tangibles, reliability,

responsiveness,

assurance and

empathy”

IS Service

Quality

“Medium: Useful

for assessing any

ITSM

improvement

effort”.

“Low: survey

construction and

analysis of data

required”.

“Medium: survey

questions defined

but method of

analysis is

managerial

choice”.

Table13 Summary analysis of potential evaluation frameworks for ITSM-ITIL (McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010)

3.8.5 SERVQUAL measurement aspects from different views

SERVQUAL has been measured by analyzing on ten different features of service quality. It is

called as a difference scores (reliability, competence, courtesy, communication, credibility,

security, access, understanding the customer tangibility, and responsiveness). However in 1985,

many researches were redesigned to the useful model like service quality “Gaps model”. It has

been done in five dimensions based on Reliability (REL-SQ), Assurance (ASSU-SQ), Tangibles

(TANG-SQ), Empathy (EMP-SQ) and Responsiveness (RESP-SQ). It helped beginning the

process of expanding tools for measuring customer’s assessment of service quality performance

(Kang and Bradley 2002).

Besides that, Francis Buttle analyzed SERVQUAL in the article "SERVQUAL: review, critique,

research agenda” and also summarized five scopes of SERVQUAL’S like Reliability,

Assurance, Tangibility, Empathy and Responsiveness. He mentioned that “the model fails to

draw on established economic, statistical and psychological theory while SERVQUAL’s face

and construct validity are in doubt. It is widely used in published and modified forms to measure

customer expectations and perceptions of service quality”(Francis 1996). Furthermore, Kettinger

and Lee (1994) used the SERVQUAL instrument to deliver more specific information about

“how users of IT department perceive the quality level of IT services being provided”. The study

suggested that, present measures of IT performance, like as user satisfaction may not be

comprehensive enough to capture the more detailed dimensions of service quality covered in

SERVQUAL”. (Kettinger and Lee 1994; Pitt, Watson et al. 1997).

52

Finally the study concluded that SERVQUAL could facilitate additional focus in measuring the

“functional dimensions of IT service”. It also encourage using “difference scores” methods as a

result of customer satisfaction (Kettinger and Lee 1994; Pitt, Watson et al. 1997).

53

4 EMPRICIAL FOUNDATIONS

4.1 Purpose

Having reviewed the literature of ITSM from different scientific sources, a case study will be run

to gather enough information for assessing the situation of ITSM in different organizations. In

this part as mentioned before in the methodology part, the needed information has been extracted

from different methods (i.e. in-depth semi-structured interviews). In this empirical attempt, some

of Swedish IT-related firms have been gone through in investigations.

Currently, it seems that there is no comprehensible ITSM framework system for IT

organizations. Usually the organizational managers within different levels of organizations are

hesitant in choosing trustworthy methods of measurement framework in using the systems. Thus,

the aim is to gain insight into the determinants that encourage effective and reliable metrics

within IT organizations for the purpose of improving ITSM framework upon the future and a

complete model of framework.

4.2 Case study background

Selecting the best-known set of metrics for managing IT services (ITSM) such as ITIL is the

most significant task for the managers. In this thesis, the author tries to introduce the most

important metrics according to ITIL and COBIT guidelines. Afterwards, these metrics will be

evaluated in a real-world case study at three different companies in Sweden.

The collected case samples for this empirical study for this thesis has been conducted in co-

operation with Innovation Lab in University of Borås (who were involved in this project- the

database of the ITSM system installed in DB Schenker, SCA and SOGETI) and an interview

from IT Manager of a German logistics company-DB Schenker as an organization which

provides transports, logistics and information services that meets the market-demands such as

quality, high efficiency, simplicity and environmental responsibility. In brief, DB Schenker has

around 4,000 employees, 4,000 loading units, 6,000 employees in 300 cooperative haulers,

42,000 agreement customers, 17.4 million goods and parcel consignments handled in each year,

83,600 sea and air consignments a year in Sweden, having a turnover of about 14.7 billion SEK,

and Invests in quality – ISO 9001, Active environmental work – ISO 14001 and, National

covering network and frequent departures (DB Schenker 2010).

The above-mentioned companies receive thousands of applications and requests daily that can be

treated as ITIL incidents or any software tools that is certified by the Office of Government

Commerce (OCG), with ITIL V3 certification for Incident, Management, Change Management

and problem management.

So, here a purpose of sampling strategy is underlined by a typical case sampling and selected

ITSM strategist as research information. The considered the goal was to explore, analyze and

54

compare the measurement methods in three different companies and design numbers of

imperative KPIs from informants and earlier studies that examined tasks both internally and

externally form dissimilar point of view.

In this part, I will explain what has to be considered in order to extract a log from such an ITSM

system in order to utilize them for advance analysis.

4.3 Procedure

To perform the case study in an efficient way, the question was sent to our respondent by an e-

mail on November 15th, 2012. The interview question contained a short describing part about the

purpose of the interview and the reason why the results are meaningful to IT-managers.

Approximately a week after, I received the answers. In total, 6 answers to the producers have

been received which are helpful for the analysis part.

The reason of selecting DB Schenker is background, as Fredrik (IT-Manager in DB Schenker)

mentioned, this company is: “historically not caring enough about the maintenance objects and

generally, focused on moving on to the next business development situation within incorporated

some parts of ITIL mostly in the fields of IT Support, Incident, Problem Management and

Deployment fields and apply some parts of the COBIT framework”. This feature can give

accurate answers to the provided questions. Finally, the outcome from the interview will be

presented in sections below.

4.4 The interview

In order to prepare for the research interviews, decisions were made based on the research plan.

These decisions involved different companies to study and various types of data and

documentation of interviews. The provided questions were designed based on interview

technique, which it was related to identified subject and concept.

Moreover, while managing the theoretical study, certain data from different sources were

recognized which directly related to the research questions such as, the book, “Metrics for IT

Service Management”; these models were used as a root for framing the interview questions.

As mentioned above, the primary interview questions were twelve in total but after evaluating

the questions based on the relevancy, seven were selected. The questions in the interview were

then examined and reviewed with fellow colleagues and one of the Assistant Professors-Nicklas

Salomonson (Ph.D.,),an Assistant Professor in Business Administration at the School of

Business and IT, University of Borås- to discuss for possible confusions due to irrelevancy or

incorrect sentence structure. Also, the questions were structured as open-ended to allow the

candidate freely elaborate whenever essential.

55

In addition, the process of semi-structured interview is identified and pre-arrangements related to

specific date, time, and place of the interview and also sharing and collecting the data gathered

from parts of the project “Efficient IT service Management ” in University of Borås were

undertaken.

Semi-structured interview : A semi-structured interview is a data generation technique in

which an interviewer and informant schedule a meeting for the sake of sharing information

concerning predetermined phenomena (2008; 2008).

4.5 Findings

DB Schenker model presented by maturity assessments based on the Capability Maturity Model

Integration (CMMI) and some parts of ITIL and COBIT frameworks will together become a

model suiting the ITSM performance framework. In addition, this model contributes to this area

with helpful guidelines and supports for implementation projects in general. A vital factor to

extend the model as Fredrik mentioned is to find common denominators between different

organizations and to find the targets which are built in different ways depending on whether you

sell services or produce a product. Thus, to succeed the organization must be updated and to have

the market knowledge in mind through the tasks.

Circumstances and identified problems

Fredrik (Interview, 2012-12-08) has divided the identified problems into different categories

such as system and limitations within the system, internal and external.

Firstly, as Fredrik stated: “there is a lack of knowledge about understanding the concept of ITSM

evaluation framework in employees and managers”. The purpose is not fully known by either the

employees working in his department or any other department nor the managers and

management team .The knowledge of why and how to use it is at a basic level. Secondly,

historically the company does not care enough about maintenance objects situation that a project

leaves behind. Thirdly, it is a hard task to create best practice for the organization on both

corporate level and process level. However, at the corporate level this is accepted and it works,

but at a process level some problems are encountered due to the fact that different initiatives are

colliding. There are contradictory efforts due to the fact that knowledge about the framework is

not that widely spread and is also not accepted.

Fourthly, the framework of handling IT service (ITSM) is not fully evolved. For instance, at the

metrics level there are some problems when setting incoherent targets that are incongruent.

However, as he mentioned, it would be manageable at some points. Furthermore, the company

monitors the overall performance of the system mostly in a reactive process but there are quite

weaknesses in the areas of learning from the system performance such as; Inquiry/ feedback of

the system or the measurement performance.

56

4.5.1 Measuring operation

The following section presents the part of the empirical study that concerns and identifies the

measuring system of IT in DB Schenker Sweden, SOGETI and SCA identified. During the

empirical study different possibilities in measuring and comparing the KPIs in different groups

were found. In the following section, measuring operations, visualization of measurements and

Key Performance Indicators will be presented.

DB Schenker’s

The IT manager described that, there are different parts of ITIL that are incorporated in the fields

of IT Support, Service desk SLA’s, Incident and Problem management and Deployment fields.

The most important parameters to measures are targeting Time Deliveries in different channels

such as, General Service management of core system functions, Business projects, Activities,

Operational maintenance and Admin. Other aspect that could be measured is Service

improvement with providing surveys based on a yearly basis (on process and maintenance object

level) to improve and monitor the overall performance of the systems.

Fredrik suggests that: “it is always tricky to find common denominators in validity of the metrics

on both corporate level and process level between different organizations. And the goals and

targets are constructed in different ways depending on whether you sell services or produce a

product”. Also he stresses on the importance of working with the measurement to acknowledge

the fact that the businesses in themselves are responsible for the discontinued operation and the

development of the maintenance object (foremost systems and applications). Moreover, Fredrik

argues that: “the company specific context must always be handled when assessing/evaluating

the maturity level. And it must also be very detailed in how you interpret the different

statements. If you do not document, how can you interpret the statement and what you answered

regarding the context. It is impossible to get a good longitudinal result and you won’t know if it’s

improved/matured due to the answers to “different” question are based on different

interpretations. So, for understanding whether you are matured as an organization or not, you

should consider that you assess yourself on the same criteria. This is very important in the field

of IT due to the advanced and complex nature of it”. He also mentioned that, “the vital part of

struggle to integrate ITSM into the business is focusing on the system ownership by creating a

business-wide process for assigning responsibility and accountability for all systems and

applications. This process is mapped to different roles whereas the IT department often takes the

role as service managers acting on behalf of the system owner”.

Visualization of measurements

DB Schenker IT Manager mentioned: “As we are a part of the DB Schenker, there are of course

internal demands imposed on us to be compliant to COBIT. However, they apply only to some

parts of COBIT framework and not all parts”. In addition, he mentioned that, KPIs should drive

the improvements in the organization and he exemplifies with that not all measure are usable and

some specific KPI’s have contributed to a deeper understanding of the importance of measuring

different fields, and to create best practice in this field is a very hard task and I feel that the

future project will be successful in bring new insights into the question of what contexts specific

business metrics can do. The project has not really created a best practice due to the fact that

ITSM metrics are very affected by the specific business niche of the company in question. He

57

also proposes that, the suggested metrics from the future project (EFFIT) has a good mapping to

what we earlier have used to reveal the underlying problem. Moreover, he emphasized that the

metrics which have been chosen to be use in the IT department are a high extent derived from

DB Schenker’s business strategy. There needs to be an unquestionable relation to the overall

business goals regardless of whether you produce products or services.

Key Performance Indicators in DB Schenker operations

Fredrik mentioned that the major benefits from using the ITSM framework related to the

responsiveness. This area relates to method of binding to the needs of business strategy, which

demands fast moving activities. At the corporate level, this is accepted and is working but at a

process level they encounter a number of difficulties due to the fact that different plans are

crashing.

He also mentioned the importance of using a set of KPIs to measure performance and monitoring

the overall performance of the system but it is mostly a reactive process. And similarly, the

different SLA’s (Help desk) that are provided are of course monitored and the deviations render

task to improve the service. These tasks are performed on a yearly basis with the exception of the

debriefing sessions after large-scale incidents. Moreover, he discusses that different KPIs are

interesting for different stakeholders and different parts of organization. According to his

discussion, about 10 different numbers of KPI’s currently exists are useful for a corporation and

the most important ones are, general service management of core systems/functions, business

projects, activities (less than 50 hours of work), operational maintenance and admin. Incident

management and problem management when deploying application and SLA’s (help desk).

Additionally, in the classical ITIL disciplines there are a lot of cooperation and common

functions within organizations. Hence, it is not possible to use the metrics that are common for

the whole group as they are hard to draw usable conclusions form.

58

Collected metrics from DB Schenker

ITSM Metrics Sources 1 Business projects DB Schenker

2 Distribution of time between services information DB Schenker

3 General Service management of core systems/functions DB Schenker

4 Deployment DB Schenker

5 Delivery times, Productivity delivery time, Delivery performance DB Schenker

6 Number of support incidents per day DB Schenker

7 User Satisfaction DB Schenker

8 Time spent per case, Time required per unit of production fixes DB Schenker

9 Number of cases DB Schenker

10 Responsiveness DB Schenker

11 Number of incidents, Number of recurring errors, Number of incidents on

average per day and terminal, Number of incidents on average per day per

category, Rate of Incident handling

DB Schenker

12 Activities DB Schenker

Table14 collected metrics from DB Schenker

Collected metrics from SCA and SOGETI

ITSM Metrics Sources 1 User Satisfaction SOGETI

2 Competency profile SOGETI

3 Productivity SOGETI

4 Delivery Times SOGETI

5 Time required per unit of production SOGETI

6 Delivery performance, outcomes in relation to financial SOGETI

7 Survey SOGETI

8 Proactivity SOGETI

9 Distribution of time between services / information SOGETI

10 Number of line of code SOGETI

11 Number of function SOGETI

12 Number of program SOGETI

13 Number of support incidents per day/Per Month SCA

14 The number of hours of support for non-business hours SCA

15 Time per support case SCA

16 Incident management in hours per month

SCA

17 Skills Widening of hours per month. SCA

18 Number of planned deliveries compared with the actual delivered SCA Table15 collected metrics from SCA and SOGETI

59

4.6 Study on comprehensible framework model

In this part, the researcher attempts to gather as much as information related to its research as

possible. In this case, the researcher visited different scientific sources as well as visiting the

innovation-lab at university of Borås in order to collect as much ITSM metrics as possible. At

first blush, it seems that users of the implemented IT service management in DB Schenker are

satisfied with it and the benefits are visible to them. The ITSM has integrated different

departments of the organization and the results are noticeable in service quality, in the time and

cost efficiency. In fact, as I understood there are no clear, reliable and comprehensible sources

for IT managers to access ITSM. Therefore, collecting of metrics with categorized details could

be considered as a reliable database and can be guidance to the managerial level for better

decision-making supports.

However, The IT manager in corporation gave this opportunity to researcher to use and have

access to some of the organization metrics. At the first blush, I collected as much as possible

ITSM process and metrics from different sources and then divided into different categories based

on the IT Service Management Process, Metrics title, Frequency1, Internal and external

2 and

more details. But, before implementing metrics the firm must identify the strategic objective to

contribute ITSM framework and to use the mission statement as a guide, such as, profitability,

quality, cost, flexibility and innovation to evaluate the relevancy of established performance

measures in view of the current competitive environment (Andy, Mike et al. 2005).

Moreover, the author collected different example of IT service management metrics in appendix

chapter which could be used as roots for an IT service management framework.

1 Frequency: Is an indication of how often an organization should measure with this particular measurement.

2 Internal and external: Describes if the measurement is internally or externally.

60

The following table presents the part of the empirical study that classified ITSM process into

different phases and each of process involves various metrics (Brooks and Forum 2006; Stewart

and Yuk-Hee 2007; Gupta, Prasad et al. 2008).

Table16 ITSM-ITIL Processes

Appendix ITSM Process Process Owner

1 Incident Management Incident Manager

2 Service Desk Service Desk Manager

3 Configuration Management Configuration Manager

4 Change Management Change Manager

5 Release Management

E1.Application Support Metrics

E2 Application Development Metrics

Release Manager

6 Operations Management/ICT Infrastructure

Management

ICT Infrastructure Manager

7 Service Level Management (SLM) Service Level Manager

8 Problem Management Problem Manager

9 Financial Management IT Manager

10 Capacity Management Capacity Manager

11 IT Service Continuity Management Continuity Manager

12 Availability Management Availability Manager

13 Security Management IT Security Manager

14 Business Perspective Metrics

N.1 Business Relationship Management

N.2 Supplier Relationship Management

N.3. Providing IT services

N.4 Planning, Review and Development

N.5 Education And Communications Plan

IT Manager,

Service Level Manager,

Project office

15 Continuous Service Improvement Programs

(SIP)

Project office

16 Risk Management Metrics Availability Management

17 Documentation Management Configuration Management

18 Competence, Awareness and Training (CAT) Service Level Management

19 Metrics for Program and project

Management

Project office

61

4.7 Empirical study results

To sum up my result from our case study, I would like to say that the current system with all its

features and modules is capable of performing all the ITSM performance mentioned in the

literature. But due to the identified problems and the competitive situation in the market, some of

the important departments of the organization need to be update and improve the ITSM

framework. According to interview, they apply about ten different KPIs. The most important

KPIs are related to those targeting value such as, time delivery in different channels, Number of

recurring errors as Incident and the number of cases measurements process which are common

between other corporations. In analysis part, the reasons and suggestions for improvement will

be discussed in more details.

# Metrics ITSM Process Owner INT/EXT Frequency 1 Business projects Competence, Awareness

and Training (CAT),

Metrics for Programmer

and project Management

DB Schenker’s Internal (Dependable)

2 Distribution of time

between services

information

Operations Management DB Schenker’s Internal,

External

(Dependable)

3 General Service

management of core

systems/functions

Availability

Management, Service

Desk


4 Deployment Operations

Management/ICT

Infrastructure

Management

DB Schenker’s Internal Yearly

5 Productivity delivery

time/Delivery

performance

Delivery Capacity DB Schenker’s,

SOGETI

Internal,

External

(Dependable)

6 Number of support

incidents per day

User Support, Support

and Case Management,

Availability

Management, Incident

Management

DB Schenker’s,

SCA

Internal Daily

7 User Satisfaction Service Desk, Incident

Management, Problem

Management, t,

Financial Management,

Capacity management,

IT Service Continuity

Management, Business

Perspective Metrics

DB Schenker’s,

SOGETI

Internal,

External

(Dependable)

8 Time spent per

case/Time required

per unit of

production fixes

Delivery Capacity,

Release Management

E1.Application Support

Metrics.

DB Schenker’s,

SOGETI

Internal,

External

(Dependable)

62

9 Number of cases

Support and case

Management, Problem

Cases, Number of

incident cases during the

period, Support and Case

Management, Problem


Management

DB Schenker’s,

SOGETI, SCA

Internal,

External

(Dependable)

10 Responsiveness

Service Desk DB Schenker’s Internal Daily

(Dependable)

11 Number of incidents/

Number of recurring

errors/Number of

incidents on average

per day and

terminal/Number of

incidents on average

per day per

category/Rate of

Incident handling

Incident Management,

Release Management,

Problem Management,

Configuration

Management, Operations

Management/ICT

Infrastructure

Management

DB Schenker’s,

SOGETI, SCA

Internal,

External

(Dependable)

12 Activities (less than 50

hours of work)


13 Competency Profile

Expertise and Resources SOGETI Internal,

External

(Dependable)

14 Competence

distribution in

mission

Release Management SOGETI

Internal,

External

(Dependable)

15 Outcomes in relation

to financial

Financial Management SOGETI

Internal (Dependable)

16 Incorrect deliveries

programs

Customer Satisfaction,

Delivery capacity,

Release Management

SOGETI

Internal,

External

(Dependable)

17 Time spent per case/

Time per support

case



Management,

Availability

Management, Capacity

Management

SOGETI, SCA

Internal,

External

(Dependable)

18 Distribution of time

between services/

information

Expertise and Resources,

Release management, IT

Service Continuity

Management, Delivery

Capacity

SOGETI


19 Proactivity SOGETI

(Dependable)

20 Surveys

Availability

Management Process, IT

Service Continuity

Management, Business

Perspective Metrics

SOGETI


63

21 Number of lines of

code

Release Management -

Application

Development Metrics,

Technology, Availability

Management

SOGETI


22 Number of functions

Technology, Availability

Manager, Operations

Management/ICT

Infrastructure

Management

SOGETI


23 Number of programs

Technology, Operations

Management/ICT

Infrastructure

Management

SOGETI


24 Total number of

support hours per

month

Support and case

management

SCA Internal (Dependable)

25 Number of planned

deliveries compared

with the actual

delivered

Release Management, IT

Service Continuity

Management, Risk

Management Metrics

SCA Internal,

External

(Dependable)

26

Skills widening of

hours per month.

Competence, Awareness

and Training (CAT)

SCA


27 The number of hours

of support for non-

business hours

Competence, Awareness

and Training (CAT),

Incident Management

Process, Operations

Management/ICT

Infrastructure

Management, Support

and case

management/Availability

management

SCA Internal,

External

(Dependable)

28 Number of faulty

production settings

Incident Management,

Problem Management

SCA Internal

(Dependable)

29 Estimated time in

relation to the time

spent

Delivery Capacity,

Release Management

SCA Internal (Dependable)

30 Number of support

incidents per month

Support and case

management, Release

Management-

E1.Application Support

Metrics, Problem

Management

SCA Monthly

(Dependable)

Table17 Collected metrics

Looking at the representation of the significant metrics and related ITSM Process to each metric

from three different owners, it has to be shown that not all firms could be apply same techniques

and measuring model to their service performance but also , they could practice other firms

ITSM metrics into their IT management process. Here, more investigation is compulsory in how

successful IT firm’s metrics can be used for improvement of complicated business.

64

5 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

5.1 Analysis

Here, the spotlight of this chapter is to analyse the secondary and primary information presented

in theoretical framework and empirical findings. I gathered some information from different IT

firms in Sweden to analyse the conditions of building an effective ITSM framework in the IT

organizations .The analysis will track the description on research design chapter. The structure of

analysis will follow the same order with research questions.

Comparative analysis

What are the operational needs related to ITSM framework and how to improve ITSM

efficiency?

Starting with the ITSM framework at DB Schenker, we can easily narrow down the root

cause by looking at the overview of unsatisfied rules in the company’s framework. Through

empirical findings, if we look carefully at the situation of the company in adopting efficient

ITSM framework, IT managers in large organizations are familiar with the ITSM-ITIL

framework but they might not be familiar with other best practices, management techniques

and other standards to apply with ITIL implementation (McNaughton, Ray et al. 2010;

Marquis december 2009). On the other hand, some of the main reasons for ITIL fails is

because of human errors and they think ITIL best practice is a project and when is over is

done (Hank 2006), lack of unit and cohesion structure between metrics, insecurity and doubt

about what to measure (Lohman, Fortuin et al. 2004). According to investigation, DB

Schenker used different parts of ITIL mainly in the fields of IT support, Incident

Management, Problem Management and Deployment fields and some parts of the COBIT

framework. This refers to the integrating the CMMI and also some part of COBIT framework

with ITIL-best practice due to improve management techniques.

From theoretical research result, there are different practices to reduce operational problems

and support ITSM-ITIL usage includes appropriate target setting through a Process Maturity

Framework (PMF), Rigorous auditing and reporting through a Quality Management System

(QMS) ITIL, Project management and a Continuous Service Improvement Program (CSIP)

(Hank 2006). The specified definitions are quite broad. To clarify these definitions in more

points, literature further explains successful ITIL implementation it comes from leadership

skills and empowers staff at different phases.

In addition, according to literature study in order to improve the system performance, it is

impartiality necessary while an organization tries to implement ITIL or other best practices to

employ SERVQUAL as a technique to undergo a Gap-analysis. Gaps indicate IT process

failure as combated to CMMI in an observational form. This refers to the part SERVQUAL

measurement aspects views (Parasuraman 1988). Applying SERVQUAL approach to

measure the scale of service in the service sectors like, responsiveness, competence,

reliability, communication, security, customer needs and tangibles (Hank 2006).

65

Furthermore, PMs Development phases such as, asking method, prototyping, planning

methods, existing report are the four main types of approaches to continuously review the

system performance.

What are the main strength and weakness points of the ITSM Performance in the practical

areas?

There's a clear ambivalence between both managers and users when it comes to system

performance. According to Kang and Bradley (2002) “there is an essential needs for

managers to measure their service performance with large investment and capital expenditure

as an IT Service”(Kang and Bradley 2002). Further, measurement have positive and negative

consequences, like in some pioneer IT organization it’s easy for the mangers to concentrate

only on the important problems, drives efficiency and quality and helps to reduce Total Cost

of Ownership (TCO) by increasing system performances (Brooks 2006; Smith 2012).

According to interview, Fredrik stated that their organization dealing with lack of system

performance, like monitoring only reactive process and different SLA’s in organization on

yearly bases only. This issue refers to measuring system performances, continuous quality

improvement and review.

According to finding, many people in organization put their efforts to improve the efficiency

of ITSM of their corporation. But lack of communication between users and IT service

managers and decentralization are some other examples of system weaknesses. In the case of

DB Schenker, the most strength they have from the system is related to Responsiveness and

Monitoring the overall performance as a result of designing framework in a way to supports

fast responses in deviations and planned changes, but it is mostly a reactive process. For

example, the different SLA’s that provide are monitored and the deviations render task to

improve the services (DB Schenker, E-mail communication, 2012-11-15).

What are the impact of ITSM-ITIL on IT /business operation?

ITSM is the key objective in organization. And as ITIL stated that; ITIL process approach

means that process has to be controlled and managed over more than one area surrounded by

traditional hierarchical construction (Marquis December 2009). Therefore ITSM increase the

level of the communication efficiency between business departments, and provides a

structure in order to plan, research and implement IT services. According to literature, the

needs of ITSM-ITIL best practice in organizations can be changes in the ways they do

business, operate, develop, innovate ,communicate and differentiate themselves to their end

customers (Brooks 2006). Moreover, according to findings, the main difficulty to ITSM-ITIL

approach in their business is organizational resistance as a result of lack of knowledge in

understanding ITIL purposes. Further according to Lohman (2004), there are five problems

could impacts on IT management like; lack of unit and cohesion structure between metrics,

insecurity and doubt about what to measure, decentralized and lack of communication among

users and producers of performance indicator (Lohman, Fortuin et al. 2004). Therefore, by

insuring a business based measurements approach to ITIL-best practice will improve system

performance and show the values in organization.

66

5.2 Solutions to enhance ITSM framework efficiency

In the last part I have proposed different feedbacks about the system performance without

modifying the new solutions for the future model. In this section it would be helpful to be able to

provide experimental model behaviour which has been missing in the Service Quality of IT

Service Management process with some suggestion to improve different approaches which I

have evaluated.

In this table I attempted to manage the challenge of effective ITSM framework in IT

corporations from two different views: the empirical findings and literatures. With analysis of

this challenge it will be feasible to suggest some points to address these issues.

Comparative analysis

Interview/Findings

- Lack of maintenance objects/situation.

- Lack of ITIL support.

- Lack of knowledge evaluation framework by employee and

management team.

- Problem in metrics level.

- Weakness in System performance and QS.

Literature

- Lack of users training and knowledge

- Lack of unit and cohesion structure between metrics.

- Insecurity and doubt about what to measure

- Lack of communication among users and producers of

Performance indicator (PI).

Table18 ITSM drawbacks

It seems that there are many problems in having successful ITSM process. Conversely, as

identified before, many good efforts have been done to improve these issues. For better

understanding the concept of these challenges there are three possible approaches to improve

ITSM efficiency which are:

Structure improvement In IT organization

Many academic and industrial efforts have been done in many IT corporations to improve the

Quality Measurements of business-IT alignment. Researchers like, Das et al. (1991), Reich and

Benbasat (2000) and Luftman (2003) used multi-dimensional scales to measure the business IT-

alignment. The result from my interviews and collected metrics exposed some important

elements to improve the efficiency of ITSM. The IT service management addresses the need to

align the delivery of IT services directly with the requirements of the business. Some of these

concerns are reflected in this organization to provide ITIL-best practices to deliver

comprehensive IT service management framework.

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Turning to actual cause analysis, several improvements are desirable in DB Schenekr. The

maintenance objects and technical areas for better maintenance and Service Quality (SQ) are not

covered perfectly. Furthermore using the Project Management and a Continuous Service

Improvement Program (CSIP) allows us to reduce that incident problem and increase efficiency

of the system, such a method would also be desirable to support ITIL-best practice by applying

appropriate target setting through a Process Maturity Framework, Rigorous Auditing and

Reporting through a Quality Management System (QMS) to improve ITIL like implementing

Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA) life cycle as a step-by-step development structure (Hank

2006).

Moreover according to Jurison (1996), IT investment made by stakeholders or IT management

based on different needs can expand the business structure like take customers as centre and

provide IT services that meet customers’ needs, enhanced quality , low cost IT service in

company, better response to the client needs and evaluating service delivery precisely (Jurison

1996).

Provide better decision-making techniques

According to literature, The main benefit of ITIL drove from “adapting and then following ITIL

guidance through focusing on doing the right things in the right order according to the decision

of management, staff, vendors, customers and users based on the business demand” (Marquis

December 2009). Moreover, according to Shatzkin (2005) stated that most publishers really need

to review their own metrics to be sure they are not leading them to bad business decision

(Shatzkin 2005). For instance, regarding the improvement of decision-making it must provide

meeting with IT managers, and employee to discuss about the metrics that fits to your

corporation. According to Jurison, (1996), “The measures must be selected on the basis of their

ability to reflect the objectives of the stakeholders of the IT investment”(Jurison 1996).

Although, educate and train the employees about the ITIL-best practices would be advantages for

the corporations. Additionally, it is important for organization to recognize and measure

customer’s perception of IT service in order to improve Service Quality (SQ), Decision making,

User satisfaction, Revenue and Cost saving (Galletta and Lederer 1989; Kang and Bradley

2002).

Collecting metrics

According to the findings, every IT corporations implemented framework to improve IT service

management quality. The implemented framework includes various metrics, policies and

components about different access rights for different users and departments within the

organizations to make it sure that every person and department is restricted to their rights only.

According to our case study, it is always tricky to find common denominators between different

organizations. The goals and targets are constructed in different ways depending on weather you

sell services or manufacture a product. Therefore, different KPIs are interesting for different

stakeholders and parts of organization.

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Further to the implemented framework allows IT managers to control the quality of service in

order to reduce the incident and problems. According to Porter et al (1996), “improvements

created by the ITIL-best practice do not lead to improvements of any organization”. He argues

that a company should focus on both the Operational effectiveness and the Strategic positioning.

ITIL-ITSM best practice is not a onetime process; it is ongoing activity to control system

performance. According to Porter (1996) continual improvement is necessary to stay relevant in

the market” (Porter 1996; Marrone and Kolbe 2011). Through our case study, we came to know

that the target groups of our research paper are almost employing the same methods but there is a

small difference in IT service management process and measurement implementation. According

to Brooks, P (2006) IT service management tools deals with many IT service management

measurements and most of it will be interesting to people in the related departments with the

same activities. Metrics are identified to show development and the performance of the system.

Therefore, there are three types of metrics to improve the quality level of evaluation framework

like, effectiveness, capabilities and efficiency. These elements could be matched into any

technology, process or service that focuses on Operational Level (Service Support Domain),

Tactical Level (Service Delivery Domain) and Strategic Level.

5.3 Result summary

To conclude the issue, we could say that organizations should seriously take the advantage of

learning from the system performance and should reduce the appropriate Incident management

because successful approach and proper IT service management plan could make the difference

between the organizations continued existence and sudden death. Having shown how changes in

IT service management and system performance can help to overcome some of the challenges in

ITSM framework and operational efficiency, we now want to briefly summarize the results of

our evaluation based on provided metrics from the three sources.

Summing up the results for the root causes analysis presented in the case study evaluation, it can

be deducted that, the five ITSM processes like Incident management, Problem management,

Availability management, Operation management and Configuration management are common

among three organizations. According to Gupta: “Incident is quickly resolving incidents that

affect the normal running of an organization’s IT service” (Gupta, Prasad et al. 2008).And

Problem management pursues to become the main reason of incidents and then begin movements

to improve or correct the condition. It is interesting also to see that establishing of Availability

management process is ranked high between larger organizations as one of the important factor.

Availability management process is to improve the capability of the IT infrastructure and service

and supporting organization. Further, Release management can be considered as one of the top

processes regarding to the design and implementation of an efficient method for the distribution

and installation of changes following by Operations management process for planning and

technical support. In addition, User satisfaction is mentioned both by the SOGETI and DB

Schenker. According to the findings, high satisfaction manifestation will attract a good driver

which adds values to the company. For example, in DB Schenker they monitor overall

performance like learning from system; inquiry, feedback of the system or the measurement

performance report on an annual basis.

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Comprehensive ITSM framework

The below table indicates the summary of significant process recognized by ITIL best practice

among three organizations. The suggested framework is a structured approach to increase

perception of ITSM efficiency and to reduce incident management in new start-up companies.

Table19 The summary of ITSM processes

ITSM Process IT Firms Comments Incident Management DB Schenker, SCA, SOGETI Ownership of the incident management process

Service Desk DB Schenker, SOGETI Is a single point of contact (SPOC) for the users

who requested help for running their IT systems

Configuration Management DB Schenker, SCA, SOGETI To identify and manage the IT infrastructure

information

Release Management DB Schenker, SOGETI To plan and oversee the successful rollout of

software and related hardware

Operations Management/ICT

Infrastructure Management

DB Schenker, SCA, SOGETI To manage and deliver high quality ICT service

in line with business

Problem Management DB Schenker, SCA ,SOGETI To minimize the adverse business impact of

incidents those are causes by errors

Financial Management DB Schenker, SOGETI Manages an IT Service provider's budgeting

accounting and charging requirements

Capacity Management DB Schenker, SOGETI to deliver agreed service level target in a cost

effective and timely manner


Management

SCA,SOGETI To support the overall business

continuity management process

Availability Management DB Schenker, SCA, SOGETI Service and supporting organization

Business Perspective Metrics DB Schenker, SOGETI Is Quality of Experience (QoE)

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6 DISCUSSION

6.1 Conclusion The thesis aims to identify the important aspects that propose a comprehensive framework for

ITSM efficiency. It was collected of theoretical and empirical research study that generated

answers to the sub-level research questions. The author tried to extract a framework based on the

literature review and various sources from practical environment. The framework was used

within the far-reaching empirical study to find ways to compare and identify different

corporation metrics. The organizations becoming more reliant on comprehensive framework to

control IT service management in organizations; how ITIL-ITSM best practices have an effect

on organization efficiency and problem solving.

In theoretical study, the concept and the needs of ITSM in organization, is presented with

applying different methods and improvements techniques, hence proving the most importance of

ITIL-ITSM best practice model. The factors affecting service quality of ITSM in organizations is

significant because it has an impact on the overall IT service management process. It is also

challenged by increasing competition from new players on the market to improve the employee’s

knowledge regarding the perceived benefits provided by ITSM-ITIL or other best practices.

Frequently, the acknowledgment between employee and customers is the first step to improve

the operations by feedbacks or minimizing waste and risk in the operations. This could help

corporation to decrease operational costs and incident ratios and at the same time increase

customer satisfaction. Additionally, performing IT service management is a costly task. Small

changes in the framework process can lead to major changes in profit and management process

within organization, like maintaining and operating an information infrastructure. Thus, firstly, it

is important for an organization to choose the comprehensive ITSM framework which fulfils its

required aims from a specific task and secondly which has a better performing quality in an IT

service management model.

6.2 Implications for the subject area

This thesis investigates the value of comprehensive ITSM framework in IT industries. It points

out that result such as; suggestion for improvement of IT service management can be used in

other IT organization if all aspects are considered correctly. Service quality and performance

measurements should be put in the same important level as IT management activity in

organization, but it is not the first should be considered. Comprehensive ITSM framework is

used for servicing IT manager activities in different subject areas such as, managerial issues,

implementation risks, financial and corporation limitations. In this thesis, only when adaption of

ITIL increases the number of realized operational benefits increases consequently, the more ITIL

implementation the greater operational and strategic benefit to organization (Marrone and Kolbe

2011).In another view, this thesis fulfill the content of metrics for ITSM and tells how an

organization improve service quality and reduce cost using an ITIL best practice.

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A comprehensive ITSM framework model has been designed. It will be helpful for those IT

managers to understand COBIT and ITIL V2/V3 best practice and design a new ITSM

framework before the project development process begins. From the comprehensive framework

model, IT managers and users can recognize how they influence and improve in designing an

information technology in order to deliver IT service process effectively.

6.3 Evaluation

6.3.1 Method evaluation

According to the second chapter, a combination of some method is used for analysis. The

qualitative research part is one of them. In the theoretical part, the object was to analyse and

review the literature of IT Service Management (ITSM) framework concept for bringing up the

procedure of the research. The problem was that there were a great number of sources in IT

management which is closely related to this subject area. So before the research study begins, it

was thought that it must be essential to set a structure for selecting these materials and review the

most important of them based on their relevance and importance to the topic area. In the first

theoretical part, the research selects relative academic resources which generally cover on ITIL-

ITSM framework processes.

In the next part, it was decided to collect a set of metrics for ITSM from Information Technology

Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and other reality samples (e.g. academic resources and IT firms).

This was a difficult task because there is a lack of sufficient academic resources that their focus

is maintained on the evaluation and improving of the situation of ITSM framework process in IT

organizations by collecting and comparing different parameters. It was attempted to solve this

difficulty by applying other sources like collecting some data from university of Borås and an

interview from IT organization (DB-Schenker). To make a relation between the theoretical

section and practical situation, a case study in an IT organization is provided. As acknowledged

before, the interviews were structured for collecting data. In the interviews, it is attempted to

have meetings with experts and IT managers to investigate the possibility of receiving incorrect

responses. Interview is suitable for this type of subject; as it is not strictly limited to

questionnaire or calculation. The trickiest in this section, was a distress that there might not be

adequate experience and knowledge when the dialog goes deeper in specifics. To solve this

problem, it was decided to arrange questions one by one and to skip the questions that may lead

the conversation in information that are unnecessary for the research. Furthermore, some open-

ended questions were made in the interviews to improve and increase the understanding

whenever crucial. The benefit of interviews executed in this investigation is that they are done

entirely by the researcher in a face-to-face method and through e-mail communication. This kind

of interviews decreases the possibility of collecting incorrect, inappropriate and irrelevant

answers and ensures the validity and reliability of the responses.

However, the stage of data collection took lots of time in order to provide a great deal of data to

compare and analyze the results. Through that way, massive amount of IT service management

processes become simple and easy to read after comparisons. Also Strong quotes from IT

manager can be used as brilliant evidences.

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6.3.2 Result evaluation

After analysing the theoretical and empirical results, the whole research is inclined to clear tactic

and procedures; here there is different type of categories to evaluate the results in qualitative

research such as, Reliability and measurement validity.

Reliability of data is extremely important which have created the trustworthiness and consistency

of the research, the author tried to collect all information from reliable scientific sources with the

same subject area. However there is a lack of scientific studies related to this subject area

specifically, in the area of metrics for IT service management among various IT organizations.

The empirical findings included of an interview from DB Schenker organization. The researcher

was asked the question directly by sending an email to IT manager and the all approaches used

were ethical in every steps of study.

The author tried to form the entire structure of thesis following the sequence of research question

and research strategy. Moreover, He tried to select an interesting subject (interview) for the case

study which is also a typical method in other IT related industry. The conclusion is not only

acquired from one case study, but also it shaped from different sources such as two other

Swedish companies and a theoretical study. Results of theoretical are from scientific articles,

books have positive relationship with learning that concern with our empirical study in a reality.

As the result is not clear from previous research therefore, findings from interview result and two

other cases (SIGMA, SCA) provided stronger relationship in this subject area. The results in total

are not specifically illuminating for one case, but also they can be applicable for different

situation. Finally, the investigation of this subject is valuable and helpful to IT Service

Management and pushes it on progress. Ethics has been tracked at every step of this study.

6.4 Possibilities to generalize

In this thesis, theoretical outcomes are confirmed by empirical results and then both outcomes

are summarized based on the analysis method. I have gathered appropriate literature and

academic studies which were printed in different journals and books from an online database in

university of Borås.

These relate to an improvement of ITSM efficiency in different IT firms as a theoretical result.

The selected methods involve the success of ITIL-ITSM in combination with other practices. I

have shown the different process levels of evaluation framework of metrics which are commonly

stated in the field of ITIL, like, Service support domain – operational level, Service delivery

domain – tactical level and Strategic level. Also, I have provided and interview for collecting of

my empirical information. In order to satisfy of this study, selected case studies is limited only

into Sweden.

I have done an interview with the IT manager in DB Schenker who has many years of

experiences in the IT- project management field to ensure that the outcome of the study is

securely scientific. After accumulating the empirical information, I had examined and analyzed

empirical result by comparing different organization’s ITSM frameworks for validation of

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metrics. I hereby used the insights of the earlier performed method analysis in order to stress on

the structure improvement in IT organization by different approaches (e.g. Quality Management

System).It turned out that only the collected metrics and comparison of the process provides

sufficient means to find the root cause for all the reported incident, management problems and

lack of ITIL-ITSM support in an organization. The other approaches also provide some abilities

for the improvement of the process, but it was not possible to explain all methods and

approaches with reasonable effort. I have pointed out possible improvements in the ITSM

process especially the support of a fast and convenient root for selecting the right measurement

methods that is needed to make the already promising approaches applicable in practice. Finally,

the research will present accurate results with a clear understanding. Though one of the

limitations of this thesis that is focusing on only three IT firms and not monitoring and

evaluating metrics into various companies due to the lack of time. In addition, the proposed

metrics tables in the appendix can be used as a future work to assist IT managers to choose the

right metrics for ITSM framework.

6.5 Ideas for continued research

Having summarized the results, I want to emphasize on the points that could not be addressed in

this thesis and are subject for the continued research study. During my research I have

investigated and identified different organization framework for IT service management services

in Sweden. IT service management is a broad area of information technology and is growing

daily which results in with other consequences. Therefore, the study is essential to be continued

in this specific area with more supports and evidences.

Moreover, this investigation could be developed in the same subject area in the future work. I

examined the efficiency of IT service management framework on the business with the

illustrative view of IT corporations in different countries. My empirical part is limited to only

three companies and one interview with its specific condition. Hence, in the continued research it

is also possible to be precise in the case study or to consider with IT managers. The future

research can also include with any type of managers or researchers in any organizations or

academic institutions such as IT manager or IT researcher and over. The investigation also

should be extended to more multi-organizational concept to better reflect the incident found in

reality. I did not analyse the significant points of each metric in organization and the influence of

the each one of them in the corporation as whole. For instance, as I have mentioned before,

Process Maturity Framework (PMF) serves to measure service management as a whole and not

individually. In addition to that, the ability to deal with Automation Decision Support (ADS)

process should provide the better solutions for repetitive management problems. This allows

managers to use and test the electronically available information during runtime and not just after

the process being executed.

In order to calculate the warning level of each metrics for the ITSM process, there would also be

a need for target values and possible values of each metrics. That means, to calculate warning

level of each metrics and compare the result based on the past performance until now. In the

future research there should be a consideration for the evaluation of IT service management

measurements in continues service improvement and service quality in IT firms and adding

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automation service management operation such as, customer-centric and automated operations.in

order to be quicker, cheaper, and at a better quality rather than measuring manually with longer

time. Although we can see many research and practical works in ITSM area in developed

countries particularly in Scandinavian countries, this concept is still in immaturity in developing

countries and needs to be studied systematically by academic areas. Therefore, it would be

remarkable if an academic study focus on different level of abstraction and features of IT Service

Management.

This thesis paper focused on limited types of metrics and ITSM process in this research and it is

needed to provide fast and easy comprehensible explanation for users and IT managers. Is the

situation in other companies the same of these companies? Can we use this metrics in other

corporations? If it is not applicable, what factors should be added to this framework? Is it

possible to build a general framework for ITSM improvement strategy in all companies? These

are the questions that shall be answered and future studies can work on them.

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8 APPENDIXES*

8.1 Incident Management

ITSM process owner: Incident Manager

Goal: To minimize interruption in business activities and ensure availability of service.

Service level: L1 Support

Sources: ITSMF international-Metrics for IT Service Management, Security standardization in

incident management: the ITIL approach by Forte 2007, Automating ITSM Incident

Management Process by Gupta 2008, Improving service management in outsourced IT

operations by stewart 2007.

Audience: Process Owner, IT Management, SLA Process Owner, Business Customer, Team

Member, SIP Process Owner

How to guide: An incident is an intimation of some error or failure of some component in IT

system. In typical service desk, incident is either reported by the customer or automatically

generated by system monitoring.

Formula: Service performance in response to incidents = 1 - (Non-Complaint cases / Total

number .of cases) * 100 percent (Stewart & Yuk-Hee, 2007).

Metric category: Incident management as a part of IT System Management.

Comments: The Incident Process Manager ultimately takes ownership of the incident

management process, and is responsible for determining what they are, supervising them and

monitoring them.“The Help Desk Management, Incident Management and Problem Management

handle incidents” (Stewart & Yuk-Hee, 2007).

Metrics objectives: Incident management process provides most immediate and visible gains to

service quality and cost reduction (Gupta, Prasad, & Mohania, 2008).

*Notice: All the metrics tables presented in the appendix are entirely adopted from the book

Metrics for IT Service Management (Brooks, P. and I. T. S. M. Forum 2006).

79

Title

Descriptions Target

Value

Specification Justification Warning

Level

Possible

Values

Percentage

of incident

resolved by

1st line

support

How Many

Incidents

require no

escalation to

second line

support

85 A count of

incidents that

require no

escalation.

This is measure of a few

things. If the Service

Desk has a good known

error DB supplied by

Problem Management

the number of Incident

resolve by the first line

support will increase.

<65 0-100

Average call

time with no

escalation

This is a

measure of

effectiveness

10 How long do

calls take if

there is no

escalation

Closing calls too

quickly is not good for

customer satisfaction.

>20 999999

Percentage

of incidents

incorrectly

assigned

This is

measured by

checking the

call history for

re-assignment

statutes.

20 How many

incidents are

assigned to the

wrong work

group

Re-assigning calls slows

resolution and reduces

the effectiveness of the

teams. Good call

handling scripts,

training tools and

processes will reduce

the incidence of this

30 0-100

Percentage

of incident

resolved

within target

time by

priority

When a call

arrives at The

Service Desk, it

is allocated a

target

resolution time

according to the

SLA attached to

the service and

the priority of

the call

95 Within target

time by priority

This is direct measure of

how well the Service

Desk is keeping to

agreed SLAs.

<90 0-100

Average

time for

second level

support to

respond

This is time

between a call

being assigned

to second level

support and the

call being

accepted

Minutes Escalation to second

level support is a threat

to SLA times. The time

between dispatch and

acceptance of a call has

direct on how much

longer the call is

delayed.

>10 999999

Average

time to

resolve

incidents

This measures

is the major

part of total call

time-up to the

resolution,

When the User

is satisfied with

the resolution

20 Minutes from

call open to call

resolved

This is a popular metrics

as it shown the overall

effectiveness of the

incident Management

process.

>30 999999

Percentage

of incidents

re-assigned

This measures

incidents that

are assigned to

more than one

second or third

10 Normally

incidents are

closed with no

assignment

Sometimes it is

necessary to get

assistance from other

team so reassignment is

the proper course of

>10 0-100

80

level resources. action.

percentage

of incidents

incorrectly

categorized

When calls are

logged, they are

assigned a

category to

assist in

resolution and

for late

analysis.

40 How many

incidents have

the wrong

description or

category when

first categorized

60 0-100

Percentage

of calls 1st

line support

bypassed

How do often

do customers

call second or

third level

support

directly.-

measured by

calls created in

second and

third line.

5 Calls that do

not come

through the

official channel

Direct calls to support

staff have a number of

disadvantages.

>10 0-100

Customer

Satisfaction

This balances

the other

metrics. If the

calls are closed

too quickly or

take too long

then, whatever

the internal

metrics say.

4 Measure by

asking the

customer for a

when a call is

closes. Can be

done every time

or as a sample.

This will always be one

of the top three or four

metrics for incident

management. This is a

very direct means of

knowing how the

general user community

feels about the service

being provided.

>3 0-5

Percentage

of calls that

are service

requests

The percentage

of calls that are

service

requests, not

incidents or

other calls.

15 Calls that are

deal with the

service Desk as

Service Request

As the service desk

becomes a trusted

advisor to end users and

as the number of

incident decreases, this

metric should increase.

5

Percentage

of incidents

solved

rightly the

first time

The percentage

of incidents that

is resolved in

the first attempt

to resolve it.

90% The managers

of the

resolutions

group should

use this metric

to determine

the

effectiveness of

their resolution

group.

The more effective the

resolution group, the

lesser rework needs to

be done and higher

customer satisfaction

will be.

75% 0-100%

Percentage

of

proactively

solved

incidents

The percentage

of resolved

incident that

was resolved

before the

customers

reported an

error.

15% Incidents

resolved before

customers

experience

problems

management.

Proactively resolved

incidents add value to

the incident

management process

and have not disturbed

business process.

0% 0-100%

81

8.1.1 Example of HAVERBLAD IT Management AB

Metrics Title Quan/Qual Process Owner Source

The ability to

recover and

restore as

service level.

(Quantitative) Incident

Management

Incident

Manager

Haverblad

Organization

Number of

incident cases

during the

period


Management

Incident

Manager

Haverblad

Organization

Percentage of

cases by

priority, by

category and

type of error


Management

Incident

Manager

Haverblad

Organization

Percentage of

incident cases

assigned to the

wrong group


Management

Incident

Manager

Haverblad

Organization

8.2 Service Desk

ITSM process owner: Service Desk Manager

Service level: Managed by L1 Person

Metrics objectives: To restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimize the

adverse impact on business operations

Goal: To provide a single point of contact for customers. (Examples: To provide advice and

guidance, and to facilitate the restoration of normal operational service with minimal business

impact on the Customer).

Relates to business objective/s: To restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and

minimize the adverse impact on business operation, thus ensuring the best possible levels of

service quality

Sources: ITSMF international-Metrics for IT Service Management, Security Standardization in

Incident Management the ITIL approach-Network Security


Member, SIP Process Owner.

How to guide: Customer contact the service desk for various purposes such as information,

Configuration change, problem being faced by the customer, and also customer can report

problem using various methods like as, web based, email or telephone (Gupta et al., 2008).

82

Metric category: Service Desk as a part of IT System Management.

Comments: To handling closure, the Service desk might be the company function best suited for

managing preliminary incident response tasks and contracts such as detection and recording.

Metrics

Titles Description Target

value


level

Possible

values

Number of

calls without

escalation per

agent.

What is the

number of calls

without

escalation taken

per person.

20 The number of

calls without

escalation

taken per

service desk

agent per day.

This is the

number of calls

with no

escalation. That

means the calls

have duration

less than the

minimum

escalation period

for management

escalation and

are not escalated

technically.

40 999999

Percentage of

calls closed

first time per

agent

Simple calls

with no

escalation

65 The percentage

of calls that are

closed after the

first call-with

the answer

given.

Since the ideal-

for all calls to be

dealt with at

once at the first

call -it is

important to

measure how

close the service

desk is to the

ideal.

40 0-100

Number of

calls that

exceed SLA

All CIS have to

be linked to the

appropriate

service and this

measures the

service related to

the call that

exceed its SLA

first

3 The number of

calls per day

exceeds the

SLA.

This is a vital

measure of the

effectiveness of

Service Desk

output.

8 999999

Number of

calls escalated

to second level

support

The number of

calls per day that

are escalated to

second level

support.

5 Any calls that

have a first

escalation, per

day.

This is a measure

of the usefulness

of second level

support-and also

of how effective

the Service Desk

front line support

is.

10 999999

Customer

Satisfaction

Satisfaction is

measured at the

close of every

Service Call or

at a sample

thereof.

4 Include this as

a high value

until it is

consistently

good, and then

put it at lower

Ultimately this is

probably the top

measure for the

Service Desk.

<3 0-5

83

priority.

Measure it for

each call, or

over a fixed

period of time

Number of

calls escalated

to third level

support

Calls that need

third level

support to be

solved.

3 Calls per day,

escalated form

second to third

level support.

If this is too high

it means

improving the

procedures and

effectiveness of

both first and

second level

support.

6 999999

Average time

waiting for call

to be answered

This measures

the loading and

resourcing of the

Service Desk.

10 The number of

seconds that

customers wait

for their call to

be answered.

All source of

delay are a

problem for

meeting its

objective. It is

also a source of

quickly

decreasing

customer

satisfaction,

20 999999

Average time

spent trying to

contact

customers per

call

Call waiting

time,

5 The number of

minutes per

call that the

agent spends

calling back a

customer for

more

information or

to give a

solution.

Of course users

are busy and

may be difficult

to get back to. If

this time is high

then other

methods (SMS,

E-MAIL) might

be used rather

than telephone

calls to reduce

wasted time..

10 999999

Percentage of

calls that come

via the web

A measure of

call source.

60 The ideal is for

most calls to be

placed using

the web

interface.

The easier and

quicker it is to

log a call

accurately the

better for overall

solutions and

solution times.

20 0-100

Percentage of

call with wrong

escalation

This is measured

by a call being

re-assigned with

the reason being

that it was

wrongly

assigned.

5 The percentage

of calls that are

escalated to the

wrong

workgroup.

The service desk

aims to restore

service as

quickly as

possible.

15 0-100

Percentage of

calls dropped

by users

When the

telephone is the

main input

channel to the

Service Desk,

Staffing has to

be adequate to

3% The number of

calls where

users abandon

the call after

the agreed

waiting time or

rings divided

This is an

objective that

contributes

highly to user

satisfaction.

High percentage

would indicate

5% 1-100

84

receive the calls,

as well as staff

should be ready

to take incoming

calls within the

agreed ringing

time. Otherwise

users would not

be able to report

their issue.

by the total

number of calls

that were

recorded at the

Automatic Call

Distribution

(ACD) system.

low availability

caused by

inadequate

staffing, long

call handling

times, Inefficient

processes.

Percentage of

calls converted

to tickets

The Service

Desk receives

many calls, some

of which may

not be recorded

in the ticketing

system for

various reasons

1 Number of

connected calls

at the ACD per

day.

The Service

Desk needs to

have efficient

call handling

workflow in

recording all

calls into the

ticketing system.

equal or >

1.1

equal or >

than 1

Percentage of

incidents from

event

management

Enterprise

management

system generates

automated alerts

that are

integrated into

the incident

ticketing system

to generate

automated

tickets which

may also be

routed to support

teams

automatically.

0 Number of

tickets

generated by

event

management

systems

divided by total

number of

tickets for a

period.

The more the

percentage, the

less the effort of

the Service Desk

in logging calls

and assigning

them.

>0 0-100%

Percentage of

calls rightly

assigned the

first time

The percentage

of calls assigned

by the service

desk to the right

resolutions

groups shows

the effectiveness

of the service

desk and makes

sure the

customer has

confidence in

calling the

service desk.

The amount of

calls that are

not rejected or

immediately

reassigned by

the resolution

groups.

Correctly

assigned calls

make sure the

resolution is

effective.

75% 0-100%

Response

Time.

Response user's

calls as soon as

possible

Call Rate Rate of request

for help (RFH)

That comes from

service desk

Records of

request call

Numbers of the

events and

85

accident

recorded by the

service desk

Rate of

complains

Assessing the

service desk

service. The

little , the better

of service

quality

Accuracy of

accident

classification

Assessing the

service desk

weather handling

accidents by the

defined

categories

Growth rate of

desk accidents.

The rate that

accidents could

not be processed

by the desk

Rate of

incident

handling.

Remote

processing rate

when service

desk the RFH

First call

completion

rate

Connected rate

when users first

calls

8.2.1 Example of Service Desk

Sources: An ITIL Based ITSM Practice: A case study of steel Manufacturing enterprise by

Zhong & Xin, 2010.

Title Descriptions ITSM Process Metrics Owner

Records of request call Numbers of the events

and accident recorded by

the service desk

Service Desk Service Desk Manager

Rate of complains Assessing the service

desk service, the better of

service quality


Accuracy of accident

classification ,

Assessing the service

desk weather handling

accidents by the defined

categories


Growth rate of desk

accidents.

The rate that accidents

could not be processed by

the desk


rate of incident

handling.

Remote processing rate

when service desk the

RFH


First call completion

rate

Connected rate when

users first calls.


86

8.3 Configuration Management

ITSM process owner: Configuration Manager

Metrics objectives: To identify and manage the IT infrastructure information and relationships

accurately and effectively according to business need and agreed policy standards.

Goal: Account for all the IT assets and configurations within the organization and its services.

Source: ITSMF international- Metrics for IT Service Management , Security standardization in

incident management: the ITIL approach by Forte 2007.



Metrics

Title

Descriptions Target

Value


Level

Possible

Values

Number of

licenses not

used

The CMDB has

a record of all

software

licenses and

where they are

deployed, so a

report of unused

licenses can be

produced

50 The

Configuration

Management

process should

have control of

software

licenses to

minimize the

cost of unused

licenses.

some unused

license are to

be expected-

they are there

to provide for

capacity needs

over the next

several weeks

80 999999

Number of

failed RFCs

from bad

CMDB data

RFCs are based

on CMDB

information. If

this is incorrect

and they are

eventually

rejected by the

change

Management

process this

must be

recorded.

10 To Improve the

quality of the

CMDB this

metric must be

low, Measuring

it means that the

Configuration

Management

team must be

work closely

with the Change

Manager to

make sure the

RFCs are

consistent with

the CMDB.

Those creating

RFCs must be

able to rely on

the CMDB to

provide

accurate data.

20 999999

Number of

Unauthorized

configurations

Configuration

in the CMDB

that are not

properly

authorized.

5 This is a matter

of

communication

and

management

All

configurations

must be

properly

authorized -

15 999999

87

with the IT and

user

communities.

This should

eventually be

very low indeed.

the process

must be clear

and the CMDB

must be record

these

authorization

accurately.

Number of

incidents from

failed changes

caused by

wrongly

documented

CIS.

Changes are

approved in

terms of the

CMDB which is

taken as an

authority. If a

change fails

because of

wrong

information

about a

component then

it is the

responsibility of

Configuration

Management.

0 This may be

high to begin

with-this metric

should help

bring it down.

CI information

in the CMDB

must be

correct-so

changes will be

correct, and so

incidents will

not arise from

them.

6 999999

Number of

breached SLA

because of

CMDB errors

First priority to

begin with to

make sure that

enough

accuracy is in

the CMDB to

prevent

breeching SLA.

Eventually it

should be

accepted that

this is always 0-

then, When it

has been 0 for

some months,

another metrics

can be

substituted.

0 This should

never happen.

The CMDB is in

place and

Configuration

Management

controls are

working well

with good

change

Management,

Outage ought

not to occur

because of

problems with

the CMDB.

Inaccuracies or

missing

elements in the

CMDB can

lead to poor

problem

solving and

even poor

incident

management.

2 99999

Number of

RFCs without

corresponding

CI updating

Every time a CI

undergoes a

change, there

has to be a

corresponding

authorized RFC

and a

subsequent

updating of the

CMDB to

reflect the

change

completion

None During an audit,

the number of

RFCs for which

the CMDB does

not show

corresponding

configuration

status.

To ensures

accurate and

authorized

information in

the CMDB by

process

adherence.

equal or

less than 5

at any

point of

time

0-100

Percentage of

inaccurate CIS

All corrections

to CIS to 80 This quality of

data input is

Configuration

Management

40 0-5

88

improve

accuracy must

be counted to

contribute to

this metric.

important -some

of the data

comes from

other tools and

organizations so

it might take

time before this

can be reduced

to a consistently

low level.

Process is

designed to

ensure the

accuracy of CI

information.

Customer

Satisfaction

Customer

Satisfaction

measured by

reference to the

Process

Relationship

diagram

4 Customer

Satisfaction

measured by

reference to the

Process

Relationship

diagram

A test of the

effectiveness

of this process.

bigger

than 3

Rate of RFH

failure caused

by CMDB

errors

.Rate of change

management

failures caused

by original

information

errors

Rate of no

corresponding

request service

items.

Rate of

configuration

information

unavailable

after change

occurred due to

no updating the

configuration

database

Rete of unable

to execute

configuration

after changes

occurred

rate of no

upgrading the

accident

numbers after

the change

configuration

execution

89


Title Quan/Qual ITSM Process ITSM Owner

Percent changes that have

caused an incident or

problem.

(Quantitative) Configuration

Management Process

Configuration

Manager

Percent incorrect

information about

configuration devices


Management Process

Configuration

Manager

Percent changes that have

failed due to incorrect

information on

configuration devices.


Management Process

Configuration

Manager

Percent configuration

units that is new in the

period.


Management Process

Configuration

Manager


devices that have been

phased out over the

period.


Management Process

Configuration

Manager


devices by category or

type.


Management Process

Configuration

Manager


devices that will be phased

out during the next

period.


Management Process

Configuration

Manager

Results of verification of

the configuration system.


Management Process

Configuration

Manager

Percent unapproved (also

called certified or

accredited) configuration

devices.


Management Process

Configuration

Manager


entities registered

properly.


Management Process

Configuration

Manager


devices that are assigned a

status.


Management Process

Configuration

Manager

90

8.4 Change Management

ITSM process owner: Change Manger.

Metrics objectives: Change Management to be an effective process for implementing changes

required by the organization.

Goal: To ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt

handling of all changes.

Source: ITSMF international- Metrics for IT Service Management , Security standardization in

incident management: the ITIL approach


Member, SIP Process Owner.

Metrics

Title

Descriptions Target

Value


Level

Possible

Values

Percentage of

failed changes

RFCs that

have been

approved, But

then fail to be

implemented.

5 Changes that

have failed to

complete.

Justification: The

change

Management

Process ought to

recognize risks

in RFCs and not

approve those

that will not

complete

properly.

10 0-100

Percentage of

rejected RFCs

Change

proposals are

screened

(Mainly by the

Service Desk).

Once a change

has been

accepted and

developed to

the level of

having an

RFC.

10 This is kept low

by good

communication,

Poor requests

for change

ought to be fair

chance of it

succeeding.

This measures

how well the

screening

process is

working.

20 0-100

Number of

unauthorized

changes

Any change to

the

infrastructure

that is detected

for which

15 This is kept low

by good

communication,

All changes

must be under

change control

30 999999

91

there is not a

standard

change or an

approved

RFC.

Change

backlog

These measure

two things.

One is the

number of

approved

changes that

have not been

auctioned

within target

time, The

other is the

number of

RFCs that

have not been

approved or

rejected.

5 If this is big, the

organization is

not coping.

Maybe there is

too much change

or not enough

people working

on changes.

changes must

be executed as

close to the

target time as

possible.p.112

15 999999

Outages

during

changes

Any service

outages will

be measured

by incidents.

If a change

occurs out of

service hours

then there can,

by definition,

be no service

outage.

0 In a perfect

world there will

never be any

unplanned

outage during

changes,

If a change is

seen to be

failing then it

must be backed

out before it

impacts

services. The

back out plan

ought to have

been tested so

that back-out

does not result

in any service

outages.

6 999999

Number of

failed changes

with no back-

out plan

0 All changes

should have a

back out plan -

This should

always be

checked.

No change

should be

without a

properly tested

back out plan.

If a change fails

and lacks a plan

then at least,

poor risk

analysis has

been

performed.

2 999999

Percentage of

changes on

time

All changes

have a

completion

time. If they

are still open

after this time

they count

toward this

metric.

95 Delays can be

caused by good

reasons. If

percentage failed

changes is Low

then a high value

here might be ok,

SO it should be a

lower priority.

If changes are

consistently

late then it

shows poor

change control

and an

increased risk

of business

disruption.

90 0-100

92

Percentage of

changes

causing

incidents

Any Incident

that is found,

on closing

have been

caused by a

change is

counted

toward this

metric.

5 If there is a

danger of

changes causing

incidents they

should be done

out of SLA hours

during planned

downtime, If

changes cause

incidents, It is

probably a result

of bad planning

or testing

Changes should

never cause

business

disruption.

10 0-100

Number of

CAB items not

action on time

Any

documented

action item for

the CAB will

have a date for

the action to

take place.

0 All CAB items

should be acted

on this metric

should be

unnecessary.

The CAB must

be responsive;

Otherwise the

change

Manager

cannot make

effective

decisions.

3 999999

Number of

Emergency

Changes

All changes

that go

through the

emergency

change

process.

3 The emergency

change process

allows for some

of the safeguards

to be reduced or

circumvented.

There will

always be the

occasional need

for emergency

changes.

However it is

vital that they

never become a

normal way of

operating.

3 999999

Number of

changes that

do not deliver

expected

results

Changes that

don't produce

the result

planned in the

RFC.

3 Changes are

defined in the

RFC which

includes the

expected

outcome.

Planning and

testing are

expected to

ensure that

RFCs result in

effective

changes that are

not disruptive

and produce the

desired result.

3 999999

Customer

satisfaction

Internal

satisfaction

with the

Change

Management

process

measured for

every RFC.

4 Measured in

relation to the

Process

Relationship

diagram.

This is a sound

measure of the

quality of

output.

bigger than

3

0-5

Rate of

change

failure.

Rate of unable

to change of

unsolvable

events. High

will be lower

the customer

satisfaction

93

and increase

the risk.

Rate of urgent

change

Change rate

caused the

emergent

events .IF it is

high ,

Potential risk

exists

Rate of unable

to execute the

change

management

process

change rate

due to non -

compliance of

change

management

process

service

interrupt

caused by the

change

To control the

interrupt

caused by

changes so

that increase

the system

working time.


Title Quan/Qual ITSM Process Owner Source/Origin

Number of

changes initiated.

Quantitative Change

Management

Process

Change Manager Haverblad

Percent changes

are approved.

Quantitative Change

Management

Process


Percent changes

were rejected.

Quantitative Change

Management

Process


Percent changes

are implemented

within agreed

service levels.

Quantitative Change

Management

Process


Percent acute

changes.

Quantitative Change

Management

Process


Percent changes

there has been a

roll-back plan

Quantitative Change

Management

Process


94

8.5 Release Management

ITSM process owner: Release Manger

Goal: to communicate and manage expectations of the customer during the planning and rollout

of new release.

Sources: ITSMF international- Metrics for IT Service Management, Security

standardization in incident management: the ITIL approach



Metrics

Title

Descriptions ITSM Process Target

Value

Specification Justification Objective Wa

rni

ng

Lev

el

Possibl

e

Values

Installed Software

packages not in

DSL

Any software

discovered on any

equipment can, as

part of the

standard

verification

process, be

checked against

the DSL. To that

it is authorized

and of the correct

revision.

Release

Management

25 The amount of

software that is

installed, But

not taken from

the definitive

Software

Library

It is both a high

security risk and

an indication of

poor Release

Management and

control for any

software in the IT

infrastructure not

to be properly

recorded in the

DSL.

To keep an

accurate

record of all

definitive

software

revisions in

the DSL.

50 999999

Number of urgent

releases Urgent release

follow the urgent

release process-

when this is

invoked it can be

recorded for use

in this metric

Release

Management

0 Ideally all

release will be

planned in

advanced and

installed to

plan- urgent

releases should

be reduced

over time.

Urgent releases

pose a high risk

of error and

hence service

disruption to the

business.

To control

the release of

software into

the

infrastructure

to ensure a

minimum of

disruption

5 999999

Number of

incidents caused

by release

The closing

disposition of all

incident records

should include

Release

Management as a

potential cause.

When this is

recorded it will

Release

Management

5 Well tested and

planned

releases should

not give rise to

incidents.

Releases must be

built and tested

with proper back-

out plans so that

incident is not

causes as a result

of them.

To manage

releases

effectively

with a

minimum of

disruption

50 999999

95

contribute to this

metric.

Percentage of

releases on time Release

Management

includes planned

dates for all parts

of all releases in

the CMDB

Release

Management

95 As planning

improves all

releases should

be on time.

There is good

reason to change

release dates.

However, Good

consultation with

all stakeholders

in advance should

make changes

unusual.

To Manage

releases

effectively to

satisfy

business

requirements.

90 0-100

Number of

untested releases

All releases ought

to have a test

carried out and

signed off by a

person

independent of

the person who

built the release.

If this is missing

at the time of the

release then it

will count as part

of this metric.

Release

Management

0 This is an

important

Metric; if

untested

releases are

used there is a

danger of

incidents and

downtime

being caused.

Even emergency

releases ought to

be tested .Any

untested release

poses a very high

risk to business

continuity.

To Manage

releases

effectively to

reduce

disruption to

the business.

0 999999

Average cost of

release

Actual costs in

man-hours are the

simple measure.

Release

Management

300 The target and

limits are

simply guesses

here; the goal

is to reduce the

cost per

release.

Releases must be

designed to be

cost effective.

500 999999

Number of unused

software licenses Software licenses

that are not

installed and not

justified by

Capacity

Management.

Release

Management

100 Software

licenses should

only be paid

for on CIS that

are authorized

to have

software

installed from

the DSL.

If the CMDB is

working properly

, It ought to be

possible to

identify these

easily, p120

200 999999

Percentage of

accuracy of

release estimates

Simply put this is

the absolute

difference in

planned time

from actual time

Release

Management

80 This is

composite

metric, made

up of the

estimated time

it would take

to make the

release, the

man hours

used for the

release, The

number of CIS

Forecast accuracy

allows sound

business

decisions to be

made.

60 0-100%

Customer

Satisfaction

include this as a

high value until it

is consistently

good, then put it

Release

Management

4 As shown by

the process

relationship

diagram. In

Release

Management has

a major impact on

end users and it is

To provide

effective

Service

Management

< 3 0-5

96

at lower priority this case

though, end

user

satisfaction

reports with

particular roll-

out must also

be included

where they are

available.

important that

they have had

proper

communication,

awareness and

training.

processes

Number of bugs

investigated This is a measure

of the

maintainability of

the code. Ideally

there will be more

enhancements

than bug faces.

Release

Management

E1.Application

Support

Metrics

4 The list of

bugs allocated

and signed off

as complete

supplies the

measure.

There are more

detailed

measures. This

lacks the

discrimination

between easy and

difficult problems

to solve.

2 999999

Number of

optimization

Optimization

logged and

approved

Release

Management

E1.Application

Support

Metrics

20 This covers

improvements

to the code that

are not

approved

enhancements

or bug fixes.

These

improvements

must be

managed as

one of the

objectives of

capacity

Management is

to improve the

performance of

applications.

it is important

that application

use resources

effectively.

10 999999

Number of

applications/revisi

ons released to

production

Accepted releases

Release

Management

E1.Application

Support

Metrics

4 As measured

by Release

Management

in The DSL.

This is a measure

of genuine

delivered

productivity -

which not

necessarily

relates to the

quality of the

application.

2 999999

Number of end-

user training

sessions

End-user training

for new release or

new hires.

Release

Management

E1.Application

Support

Metrics

10 This is an

important

measure of

communication

between

application

support and

users.

Though the actual

delivery of

training is the

responsibility of

release

Management, the

writing of

training materials

and the

monitoring of the

quality of the

5 99999

97

courses is a

responsibility of

Application

Support.

Number of

production fixes

This is simply the

number of new

bugs found by

Application

Support them-

selves.

Release

Management

E1.Application

Support

Metrics

4 It is normal to

fix that have

been found by

users.

Measures that can

improve the

quality of the

service to the

business are

important.

2 999999

Number of

production fixes

Production fixes

Release

Management

E1.Application

Support

Metrics

5 This include all

fixes logged by

release

Management

.it could be

measured as an

absolute value

as well as per

person

working in

application

support

These will

include non-

coding fixes, such

as configuration

fixes that it is

responsible for

testing.

3 999999

Number of fixes

returned to

development

Fixes that did not

work

Release

Management

E1.Application

Support

Metrics

2 Fixes rejected

by Release

Management

or roll-back in

production

deployment .it

could be

measured as an

absolute value

as well as per

person

working in

Application

support.

This is an

indication of poor

testing.

1 99999

Number of defects

found during

development or

testing

Defects logged

against in-house

software.

Release

Management

E2 Application

Development

Metrics

20 These are

found during

development

or testing but

not live

deployment.

These are

measure of the

reliability of code

produced.

10 999999

Number of defects

fixed during

testing

Measure by

defects logged as

fixed and tested.

Release

Management

E2 Application

Development

Metrics

25 Measured by

defects

discovered

during testing.

These are a

measure of the

reliability of code

produced.

20 999999

Number of

reported bugs

fixed

Service disrupting

software defects.

Release

Management

E2 Application

Development

Metrics

10 These are

defects

discovered

during testing.

It could be

measured as an

absolute value

as well as per

person

A measure of

productivity.

5 999999

98

working in

Application

Support.

Number of

applications/revisi

ons accepted as

deployed Working releases.

Release

Management

E2 Application

Development

Metrics

3 Bugs

determined to

be the

underlying

problem from

incidents

logged at the

service Desk.

Unlike software

defects through

testing, these are

known to have

caused incidents,

s it is important

that they are

fixed.

1 999999

Number of

application/revisio

ns rejected by

application

support

Defective builds.

Release

Management

E2 Application

Development

Metrics

1 From release

management,

the number of

release

deployed

successfully.

This is measure

of the quality of

build , overtime

this should be a

very low figure as

testing improves

3 999999

Number of

application

designs assigned

off by business Approved designs

Release

Management

E2 Application

Development

Metrics

2 Designs

accepted by the

business.

This ensures that

the design

process is

transparent and

approved by the

business.

10 999999

Number of

successful

application builds

These are

measured by

builds submitted

to the DSL,

which contains

interim non-

production builds

as well as

production builds.

Release

Management

E2 Application

Development

Metrics

2 Builds built

and tested in

development

This is a measure

of internal

productivity.

Internal builds

that are tested and

found acceptable

may go on to

Alpha or Beta

testing or even

production ,

6 999999

Number of days

deployment

slipped

The time is

measured from

the agreed

delivery date of

tested code to the

DSL.

Release

Management

E2 Application

Development

Metrics

5 This is all

application /

Revision

A measure of

how effective

Application

Development is

at working to

schedules.

10 999999

99


Title Quan/Qual ITSM process Process

Owner

Percent of

configuration entities

that have an owner.

quantitatively Release

Management

Process

Release

Manager

Percent acute

releases.


Management

Process

Release

Manager

Percentage of

releases that have not

been tested according

to plan.


Management

Process

Release

Manager

Intergrades releases

implemented on

schedule.


Management

Process

Release

Manager

Time between pre-

release and

implementation.


Management

Process

Release

Manager

8.5.2 Example of Pink Elephant

Title Description ITSM process Process Owner Relate To

business

Objective

Number RFC's in

production

Number RFC is

implemented

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

solution Team Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

Ratio part and parcel

releases

Ratio part and parcel

releases

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

Number of

distribution which is

interrupted in the

process

Number of distributions

that interrupted during

the process

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

Non DSL

construction solutions

Number of software

packages based on

sources other than DSL

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

Number of software

construction solutions

emanating from

sources other than

DSL

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

Combined release Total cost per release Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

100

Resource Cost per

release

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

Total cost per release Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

Percentage of releases

that are urgent

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

Number of successful

installations

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

License-free versions The number of versions

without license

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

8.5.3 Example of KPI Library

Title Description ITSM process ITSM Owner Relate To

business

Objective

Successful software

updates

Number% of successful

software updates are

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

Lead time for

emergency releases

Average Lead time

between acute releases

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

untested releases The number of untested

releases

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

unsigned releases The number of unsigned

releases ie not approved.

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

Number of reported

bugs that are

included in the

release

% Of reported bugs

from users that are

corrected with this

release

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

Ratio found errors in

test vs. corrected

release

% Of the total number

of bugs found during

testing and been time to

be corrected and

delivered before the

release goes live.

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

successful releases Percentage of releases

that are built and

implements on time and

within budget

Release Management

Process

Release

Manager

Operational

specific

101

8.6 Operations Management/ICT Infrastructure Management

ITSM process owner: ICT Infrastructure Manager

Metrics objectives: To manage and deliver high quality ICT service in line with business

requirements in the areas of Design and Planning, Deployment, Operations and Technical

Support

Goal: Design and Planning, Deployment. Operations, Technical Support

Sources: ITSMF international- Metrics for IT Service Management , Security standardization in




Metrics

Title

Descriptions Target

Value


Level

Possible

Values

Number of plans

signed off by the

business

Agreed plans, 2 Design and

planning. These

plans must each

be completed in

detail and

signed off by

the business

owners using

the criteria from

the strategy.

Plans must

each be

properly

managed and

signed off.

5 999999

Number of plans

not ready for sign-

OFF

Plans in the

pipeline.

2 Design &

planning, This is

a measure of the

number of the

plans in the

strategic

document that

are due this

month but not

ready for sign

off.

This is

measure of

future

productivity.

7 999999

Delay from

deployment plan

Plan delayed.

Delay in actual

deployment

dates relative to

planned

deployment

dates. Measure

from the

Froward

Schedule of

change.

2 Deployment.

The deployment

plan will have

milestones.

This is a

measure of

effectiveness.

A high figure

probably

indicates a

problem with

resources or a

problem with

planning

deployment.

5 999999

102

Number defects

during deployment

Any difficulties

found during

deployments.

2 Deployment.

The defects are

events or

incidents that

occur as a result

of the

deployment.

Deployment

ought to be

planned not to

disrupt

services.

250 999999

Number of security

events

Measured from

the

infrastructure

monitoring

tool.

150 Operations. The

management of

firewalls and

virus removal

programs should

keep these to a

minimum. This

count normally

is per day since

most viruses

appear on a

daily base and

require

immediate

response

0.03 999999

Number of serious

critical events per

managed Object.

Measured from

the

infrastructure

monitoring tool

this measures

stability.

0.01 Operations. The

number of

serious or

critical events

per Managed

Object

Operations

task is to

maintain a

stable

infrastructure.

This measures

how effective

this has been

20 999999

Number of

job/script/backup

failures

Scripting

hardware or

process errors

in operations.

5 Operations. The

number of Job,

Script, backup

failures.

All scripts and

job are part of

the DSL,

failures will

require

changes to

these or to

operational

procedures.

10 999999

Number of

incidents as a

result of

operational

changes

Serious

operational

incidents.

5 Measured by the

closing

disposition on

incidents that

list operations

as a cause.

Operational

changes

should take

place out of

service hours,

so this should

be very low, It

is important to

measure to

make sure that

it remains low.

bigger

than 3

999999

Customer

satisfaction

Customer

Satisfaction

4 Customer

Satisfaction measure

as defined in the process Relationship

diagram.

This is a

measure of the

effectiveness

of IT

provision.

5 999999

103

8.7 Service Level Management (SLM)

ITSM process owner: Service Level Manager.

Metrics objectives: IT service Management provides effective services to levels agreed to with

the business.

Goal: To maintain and improve IT service quality, through a constant cycle of agreeing,

monitoring and reporting upon IT service achievements and instigation of actions to eradicate

poor service, in line with business or cost justification. Through these methods, a better

relationship between IT and its Customers can be developed.


incident management: the ITIL approach.



Metrics

Title Descriptions Target

Value


Level

Possible

Values

Number of SLA

targets missed

This should be

kept low. If this

turns out to be

high, then there

must be an

exceptional

situation or

SLAs must be

re-negotiated.

10 Any incident,

Service call, or

agree

performance

target outside

the SLA is

covered.

This is a

measure of

times when the

service levels

have not been

met and it is

important for

IT have

explanation for

these for the

business as

well as agreed

action to

resolve them.

25 999999

Number of SLA

targets threatened

This is a

measure of how

close IT comes

to breaching

SLAs.

10 This includes

all escalations

that occur

because an SLA

target will be

breached within

thirty minutes.

Though the

business is

properly

concerned only

with actual

breaches of

agrees SLAs,

the process

owner and IT

must be

concerned with

any incidents

that seriously

threaten the

SLA

thresholds.

25 0-100

104

Percentage of

SLAs that require

changes

This measures

unplanned

change to SLA

outside of

review periods.

it suggests a

major mismatch

of expectations

between the

business and IT.

2 If a SLA has

been set badly

then it will be

impossible to

meet and a

discussion with

the customer

will be needed

to rectify the

SLA setting this

metric measures

this problem.

Though this is

expected to be

low -or nil

where SLAs

are properly

concluded, it is

important to

keep track of

any SLAs that

require

substantial.

4 999999

Number of SLA

reviews completed

on time

Reviews are

important and

must include

information that

might lead to

the SLA being

re-negotiated.

95 All SLAs

should have a

renewal date

reducing the

risk of long

review periods

or of reviews

being opened ,

but not

concluded

90 999999

Number of SLA

breaches caused

by third party

support contracts The figure can

help in

negotiating

improved

services from

third parties.

2 All incidents

that breach

SLA that are

caused by third

parties will

show this in the

closing

information so

this can be

reported here.

Unless the

effectiveness

of delivery

against

underpinning

contrast is

measured,

there is no way

to be certain

that they are

being effective.

5 999999

Service Delivery

costs

Whatever the

currency, 100

are representing

the target value,

So 2% of over

that is seen as

the danger area.

100 This metric will

eventually be

measured with

considerable

accuracy.

Though

charging is not

a standard

objective of

Service

Management.

Costing is.

102 999999

Number of

services not

covered by SLA

Service ought

not to exist

unless covered

by an SLA-

Otherwise there

is no evidence

that they are

required for

business

10 this will reduce

as SLA

management is

introduced , the

final aim is to

cover all

services

this is a

measure of the

span of the

SLA process

15 999999

Number of OLAs

Underpinning

Contracts (UCS)

not yet agreed

upon

Operational

level Agreement

and

Underpinning

Contracts will

be negotiated

and this number

will grow as

service level

Management is

25 Without this

measure there

is a danger that

OLAs and

underpinning

Contracts that

are not yet

completed and

Signed off.

40 0-5

105

extended

suppliers.

Customer

Satisfaction

Customer

Satisfaction as

measured by the

process most

closely

associated with

this one.

4 Customer

Satisfaction

metric as

described in the

Process

Relationship

diagram.

This is

subjective, but

genuine,

measure of the

quality of the

output of

process.

< 3 999999

SLR -> SLA

turnaround

The measures

the time from

creation of an

SLR to final

acceptance of

an SLA,

30 days The turnaround

time is the time

it takes to turn

an SLR from

first creation

into and Signed

off SLA.

This time is

clearly affected

by the speed

which the

appropriate

business unit

can respond, as

well as by the

efficiency of

the SLA

process.

60 days 999999

8.8 Problem Management

ITSM process owner: Problem Manager

Metrics objectives:

To determine problems that is related to (Potential) service disruptions and to minimize

their effect or remove them entirely as a cause of disruptions.

To assist problem Management in identifying trends.

To reduce number of incidents reported and increase support effectiveness.

To discover what are the outstanding costs of quality in problem management.

Goal: To minimize the adverse business impact of incidents that are causes by errors within the

IT infrastructure, and to prevent recurrence of incidents related to these errors.





How to guide: The Help Desk Management, Incident Management and problem management

handle incidents and service requests and update into the case library (Stewart & Yuk-Hee,

2007).

106

Metrics

Title

Descriptions Target

Value


Level

Possible

Values

Number of

problems

closes

This is a

measure of

activity, but

also of

effectiveness.

20 The number

of problem

records

closed.

Problem can take a

long time to solve.

10 999999

Number of

incidents

resolved by

known Errors

incident

closed by

solutions that

were

registered with

known Errors

save time and

re-work as

keeping

customer

service levels

high

50 The number

of resolved

incidents

should

increase.

The known Error

DB is the primary

communication

path between

Problem and

Incident

Management.

20 999999

Total number

of incidents

Incidents are

caused by

problems-if

the problems

are removed,

then the

number of

incidents will

reduce.

200 This , and

Customer

Satisfaction ,

are the main

measures of

problem

management

success

The reduction of

this measure is the

prime means of

establishing the

contribution from

Problem

Management.

400 999999

Total user

downtime

Though this is

really a

measure of

availability, it

is also a

measure of the

effectiveness

of Problem

Management -

if problems

are removed

quickly and

efficiently

then users will

experience

much lower

levels of

downtime.

100 This can be

measured in

hours by

summarizing

the time to

solve

incidents over

all affected

users during

SLA hour.

This customer

facing measure and

gives a direct

picture of how

disruptive unsolved

problems are.

200 999999

Number of

RFCs raised

by problem

Management

RFCs raised

by Problem

Management

connected to

problems

20 The number

of requests

for change

management

connected to

problem,

Each RFC raised

BY Problem

Management in

response to a

problem is an

aimed at realizing a

10 999999

107

solution. So this is

a direct measure of

the output of the

process.

Average

number of

open

problems

Open

problems

reflect the

current

workload of

Problem

Management.

25 The average

number of

Open

problems

Some problems

will be open a long

time, but this gives

a picture of how

effectively, the

workload is being

managed.

40 999999

Average time

to close a

problem

Problems can

take a long

time to be

solved.

Monitoring

may be

necessary for

weeks, before

enough data

are collected

to find a

diagnose

3 Time from

problem

creation to

problem close

for problems

closed this

period

If this figure

reduces over time,

it is an indication

that better tools,

training and

processes are being

used. If it increases

then it is advance

warning that

Problem

Management might

be under -

resourced.

5 999999

Percentage of

incidents not

linked to

problems

This shows

incidents that

have not yet

been

examined by

problem

Management.

The

percentage of

incidents that

are not linked

to a problem

record-this

can be

measured

once a day

averaged over

the week, or

an average

could be

taken every

hour.

All incidents are

caused by

problems, when

they are linked to a

problem it shows

that ultimate

resolution is in the

hands of problem

management.

0-100

Number of

problems that

misses target

resolution

time

Just as with

incidents,

Problems are

given target

solution times

based on SLA

and urgency of

the associated

incidents. This

measures how

effective

Problem

Management

is at meeting

this objective.

The number

of problems

that have

exceeded the

target

solution date

and been

escalated.

This gives a picture

of how many

serious problems.

999999

Customer

Satisfaction

Customer

Satisfaction as

4 Customer

satisfaction

This is a

subjective. But

< 3 0-5

108

measured by

the process

Most closely

associated

with this one.

metric as

described in

the process

Relationship

diagram.

genuine , measure

of the quality of the

output of the

process

Top five

categories of

incidents

reported for

the period

A pie chart

which shows

the 5 highest

percentages of

categories of

call received

in the

reporting

period. When

this is done for

every

reporting

period. Trends

can be

observed and

possible

problem areas

identified for

further

analysis.

N/A The number

of incident

tickets in

each category

divided by

the total

number of

tickets for the

period

multiplied by

100.

Incident

Management can

be used effectively

to identify trends in

incidents

occurrence.

N/A N/A

Number of

incidents for

which the

solution is

user training

Just as errors

of

infrastructure

result in

incidents, so

does lack of

user

knowledge in

using

applications

.A

considerable

percentage of

incidents may

be avoided by

just training

the users.

Equal or >

25.

Number of

calls where

the solution

says " user

training

required in a

particular

incident

category

An efficient

incident and

problem

management

process should also

identify how

incidents can be

reduced by

providing user

training , otherwise

the requirement for

support members

would rise

disproportionately,

0 99999

Cost of

solving a

problem

The total

amount of

costs the

solving of a

given problem

has cost.

Make the

solution of

the problem

profitable.

Measure staff

hours,

material costs

and other

issues that

solving the

problem has

involved.

Problem

Management is

Quality

Management

process.

Depends

on the

problem;

The

solving

of a

problem

should

never

cost

more

than it

yields.

Theoretically

Unlimited.

Number of the The problems

109

problems have

been solved

processed in

available time

range,

Processing

time saved,

Repeated

work avoided

and high

service level

kept.

Number of

problems

changed by

the problem

Management

proposed

change

Management

proposes the

problems that

requested

change

processing

The time

percentage of

no

corresponding

problems

The events

that have not

been checked

by problem

Management ,

20 10 999999


Title Quan/ Qual ITSM Process Process Owner

Minimum and maximum

transactions per second

quantitatively Problem Management

Process

Problem Manager

Number of problem cases

during the period.


Process

Problem Manager

Percentage of known bugs. quantitatively Problem Management

Process

Problem Manager

Percentage of solved

problems.


Process

Problem Manager

Percent change matters

initiated by

problemhanter-insertion

process.


Process

Problem Manager

Average lösningstid. quantitatively Problem Management

Process

Problem Manager

110

8.9 Financial Management

Process owner: IT Manager

Metrics objectives: To manage IT infrastructure costs and to provide a sound basis for business

decisions relating to IT by identifying and accounting for the costs of delivering services

Goal: To provide cost-effective stewardship of the IT assets and resources used in providing IT

services.





Comments: Manages an IT Service provider's budgeting accounting and charging requirements.

Metrics

Title

Descriptions Target

Value


Level

Possible

Values

Percentage

of IT costs

accounted

for (%Cost)

The scope of

current

costing. The

CMDB will

provide some

costs from the

asset DB -

These can be

checked

against the

records kept

by accounts.

70 Ultimately all IT

Costs, direct and

indirect, Will be

included. To begin

with operation

expenses such as

salaries,

Telephones and

electricity will be

known.

The wider the scope

the better.

50 0-100

Number of

changes

made to

charging

algorithm

How close we

are to a stable

system.

3 The number of

changes made to

the algorithm.

Even if real

charging is not

being carried out, It

is useful to have a

charging algorithm

and to test it

regularly for

reasonableness.

Eventually we

would desire this to

be stable because

we have accurate

models-until it is a

good sign that the

matter is being

actively managed.

10 999999

Delay in

production

of financial

report

How long it

takes to get the

report out.

1 A date is set for the

production of the

regular financial

report; This

indicates slippage

from this date.

Once the process is

mature, The report

will be on time

.Until then, This is a

good mark of how

well it is improving.

2 999999

Delay in Delay in 1 Each month the When mature these 2 999999

111

production

of monthly

forecast

measured in

days.

forecast for the

next financial

figures is

produced.

will be on time -

Until then this is a

test of how well the

process is maturing.

Percentage

of accuracy

of the last

financial

forecast

Forecast

accuracy as a

percentage.

85 This Measure:

ABS (Financial

Actual-financial

forecast) /

Financial Actual *

100 over the last

period.

This is a measure of

how well Financial

Management is

doing

80 0-100

Percentage

of accuracy

of financial

forecast for

the previous

quarter

This is rolling

measure of

previous

forecasts to

actual.

75 This measures; abs

(financial actual-

financial forecast)

Financial Actual *

100 over the last

period.

Capacity

Management is

largely responsible

for future estimates

ad forecasts.

However, It relies

upon financial data

to make these

accurate.

60 999999

Total Cost of

Ownership

(TCO) of IT

(Cost)

As measured

from Financial

Management

models and

the CMDB.

10 This is how much

it costs the

business to Own

IT, includes all

financial costs

equipment and

infrastructure.

Over time the aim

of Financial

Management to

reduce this.

50 999999

Number of

complaints

regarding IT

cost

Most of this

will be found

in Service

Desk

Complaints

and in regular

SLA meetings.

5 Complaints raised

as complaints by

the Service Desk or

tabled at SLA

meeting must be

recorded to be

tracked.

Either Financial

Management is not

communicating the

reason for certain

costs or the reasons

have been found

unconvincing.

10 999999

Number of

questions

regarding IT

cost

Most of this

will be found

in Service

Desk

questions and

in regular SLA

meeting

30 Questions rose as

complaints by the

Service Desk or

tabled at SLA

meeting must be

recorded to be

tracked.

Either Financial

Management is not

communicating the

reason for certain

costs or the reasons

have been found

unconvincing.

40 999999

Customer

Satisfaction

Customer

Satisfaction

with Financial

Management

as measured

by internal

process

response.

4 Customer

Satisfaction as

measured by the

Process

Relationship

diagram,

This is a measure of

the effectiveness of

Financial

Management.

< 3 0--5

112

8.10 Capacity Management

ITSM process owner: Capacity Manager

Goal: To ensure that cost justifiable IT capacity always exists and that it is matched to the

current and future identified needs of the business.


incident management: the ITIL approach, E-government: ITIL Based Service Management Case

Study.



Comments: Ensures that the capacity of IT service and the IT infrastructure is able to deliver

agreed service level target in a cost effective and timely manner.

Metrics

Title

Descriptions Target

Value

Specification Justification Metric

Objective

Warning

Level

Possible

Values

Number of

SLA

breaches

because of

poor service

performance

Capacity

Management

has the task of

ensuring that

SLA

performance

time is not

exceeded as a

result of

inadequate

capacity.

0 Ultimately all

IT Costs, direct

and indirect,

Will be

included. To

begin with

operation

expenses such

as salaries,

telephones and

electricity will

be known. This

can be

calculated with

help from the

accounting

department.

Call

response

time

exceeded, or

application

response

time.

Capacity

Management

has the job of

anticipating

potential

service

disruption

because of

capacity

issues - this is

measure of

how effective

this job is

being done

2 999999

Number of

SLA

breaches

because of

poor

component

performance

Component

failures as a

result of

performance

or other

capacity

related

problems.

0 The number of

changes made

to the

algorithm.

Even if real

charging is not

being carried

out, It is useful

to have a

charging

algorithm and

to test it

regularly for

reasonableness.

System

performance

poor , For

example,

Resource

Capacity

Management

has the

responsibility

to ensure that

failures as a

result of

insufficient

capacity are

kept to a

minimum.

2 999999

Number of Only 5 A date is set Incident and This is a 10 999999

113

incidents as

a result of

poor

performance

performance

related

incidents are

included.

Monitoring

and tuning

coupled with

trend analysis

ought to

ensure that

performance

related

incidents do

not occur.

for the

production of

the regular

financial

report; This

indicates

slippage from

this date.

Problem

Management

will need to

have

performance

as a possible

closing

cause-and

have good

processes for

making the

decision that

this is the

cause.

direct measure

of effective

Capacity

Management.

Cost of

production

of Capacity

Plan

Total planning

costs. This is

measured

separately

from other

standard

running costs,

so work will

need to be

done with

Financial

Management

to establish

how these

costs can be

monitored

regularly.

10 Each month

the forecast for

the next

financial

figures is

produced.

Man-hours

spent this

planning

period as

well as the

cost of tools

et cetera.

Capacity

Management

ought to be

producing

Capacity

Plans to take

into account

future trends

and business

needs. These

have to be

produced cost

effectively

30 999999

Number of

unplanned

purchases of

performance

related

hardware

Any purchase

required for

performance

related matters

is unplanned

unless it is

listed in the

Capacity Plan.

10 This Measure:

ABS (Financial

Actual-

financial

forecast) /

Financial

Actual * 100

over the last

period.

This would

include extra

RAM, Disk,

CPU, system

or networks

that are

bought to

solve

performance

problems

that were not

planned as

part of the

Capacity

Plan.

Capacity

Management

ought to be

planning

purchases in

advance of

requirements,

in response to

measured

trends and

known

business

plans. This

check that

unplanned

purchases are

reducing in

response to

good

planning.

15 0-100

Percentage

of accuracy

of plan of

forecast

expenditure

How much

spending

exceeds plans

based on

capacity.

90 This measures;

abs (financial

actual-financial

forecast)

Financial

Abs (Period

Planned

expenditure-

Period

Actual

Capacity

management

produces

Capacity

Plans that

80 0-100

114

Actual * 100

over the last

period.

Expenditure)

/ Planned

Expenditure

* 100 over a

specified

period.

forecast

expenditure

against

business

plans, .This is

a measure of

accuracy of

those plan

Percentage

of over-

Capacity of

IT

Performance

level, Disc,

Memory,

CPU, Network

Bandwidth and

so forth, Can

all be

monitored

against an

appropriate

capacity

policy. Over

capacity can

be recorded

and summed

to provide this

metric.

20 This is how

much it costs

the business to

Own IT .it

includes all

financial costs

including

Wages,

depreciation,

equipment and

infrastructure.

Over time the

objective is for

this to

decrease.

This can be

measured by

auditing

performance

levels of key

CIS.

Capacity is

defined in

Management

plan.

Capacity

Management

is responsible

for providing

effective

capacity -Not

too much,

which is

expensive.

30 0-100

Percentage

of CIS

monitored

for

performance

If monitoring

is turned off,

for any reason,

this should

cause an event

that ought to

trigger this

metric.

70 Complaints

raised as

complaints by

the Service

Desk or tabled

at SLA

meeting must

be recorded to

be tracked.

A measure

of CIS that

have

performance

monitoring

turned on.

Capacity

Management

must

understand the

current

capacity level

and the trends

in these

levels..

60 0-100%

Percentage

overall

Business

Load of

expected

Business

Load

Expected

Business Load

is defined in

the Capacity

Management

Plan, As is the

measure of

Business Load

for this metric.

80 Questions

raised as

complaints by

the Service

Desk or tabled

at SLA

meeting must

be recorded to

be tracked.

A measure

of how much

the overall

Business

load on It is

relative to

that

anticipated

in the

Capacity

Management

Plan.

Capacity

Management

must

understand the

current

capacity level

and the trends

in these

levels.

85 0-5

Customer

Satisfaction

Customer

Satisfaction

4 Customer

Satisfaction

measured

according to

the process

Relationship

diagram.

This is

required to

ensure that

effective

process

outputs are

produced.

< 3 999999

115


Title Quantitative / Qualitative ITSM Process Process Owner

Resource Cost per

release.

quantitatively Capacity Management

Process

Capacity Manager

Percent of configuration

units as measured


Process

Capacity Manager

Number of unplanned

purchases.


Process

Capacity Manager

Percentage of IT services

for which there is defined

capacity requirements.


Process

Capacity Manager

Capacity Plan reliability quantitatively Capacity Management

Process

Capacity Manager

Response times quantitatively Capacity Management

Process

Capacity Manager

The percentage of

capacity used


Process

Capacity Manager

8.11 IT Service Continuity Management

ITSM process owner: Continuity Manager

Goal: To support the overall Business continuity management process, by ensuring that the

required IT technical and Services facilities can be recovered within required, and agreed

business timescales.

Metric objective: To support the overall Business continuity management process, by ensuring

that the required IT technical and Services facilities can be recovered within required, and agreed

business timescales.

Sources: ITSMF international- Metrics for IT Service Management . Security standardization in




116

Metrics

Title

Descriptions Target

Value


Level

Possible

Values

Number of Service

not covered by IT

Service Continuity

(ITSC) plan

Every Service

and SLA will

have links to the

ITSC-even if

they are to say

that the

particular

service will not

be covered in

the event of an

emergency.

5 If any service

is not part of

the ITSC plan

it is under risk.

This metric

ensures that

any services at

risk are

monitored and

dealt with.

10 999999

Delay in ITSC

Plan

completion/Update

This measured

of Business

Risk. The plan

completion and

update dates

must be under

document

control and that

is where they

are measured.

1 Measured in

days, this is the

time delay from

the date the

plan or update

was due (if it

was this month)

and the date

delivered.

IF the plan is

incomplete

then there is a

risk that

recovery will

not be

complete

either. This

measure makes

sure that the

plans are not

incomplete for

too long.

5 999999

Delay IN ITSC

test date

This is

measured from

the ITSC plan

that is under

document

control.

5 Measured in

days , this is the

time delay from

the date the test

was due

There are

many possible

reasons for

these delays.

Most

commonly

individuals

taking part in

the test are

required

elsewhere in

the business

This delay

taking part in

the test are

required

elsewhere in

the business.

10 999999

Number of Issues

raised by last test

still to be

addressed

The Plan, Issues

and actions are

all under

document

control, so it is

there that they

are measured.

5 Each test of the

ITSC plan will

give rise to

some issues

that must be

addressed to

reduce risk.

The number of

The plan is not

working as

long as there

are

unaddressed

issues so, for

business risk to

be kept low,

10 999999

117

issues that

remain to be

addressed this

period is

measured here

This metric

must be

monitored

carefully.

Results from

continuity

awareness survey-

Percentage of pass

A survey can be

carried out

regularly with a

different

audience so that

the same people

are only

surveyed every

year or eighteen

months.

90 All IT must be

aware of the

business

impact, needs

and

requirements.

This survey to

test the level of

awareness can

be conducted

regularly on

different

members of IT.

The score is

measure of the

level of

awareness.

This survey

identifies how

well the

communication

plan is

working.

95 0-100

Number of issues

identified this

period that

threaten the ITSC

plan

These issues

measured

through

document

control where

they are listed

along with their

dates of

resolution and

action plans.

2 The ITSC plan

requires access

to equipment ,

backup off site

locations and

personnel

Various things

can give rise to

issues with

business

continuity

plans

10 999999

Number of

targeted

communications

circulated

This is

measured by

reference to

document

control where

these

communications

must be kept.

1 Each IT service

area and

business area

must know

what its role in

the ITSC plan

is.

Communication

can be targeted

at each area and

sent to one each

period to ensure

preparedness.

This metric

ensures that this

is being done.

IF the business

is not aware of

continuity

requirements

then it cannot

be expected to

know how to

behave in the

case of an

emergency.

0 999999

Number of Wrong

entries in crisis

control team

directory

Ideally a

random time

and a random

selection and

their validity is

tested by and

independent

agent-Maybe

0 Once per period

all the contact

information can

be checked for

accuracy and

this metric

reported-The

directory can be

If the contact

details are

wrong, It

shows that

change control

and

configuration

control are not

1 999999

118

the Service

Desk

updated at the

same time.

operating

effectively in

managing the

ITSC plan.

Delay in prepare

of recovery site

This measure of

preparedness is

a measure of

business risk.

0 The recovery

site can be

contacted at a

random time

each period to

check how long

it would take

the facility to

be available.

IF business

risk is not

measured then

it cannot be

reduced.

1 999999

Customer

Satisfaction

This is not

measured

against

particular

disasters, which

we all hope do

not happen, but

against business

satisfaction with

the planning

and the process

for keeping that

plans valid.

4 Measured in

relation to the

Process

Relationship

diagram.

IT Service

Continuity is a

planning

process that

crosses all

business

process and

entities. It is

important that

users who are

part of the

process are

satisfied with it

in terms of

how it affects

them.

< 3 0-5


Title Quan/Qual ITSM Process ITSM Owner

Percent problem cases by

category or type.

quantitatively Continuous Service

Improvement /IT Service

Continuity Management

Project office /

Continuity Manager

Percentage of IT services

it is restarting plans.




Project office /

Continuity Manager

Time between tests of the

continuity plan.




Project office /

Continuity Manager

Number of hours of

training.




Project office /

Continuity Manager

119

How frequent review of

business continuity plan

is made.




Project office /

Continuity Manager

Percentage of completed

tests that have not been

successful.




Project office /

Continuity Manager

8.12 Availability Management

ITSM process owner: Availability Manager

Goal: To optimize the capability of the IT infrastructure, to deliver a cost effective and sustained

level of availability that enables the business to satisfy its business objectives.

Metric Objective: To ensure the delivery of IT service where, when and to who they are

required, by planning and building a reliable and maintainable infrastructure.





Metrics


Value


Level

Possible

Values

Downtime ,

Unavailability of

services

Any time a

service is not

available

during

contracted

hours.

5 Time a service

was down in

minutes. This is

a simple

measure of the

availability of

services.

This is a simple

measure of the

availability of

services.

40 999999

Unavailability of

component

Component

level downtime

-Measured by

Operation at

the level of a

Managed

Object (MO),

not a CI .Best

taken from the

Operations

monitoring

tool.

1 Time a

component was

down

Though

components

may go down

without

affecting the

service. If they

are down then

the service is

under increased

vulnerability to

further outages.

For this reason

component, as

well as service

reliability are

60 999999

120

important.

Incident

detection time

Time before an

incident is

detected.

5 Time that is

lost after start

of an incident

before it is

discovered.

Could be

measured as a

set of values in

a table or

diagram, or as a

mean.

To keep

incident

restoration as

quick as

possible, it is

important to

detect any

incident as

soon as

possible. Close

monitoring can

provide this,

preferably

automated.

4 999999

Incident response

time

Time after

detection,

Before first

repair action is

taken.

5 Could be

measured as a

set of values in

a table or

diagram , or as

a mean ,

Before any

action can be

taken to repair

the incident,

Getting to the

diagnose

quickly can be

supported by

skilled

helpdesks ,

knowledge

bases etc.

0 999999

Incident repair

time

Time after

diagnose,

before an

incidents is

repaired.

90 Time that is

spent on actual

repair. After

diagnose has

been made.

Could be

measured as a

set of values in

a table or

diagram, or as a

mean.

To resolve as

incident as

quick as

possible, it is

important to

manage the

actual repair

time. This time

can be

influenced by

special

arrangements

e.g., by having

a set of spare

components at

close range, or

having a repair

kit at location,

20 999999

incident recovery

time

Time to

recover failed

components.

2 Time after

repair , required

to recover the

components to

their normal

functions

Once the

involved

components

have been

repaired, they

need be

restored before

they can

contribute to

service.

5 999999

incident Time to restore 1 Time after Once the 5 999999

121

restoration time the service to

the agreed

level.

component

recovery,

required to

restore the

services to the

agreed level.

involved

components

have been

repaired, the

service needs

to be made

available to the

users. This can

depend upon

conditions to

be created, data

to be reset etc.

incident

resolution time

Time till

recovery after

detection of an

incident

0 The sum of

incident

response time,

incident repair

time , Incident

recovery time

and incident

restoration

time,

In a case a

detailed

management of

response/repair

/ recovery /

restoration is

not available;

This sum could

be used to

manage the

time between

detection and

recovery.

40 999999

MTBSI (Mean

Time Between

System Incidents)

Average time

between the

start of

subsequent

incidents,

Indicating the

level of

stability of

service.

0 This is the

mean time

between the

start of

subsequent

incidents as

measured by

the Service

Desk and

incident

Management,

Measured in

minutes, hours

or days.

This figure is

of great

importance to a

good

understanding

of the overall

availability

value. An

availability of

99.99%

measured over

a period of one

year could

come down to

1 outage of

almost 1 hour

as well as 365

outages of

almost seconds.

150 999999

MTTR (Mean

time to Repair

"downtime",

Mean time to

Restore )

MTTR is a

standard

measure of

availability,

Measuring the

average

elapsed time

from the

occurrence of

an incident to

resolution of

the incident

4 This is the

average time to

restore a

service to

operational

status, or

average

downtime per

service

disruption ,

measuring this

by service , not

component ,

enables the

focus to be at

the right level

for the

business,

40 999999

122

Critical time

failure

Critical time

for financial

system

services might

be the 27-29th

of each month.

This is the total

outage time

during these

critical periods,

Measured in

minutes.

This is the

failure of

services during

critical time-

critical time is

defined per

service. For

example,

critical time for

most E-mail

could be 08:00-

10, 00 hrs.

When people

start working at

the office and

they need to see

their emails.

This measure

of critical

support time is

a more acute

indication of

really serious

problem than

simple SLA

breaches

40 999999

Unavailability of

third party

services

Downtime of

services

offered to IT

by third parties

in minutes.

Downtime

caused by

incident caused

by third party

Services.

Third Party

downtime

causing

downtime to

services Is a

vital interest of

Availability

Management.

120 999999

Unavailability of

third party

components

This focuses

on components

-the ultimate

sources of

downtime.

Though the

previous

metric is

important as it

concentrated

on service, this

provides

metric is

important as it

concentrates

on services.

Time a third

party

component was

down.

Component

level trending

is part of the

role of

Availability

Management.

60 999999

Time used to

resolve

unavailable

services

The time taken

to repair

customer

services.

This is a

measure of the

man-hours

expended in

resolving

availability

issues.

Many methods

can be used to

reduce repair

related

downtime-it is

important that

the success in

doing this is

measured.

60 999999

Number of repeat

failures

Number of

times CIS fail

repeatedly

This is the sum

of all multiple

failures on CIS.

Part of the job

of Availability

Management is

to reduce

multiple

failures.

600 999999

123

8.13 Security Management

ITSM process owner: IT security Manager

Goal: To meet the external and internal security requirements.

Metric objective: To manage and control the security management process to meet external

security requirements as found in SLAs, contracts, legislation and the company security policy.

And to meet internal security requirements to assure the continuity of IT service provision.





Metrics


Value


Level

Possible

Values

Number of

security related

incidents

This is based

on the

closing

disposition

of incident

and call

records.

50 Benchmark this

over time; this

will depend on

the level of

control as well

as other factors

such as software

quality.

It is vital that

Security

Management

Processes are

aware of the

relevant

incidents.

100 999999

Number of

security related

problems closed

This is a

measure of

problem

closed with a

closing

disposition

linked to it

security.

10 This is a

measure of

problem

management

process

efficiency.

Resolution of

security related

problems will

result in reduced

numbers of

incidents and

improve

availability.

5 999999

Number of Audit

+ internal Review

issues resolved

The issue list

should have

resolution

dates-Those

could be

used to

trigger

alarms if

exceeded.

8 Internal Reviews

and Audits

ought to show

up minor issues

to be resolved.

Security is a

long-term

process of

improving

things.

5 999999

Percentage of

Reviews + Audits

conducted on

time

A measure of

reviews and

Audits

against

100 Internal Audits

or reviews

slipping can be a

sign of over -

We rely upon

internal reviews

Audits to

highlight short

95 0-100

124

planned

dates.

work, a lack of

resources or

matters that are

more serious

comings in this

process. It is

vital that they

are carried.

Number of risks

identified

A process

must be in a

place to log

risks that are

identifies-

and qualify

them with

action to be

taken .This

log is

measured for

this metric.

10 Risks and threats

cannot be

invented where

none exist!

However in any

complex

environment,

new risks, albeit

small ones, can

be uncovered

every week, or

at least every

months.

Security

Management

must be actively

engaged to find

new risks, or

threats.

5 999999

Percentage of

SLAs with

explicit security

specifications,

SLAs are

kept in the

CMDB. Each

SLA has a

security

clause..

100 If SLAs are

static, this might

not be a useful

metric. It is

important that

security

concerns are

considered when

all SLAs are set.

This metric

ensures that no

risks creep in as

new SLAs are

set up or old

ones re-

negotiated.

Whether a

service is new or

of long standing

, its business

requirements can

be a pointer to

possible security

issues and these

must be

highlighted ,

along

70 0-100%

Percentage of

UCS

(Underpinning

Contracts) With

explicit Security

specifications,

As with

SLAs, the

UCS ought

to be in the

CMDB and

their security

clause can be

compared to

ensure that it

is not just

boilerplate.

100 As with the

above, all

underpinning

contracts ought,

eventually, to

comply with

company

security policy.

Underpinning

Contracts must

be considered

actively to

prevent security

issues arising.

This can be

measured by this

metric.

75 0-100%

Number of

release security

issues identified

All release

plans must

have a non-

boilerplate

entry for

security

issues

0 Release

Management is a

highly

vulnerable entry

point for

security threats.

An active

control of

release by

Security

Management

will keep this

Releases provide

a high risk to

security

procedures. This

ensures that

there is an active

external

examination of

the level of risk

appropriate in

each release

planning

5 999999

125

metric properly

low.

document,

Number of

changes backed

out as a result of

security issues

This is

measured by

the closing

disposition

of changes -

if they

indicate

security as

reason for

back-out of

change then

they count

toward this

metric.

0 If changes

introduce

security issues

then they are not

being properly

planned, A

change turning

up here ought to

be fully

investigated to

ensure that it is

not a result of

deliberate attack.

Changes,

including

releases, must be

planned and

tested properly.

If blackouts

occur as a result

of security

issues then there

is a failure of

control.

5 999999

Security patch

releases speed

All sorts of

security

patches and

updates are

released

frequently.

2 days The time

necessary for

implementation

of this security

patches means

vulnerability to a

risk.

The time

necessary for

implementation

of this security

patches means

vulnerability to a

risk.

1 week Theoretically

Unlimited.

8.14 Business Perspective Metrics

ITSM process owner: IT Manager

Purpose: Is Quality of Experience (QoE), a measure of business satisfaction aligned to business

structures.

Metric objectives:

Appropriate alignment of business and IT

To deliver effective IT/Business alignment.

Review plans and make effective changes in line with business requirements.





126

Metrics

Title Description

s

ITSM

PROCESS

Targe

t

Value

Specification Justificatio

n

Warnin

g Level

Possibl

e

Values

Delivery Cost

per service

From the

CMDB -how

much each

service

costs,

Service Calls

*appropriate

cost +

Problem

Management

+ fixed costs

etc.

Business

Perspective

Metrics

20 This depends

on Financial

Management

being in

place;

otherwise

some proxy

for cost will

be required

here. The

calculation is

simple

This is a

difficult

measure

(Not

SMART)!

That does

not mean

that it is not

a good goal

of Financial

Managemen

t to attempt

to measure

this as

accurately

as possible -

to enable the

business

Perspective

to give a

good picture

30 0-100

Customer

Satisfaction

The overall

sum of all

customer

Satisfaction

measures.

Business

Perspective

Metrics

4 Customer

Satisfaction

with IT

Service

Management.

The

Business

Perspective

is

Ultimately

responsible

for

delivering

effective

business / IT

alignment.

< 3 0-5

Business

knowledge of

IT

The level of

satisfaction

in the

business

with the

level of IT

business

knowledge.

Business

Perspective

Metrics

4 Customer

Satisfaction

surveys to

include a

question of

how satisfied

the responder

is with the

level of

knowledge of

the business

shown by IT

All

members of

IT need to

have some

knowledge

and

awareness

of the

Business

that they are

providing

services to,

This metric

< 3 0-5

Number of

Service

complaints

The total

number of

complaints

about the

service

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.1 Business

Relationship

10 This gives an

indication of

the customer

satisfaction ,

and of the

20 999999

127

reaching the

organization

Management quality of the

organizations

relationships

Number of

outstanding

action against

last Service

Review

The number

of actions,

coming out

of the last

Service

Review, that

hasn’t been

taken care of

yet.

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.1 Business

Relationship

Management

10 this indicates

how effective

an

organization

handles its

reviewing

process and

completes its

action items

Effective

processing

of action

items will

increase

customer

satisfaction

and improve

business

relationships

.

15 999999

Maximum

incidents per

Supplier

Every

incident will

be traced

back to gives

supplier.

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.1 Business

Relationship

Management

50 This is the

number of

incidents

found to be

caused, or

partially

caused by the

supplier with

the most

incidents.

For good

supplier

management

,

70 999999

Percentage of

contract

suppliers

conforming to

standards

What part of

your contract

supplier

conforms to

your

standards

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.2 Supplier

Relationship

Management

85 These are

standards that

are

appropriate

(ISO9000 Or

ISO20000).

The chance

of an

incident or

problem will

decrease

when all

parts of a

system

follow the

same ways

of working.

85 0-100

Percentage of

Supplier

reviews

completed on

time

The

percentage

of regularly

scheduled

reviews of

suppliers

that are

completed

on time,

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.2 Supplier

Relationship

Management

2 Review

schedules that

show reviews

due in the

past that have

no

completion

summary or

action point.

Supplier

reviews can

seem

unimportant

when things

are going

well.

5 0-100

Number of

outstanding

issue with

suppliers

Issues are

raised either

when they

are

discovered

through

incident or

problem

management

or during

supplier

reviews.

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.2 Supplier

Relationship

Management

10 The count of

the number of

issues in the

issue log.

It is

important

that

suppliers

respond to

issues raised

in a timely

manner.

20 0-100

128

These are

tracked by

this metric.

Minimum

Customer

Satisfaction

Score

The worst

performing

process.

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.3. Providing

IT services

4 This is the

minimum

score found in

all process

metrics

measured.

Provision

should be

working

< 3 0-5

Number of

Incident

Ultimately

this process

should

reduce the

number of

incidents

over time,

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.3. Providing

IT services

100 the total

number of

incident is a

measure of

the level of

service

disruption

found by the

organization,

Incidents are

the ultimate

measure of

service

disruption.

150 999999

9

Customer

Satisfaction

This is a

measure of

delivery at

the Business

level.

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.3. Providing

IT services

4 Overall

Customer

Satisfaction,

as with

Service Level

Management.

Effective

service

delivery is

measured by

Customer

Satisfaction.

< 3 0-5

Number of

issues

identified in

final plan

Review

Simple issue

count.

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.4 Planning ,

Review and

Development

6 The number

of issues

shown in the

review.

This gives a

measure of

how much

change is

required to

the

document-

overtime.

8 999999

Number of

Plans signed

off for

implementatio

n

This is a

count of

activity, But

also of

authorization

. Through

this does not

measure the

complexity

of the plans,

It is a

measure of

the number.

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.4 Planning ,

Review and

Development

4 Since

documentatio

n will be kept

in the CMDB,

the status can

be measured

directly. Plans

that move to

the signed off

status will be

counted.

Plans must

not only be

produced,

but also

authorized.

2 999999

Number of late

actions in

Communicatio

n Plan

All actions

in the Communication Plan should

have a target

date. This

measures the

Number of

actions that

are over

date.

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.5 Liaison,

Education And

Communication

s Plan

3 Actions not

completed by

date of metric

measure.

Actions

identified

need to be

followed -up

This shows

how

effectively

this is being

done.

5 999999

129

Percentage of

IT staff not at

optimal

training level

for their

position

Either from

HR ,or from

an IT

training and

competence

DB, The

level of

appropriate

education

and

experience

in the

organization,

Business

Perspective

Metrics

N.5 Liaison,

Education And

Communication

s Plan

1 A measure of

staff

competencies.

ISO20000

Requires

that staff can

be shown to

have

appropriate

training and

experience

for their

positions,

2 0-100

8.15 Continuous Service Improvement Programs (SIP)

ITSM process owner: Project office

Goal: Communication with IT Management to ensure that all process is subject to specific SIP

attention at least every two years.

Metric objective: To improve current process operation in line with business requirements.

Sources ITSMF international- Metrics for IT Service Management , Security standardization in




Metrics


Value


Level

Possible

Values

Overall Customer

Satisfaction

The mean of all

Customer

satisfaction

measures

4 This is the

overall

satisfaction of

end-customers.

Ultimately the

SIP should be

delivering

improved

Customer

Satisfaction to

end customers as

well as reduction

in cost.

Overtime the

SIP should drive

up Customer

Satisfaction,

< 3 0-5

Percentage of

Cost saving in

How much the

SIP has reduced

10 Usually each

process is, in

The SIP

improvement

5 0-100

130

last process SIP overall IT costs? turn, given the

full attention of

the SIP. Once

this is complete a

measurable cost

saving ought to

be the result.

must have

tangible results

and cost saving

will be

measureable and

tangible,

Percentage of

Process overdue

for SIP

If any process is

overdue for SIP

attention

10 If ten core ITIL

processes go

through the SIP

process every ten

months.

Though the SIP

concentrates

firstly on

processes that

are shown , by

their metrics , to

be in need of

improvement ,

all processes

must be

examined

periodically ,

20 0-100

Number of

Outstanding

approved actions

that have not

achieved their

objective

Action not

successful.

3 All actions that

come out of the

SIP are

documented and

their intended

improvement

target agreed.

Actions

recommended

by the SIP must

be SMART. The

means that we

can monitor the

effects.

5 999999

Number of

outstanding

actions in SIP

Communications

Plan

This establishes

that there is a

communications

plan for the SIP

and that the

actions it take

place on time

5 Improvements

made by the SIP

must be

measured,

Reported and

communicated.

The SIP

Communication

Plan actions are

important to the

success of the

plan-hence this

metric to

monitor them,

10 999999

Numbers of

approved

revisions to

service

Management

policies , Plans

and Procedures

Change to the SIP 5 It is not

necessary that

there are lots of

changes and only

changes that are

actually

approved are

relevant.

This makes the

changes from

the SIP visible -

particularly

those to policies

and procedures.

It is important

that these are

understood to be

part of the

Scope of the

SIP.

2 999999

Number of

Improvements

carried out by

process owner-

outside SIP cycle

Improvements

made by process

owners

5 The SIP is the

on-going engine

of Service

Improvement.

However each

process owner

has a

responsibility to

try to improve

his process.

Process owners

have a

responsibility to

take action to

improve their

processes as

well.

S 999999

131

Number of SIPs

on Target

Service

Improvement

Plan that are on

target.

2 SIPs that have

action items due

in the past ,

The SIP is a

fundamental

part of the major

job of delivering

Service of

appropriate

quality to the

Customer.

2 9999999

Percentage of

Overall

Improvement

since last

benchmark

Improvements

measured by the

result of the

process metrics

taken as a three-

month rolling

average.

5 Relevant input

must be gathered

from all the

process. P180

Annual

benchmarks of

process metrics

can be taken so

that the process

can be measured

against these.

3 0-100

Number of

recommendations

for improvement

received from

other process

owners

Processes that

have interfaces to

process

undergoing the

SIP ought to have

recommendation

to make.

5 This is measure

of activity. Is the

SIP producing

genuine change

The SIP is not

an externally

imposed audit.

3 999999

Number of

changes

requested for

process

improvement

Changes

requested to

improve process.

5 RFCs generated

by the SIP

process

Changes to

process must be

made through

change

management.

3 999999

8.16 Risk Management

ITSM Process owner: Availability Management

Goal: Risk management in ITIL is owned by the Availability Management process-though

number of other areas use risk management as well. The metrics for this process do not include

Customer Satisfaction because this is already part of the Availability Management metrics..





132

Metrics

Title Descriptions Metric

Objective

Target

Value


Level

Possible

Values

Percentage

of CIS by

Business

Impact

Analysis

IS BIA complete? Risk

management

in ITIL is

owned by

the

Availability

Management

process-

though

number of

other areas

uses Risk

Management

as well.

75 The metrics

for this

process do

not include

customer

Satisfaction

because this

is already

part of the

Availability

Management

metrics.

All CIS

ought to

have been

included in a

BIA at some

time -and

marked to

this effect.

60 0-100

Percentage

of BIA

documents

not

reviewed

within

required

time

An annual review

of all business

impact Analysis

would be required

for most business-

more frequent if

volatile.

IT service

Continuity

Management

plans to

reduce the

business

impact of all

foreseeable

risks.

20 This is a

measure of

document

reviews to

check that

business

impact

Analysis is

reviewed

when

specified.

If business

Impact

analysis only

occurs

occasionally

or

sporadically,

it is possible

for changes

in the

environment

to occur that

can increase

previously

established

impacts of

various

scenarios.

12 0-100

Percentage

of Process

subject to

Operational

Risk

Assessment

It might be useful

to conduct the

ORA as part of the

SIP Process, IT is

important that it

has taken place at

least annually. To

measure these

risks, each incident

has to include a

section for listing

operational risk

revealed by the

incident.

12 All processes

are subject to

operational

risk, This

metric lists

those where

this risk can

be

demonstrated

by incidents

that have

occurred that

indicate that

the process is

at risk.

This helps

give a

picture of

how

incidents

map to

operational

risk and

which

process

owner to be

at grates

risk.

20 0-100

Number of

Incidents

relating to

risks not in

The operational

Risk Assessment

(ORA) must be as

accurate as

IT service

Continuity

Management

plans to

10 These will be

recognized

and reported

as such by

It is

important to

understand

how

20 999999

133

ORA possible. reduce the

business

impact of all

foreseeable

risks.

Problem

Management.

accurate the

ORA

actually is.

Percentage

of incidents

where

occurrence

is higher

than

predicted in

ORA

The ORA predicts

a probability of

High/Medium/Low

for the risk to CIS.

If this is shown to

be wrong

consistently then

the ORA must be

updated in line

with the actual

risk.

50 This metric

requires that

a quantitative

definition for

high (Say

>200 events /

months),

medium

(100-200)

and Low

(<100) is

defined.

This metric

ensures that

forecasts can

be made

more

accurate.

70 0-100

Percentage

of CIS

Where

downtime is

greater

than

predicted in

ORA

The forecast

business impact of

particular risk can

be compared to the

actual occurrence

of these risks so

that forecasts can

be improved. This

is only possible

and appropriate for

fairly common low

level risks.

Using the

linkage

mentioned

above, the

predicted

impact of an

outage to a

particular CI

on the

business can

be calculated

and

compared to

the actual

downtime

experienced

by the

business.

The

forecasting

of business

impact is

important in

deciding

what

resources

ought to be

provided to

reduce a

particular

risk.

0-100

Number of

actions to

reduce risk

The process of

documenting

actions takes in

response to

identified risks

must be under

document control

so that these

actions can

automatically be

identified.

IT service

Continuity

reduces the

impact of all

foreseeable

risks.

5 In reaction to

discrepancies

shown above,

action needs

to be taken to

reduce

particular

risks. This

measures

documented

actions,

New risks

are

identified

but actions

to minimize

the impact or

reduce them

must also be

taken.

3 999999

Number of

newly

identified

risks

New risks that are

documented under

document control.

IT Service

Continuity

minimizes

the likely

risk of all

foreseeable

risks

3 Risks change

over time,

particularly

business

risks. IT risk

assessment

must have an

up-to date

picture of

what the

New risks

are

identified

and then

their impact

to the

business is

analyses and

possible

counter -

2 999999

134

current risk is

.Regular

identification

of new risk

both internal

and external

is important.

measures

implemented

Percentage

of CIS not

covered by

Service

Continuity

Plan

All CIS should be

covered by the

Service Continuity

Plan. They might

be "no action "

Items , but this

must be explicit in

the plan. All new

services must have

appropriate entries

in the Service

Continuity Plan.

All CIs are

included in

the IT

Service

Continuity

Plan

5 A

verification

that all CIS

do not appear

in Service

Continuity

Plan - That is

they are

taken into

account,

Even if as no

action ITEM.

IF CIS do

not appear in

the service

continuity

Plan then

they cannot

be catered

for in it so

they are at a

high risk

because they

will not

recovered in

the case of

disaster.

10 0-100

Number of

Meeting

with

Suppliers,

and

internal

process

owners

Meeting with

partners may not

achieve anything,

However, if

meetings are not

taking place then

supplier, and

internal attention

to Risk

Management may

reduce.

To ensure

that services

are delivered

to the

business in

line with

agreed

service

levels-

through

internal and

external

suppliers

3 Measured by

the recording

of minutes of

meeting with

suppliers and

process

owners as

kept under

control.

Since

meeting

agendas and

minutes are

kept under

document

control, it is

possible to

ensure that

they are

taking place.

1 999999

8.17 Documentation Management

ITSM process owner: Configuration Management

Goal: Keep documentation control standards and measure compliance.





135

Metrics

Title

Description

s

Metric

Objective

Targe

t

Value

Specification Justification Warnin

g Level

Possibl

e

Values

Percentage of

Documents late

for planned

revision

Documents

those are out

of date

because

planned

revisions

have not

taken place.

To have

documents

following

the

appropriate

document

management

policy.

3 Documents

with revision

date before

today.

If documents

are not

revised when

agreed then

plans based

on these

documents

will also be

out of date

and my cause

service

outages.

5 0-100

Percentage of

documents not

access for one

year

Documents

unused for a

long period

3 This is set to

one year as

general case,

but will be

time,

according to

document

management

policy during

which

documents

ought to be

reviewed.

All

documents

ought to be

reviewed and

either

changed,

marked as

adequate or

deleted in

light of

weather they

are still

current.

5 0-100

Percentage of

documents not

reviewed by for

one year

Have

documents

had their

annual

review?

10 Documents

that are not

used.

The exact

period will

depend on the

Document

Management

Policy, But

documents

that are not

used must be

reviewed for

deletion or

relevance.

15 0-100

Number of

outstanding

requests for

documents

changes

those

documents

with

unsatisfied

change

requests

10 Document

change

requests not

honoured.

Secure

Documents or

those with

restricted

access will

have requests

for change

lodged against

them -.

15 0-100

Number of

documents not

removed after

end of life

Documents

still existing

that ought to

have been

5 Documents on

the system

after their

delete -by -

Document

Policy,

10 999999

136

deleted. date

Number of

SLAs missing

documentation

SLAs should

comply with

requirement

s as defined

in the policy

2 SLAs lacking

proper

supporting

documentation

.

The SLA

documentatio

n

requirements

must be

carefully

defined to

ensure that

adequate

information is

include

5 999999

Number of

incomplete

Service

Management

policies and

plans

Plans that

are missing

sections or

signatures.

2 These

documents

must follow

standard

templates so

that missing

sections or

signatures can

be measured.

Where plans

have a

consistent

structure (like

SLAs) This

must be

adhered to.

5 999999

Number of

incompatibilitie

s between

specific plan

and the service

management

plan

Manual

cross

checking

will be

required of

specific

plans

according to

a roster if

centralized

scheduling

cannot

achieve this

5 Plans must be

consistent and

follow policy -

this check for

inconsistencies

.

Plans must be

consistent to

be effective.

10 999999

Number of

documentation

related

incidents

This is

based on the

closing

disposition

of incident

and call

records.

To have

secure

documents

that

supports

other

processes

where

appropriate.

20 incidents that

have a closing

code that

relates them to

documentation

errors

Documentation management

must work to

ensure that

incidents are

not caused by

errors or

misleading

documentatio

n

40 999999

Customer

Satisfaction

That

Document

Managemen

t processes

are delivered

effectively,

That

Document

Managemen

t processes

are

delivered

effectively,

4 Customer

satisfaction

metric as

described in

the process

Relationship

diagram.

This is a

subjective,

but genuine,

measure of

the quality of

the output of a

process.

<3 0-5

137

8.18 Competence, Awareness and Training (CAT)

ITSM process owner: Service Level Management

Goal: Ensure that target levels of training and competence are reached and maintained in the

organization to the level required by ISO20000.

Sources: ITSMF international- Metrics for IT Service Management, Security standardization in


Audiences: Process Owner, IT Management, SLA Process Owner, Business Customer, Team


Metrics


Objective

Targe

t

Value

Specification Justification Warnin

g Level

Possibl

e

Values

Number of

late actions

from

Awareness

Campaign

Outstanding

actions

To have

suitably

qualified

staff in all

positions.

5 Actions dated

and not

completed

before the

measure of

this metric.

This checks

that the

awareness

campaign is

taking is taking

place

according to

plan.

10 999999

Number of

Job

descriptions

missing

specific

competence

requirement

Job

descriptions

held in HR or

on the CMDB

attached to

organizational

positions can

be linked to

skills

framework for

the

information

Age.

2 Required

competences

might be

derived from

The SFIA.

ISO20000

requires the

demonstration

of staff

competencies

for particular

positions.

5 999999

Percentage

of IT staff

with

professional

industry

recognition

This

information

can be found

in an

appropriate

skills matrix

that includes

training and

experience.

To have

suitably

qualified

staff

10 This is a

Project

Management,

Service

Management,

Computer

Science or

other

recognized

body -a

Member of

BCS, fellow

of the ISM or

Senior staff

experience can

be shown by

such

membership of

recognized

bodies.

5 0-100

138

similar.

Mean

Percentage

of shortfall

from

optimal level

of training

This

information is

to be supplied

by a skills

matrix.

5 For each

member of IT

, that ought to

have

completed N

training

courses, but

has in fact ,

completed M

training

courses , This

is N-M/N*100

with this

metric being

the mean.

This gives a

rough measure

of shortfall.

Suitable

training plans

can improve

this over time

as long as

attrition is not

too high.

10 0-100

Percentage

of staff with

a signed

Personal

Developmen

t Plan

Development

plans properly

approved

95 All Staff

should have

an Up-to-date

signed

personal

development

plan - these

should be kept

in the CMDB

so as to

measure this

metric.

Development

plans ensure

that staff keeps

abreast of latest

developments;

they keep

competence

levels high and

reduced

attrition.

90 999999

Percentage

of staff who

no defined

role or

responsibilit

y

Staffs who are

not linked to

defined roles

and

responsibilities

.

2 Roles and

responsibilitie

s defined at

the

organizational

level link to

staff that hold

them.

When people

join or change

function,

defining a

formal role,

with formal

responsibilities

according to

those defined

can seem like

minor

administrative

details.

3 999999

Percentage

of IT staff

not at

optimal

training

level for

their

position

If training

levels,

Training plans

and training

histories are

kept in the

CMDB then

this can be

determined

from those.

To have

suitably

trained staff

for all

positions.

95 To measure

this , the

optimal

training level

must be

defined for all

IT positions

and a training

plan for each

individual

kept that can

measure

whether the

training is

optimal or not

ISO2000

requires

suitably

qualified staff.

85 0-100

139

Percentage

of staff not

meeting

minimum

competence

Information

from skills

matrix

To have

suitably

trained staff

10 This related to

the level of

training, but

can be

improved by

recruiting

appropriately

qualified staff.

People not

trained for their

jobs are a risk

to the business.

5 0-100

Percentage

of Staff with

overdue

actions

against their

development

plan

Outstanding

actions against

development

plans

To ensure

suitably

trained staff

10 These actions

to be kept in

the CMDB so

that they can

be measured

for this

metric.

This ensures

that actions

agreed in

development

plans actually

materialize

which

improves staff

morale.

15 999999

Percentage

of awareness

in

organization

Awareness as

shown by polls

and Service

Desk scripts

To Maintain

high levels of

awareness of

IT projects

and

achievements

.

80 This is

measured by

regular

sample polls

and by

questions to

callers to the

Service Desk.

IT must

communicate

effectively

with the

organization;

this establishes

the

effectiveness

of the

communication

.

70 0-100

Percentage

of IT staff

turnover

How many

staff leave or

are hired in a

year.

To ensure

that adequate

levels of staff

competence

are kept

5 Measured by

personnel or

NT login

turnover.

High levels of

staff turn-over

tend to mean

poor morale

and poor levels

of retaining

competent

staff.

10 999999

Number of

outstanding

job

requisitions

Measured by

HR job

requisitions for

IT staff

To have

adequate

resourcing

level.

4 New staffs.

No matter

how well

qualified, is

not familiar

with the

organization.

If these remain

high it shows

either high

turnover or low

recruitment.

7 999999

140

8.19 Metrics for Program and Project Management

ITSM Process owner: Project Office

Goal: Deliver projects and run Programs to the required standards, by use of Prince2 or similar

project method standard.

Sources: ITSMF international- Metrics for IT Service Management, Security standardization in




Metrics


Objective

Target

Value


Level

Possible

Values

Number of

milestones

missed

Milestones are

measured in the

documentation

store-CMDB.

To follow

appropriate

project and

program

standards of

delivery.

2 Account of

milestones

missed this

month.

This checks

that detail of

project

management

policy is

being

adhered to.

1 999999

Total

project

delay this

month

This measured

from project

documents found

in the

CMDB/Document

store.

2 A count of

the number

of days the

project has

slipped-

measured by

the days that

milestone

have slipped

this month.

Project

information

must be

available to

understand

future change

and

availability

5 999999

Number of

new project

issues

Project issue list 2 This is the

number of

new issues

raised in the

project this

month.

All projects

have issue

lists- they do

need to be

managed and

to be

manageable.

5 999999

Number of

project

issues

resolved

this month

Issues resolved in

the last period

5 This is the

decrease in

the size of

the issue list.

This shows

positive

resolution of

issues and is

a sign of a

well-

managed

project if

high.

2 999999

Number of

risks

identified

If this is growing

fast it is an early

warning of project

6 The risk list

for this

month

The earlier

the warning

of problems

10 999999

141

difficulties ahead the easier it is

to resolve

them in good

time,

Critical

path delay

A measure of

genuine delay to

projects.

2 The

cumulative

delay of any

sub-projects

on the

identified

critical path

in days.

Requires that

the critical

path is

properly

identified and

documented

and that

delays on it

can be

objectively

measured.

4 999999

Escalation How difficult is

the current

environment.

1 The number

of

issues/Risks

that have

been

escalated by

the Project

Manager

To get an

idea of the

risks faced by

current

projects

5 999999

Number of

project

meeting

slipped

Measured from

the document

store

2 The number

of project

meeting that

have slipped

by more than

1 day this

month,

This is

usually a

minor issue,

but repeated

slippage is a

sign that a

project is

under-

resourced or

under too

much

pressure.

4 999999

Estimated

percentage

of certainty

of meeting

project end-

date on

budget

Documented

forecasts from the

document store

80 How Certain

the project

manager is

that the

project will

end on time

and on

budget?

These

forecasts are

important to

check the

quality of

project

delivery as

well as for

Capacity

Management

Planning.

70 0-100

Number of

Outstanding

action from

steering

meetings

Actions agreed to

at steering

meeting that are

not complete after

their agreed

completion

5 Actions with

a completion

date in the

past and a

status other

than "closed"

If projects are

running into

trouble or out

of resources,

One of the

first signs is

that actions

are agreed to,

but then not

completed on

10 999999

142

time. This

metric

enables the

warning sign

to be picked

up early.

Customer

Satisfaction

This is measure at

project review

time; though

comments related

to projects

received by the

Service Desk

ought to be

included in the

measure.

That Service

Management

processes

are delivered

effectively.

4 Customer

Satisfaction

with all

projects and

programs

delivered.

Projects must

be delivered

so as to

satisfy the

users and

customers

< 3 0-5

8.20 Example of other Metrics

TITLE Description ITSM Process Sources

Number of support incidents per day Number of support

incidents per day

SCA

Number of support incidents per

month

The number of support

cases divided critical,

important and desirable

cases per month

SCA

The number of hours of support for

non-business hours

The number of hours of

support for non-business

hours

SCA

Total number of support hours per

month divided support incident,

problem management, broker admin,

TIR Support

Total number of support

hours per month divided

support incident,

problem Management,

broker admin,

SCA

Time per support case How long an issue takes

to handle the request to

the production launch

SCA

Incident management in hours per

month

Incident management in

hours per month

SCA

Number of incidents on average per

day and terminal

Number of incidents on

average per day and

terminal

SCA

Number of incidents on average per

day per category

Number of incidents on

average per day per

category

SCA

143

Number of cases managed during

office hours per month

Number of cases

managed during office

hours per month.

Priority 1 support errand

During office hours 8-17

SCA

Skills Widening of hours per month. How many hours that

the department spent on

widening (Broadening)

skills. Measured by

competence mapping

SCA

Estimated time in relation to the time

spent

Estimated time in

relation to the time spent

(Used time: support,

competence, service

management,

maintenance.

SCA

Number of faulty production settings Number of faulty

production settings /

quality releases

SCA

Number of planned deliveries

compared with the actual delivered

Number of planned

deliveries compared

with the actual delivered

User Satisfaction The questionnaire was

designed to measure user

satisfaction of SCA's

internal and external

users. Used by SOGETI

to show SCA

Transforms how well

they realize their

mandates. It is

conducted once a year

and the result is used as

the basis for economic

regulation of the

activities SOGETI

implements and

considered as proof that

they meet the service

commitments that they

agreed

SOGETI

Competency Profile Measured using

mapping skills (skills

matrix)

Expertise and

Resources

SOGETI

Competence distribution in mission The aim is to achieve a

healthy turnover of staff

that ensures a long-term

succession planning.

Each mission will have a

well-balanced mix of

experts, self-propelled

consultants and

consultants under

development

Expertise and

Resources

SOGETI

144

Productivity Can include measured

using the concept of

APM, Application

Portfolio Management.

Delivery Capacity SOGETI

Delivery times Can assume planned and

promised delivery date

of release


Time required per unit of production Time spent related to the

unit in the Purchaser's

operations, such as

Invoice, Transported

volume etc.


Delivery performance, outcomes in

relation to financial

Time spent compared to

calculus.


Number of recurring errors Measured by means of

registration of case type

and support monitoring.

SOGETI

Incorrect deliveries programs For example, the number

of bugs in supply

relative to volume in

hours

SOGETI

Diagnoses SOGETI has the tools to

measure how the

processes, procedures

and methods applied in

undertaking works. One

such example is TPI,

Test Process

Improvement with

which to identify and

streamline testing

processes.

SOGETI

Number of cases Support Monitoring and

case registration

Support and case

management

SOGETI

Time spent per case Subject and time

registration.

Support and case

management

SOGETI

Distribution of time between services /

information

i.e. the Support, Service

Management,

Maintenance and further

development.

Other SOGETI

Surveys Customer survey, user

survey, staff survey, etc.

Other SOGETI

Proactivity Measurement of

proactive suggestions.

Other SOGETI

Number of lines of code Can be measured with

APM tool and resource

Miner

Technology SOGETI

Number of functions Can be measured with


Miner

Technology SOGETI

Number of programs Can be measured with


Miner

Technology SOGETI

145

University of Borås is a modern university in the city center. We give courses in business administration and

informatics, library and information science, fashion and textiles, behavioral sciences and teacher education,

engineering and health sciences.

In the School of Business and IT (HIT), we have focused on the students' future needs. Therefore we have created

programs in which employability is a key word. Subject integration and contextualization are other important

concepts. The department has closeness, both between students and teachers as well as between industry and

education.

Our courses in business administration give students the opportunity to learn more about different businesses and

governments and how governance and organization of these activities take place. They may also learn about society

development and organizations' adaptation to the outside world. They have the opportunity to improve their ability

to analyze, develop and control activities, whether they want to engage in auditing, management or marketing.

Among our IT courses, there's always something for those who want to design the future of IT-based

communications, analyze the needs and demands on organizations' information to design their content structures,

integrating IT and business development, developing their ability to analyze and design business processes or focus

on programming and development of good use of IT in enterprises and organizations.

The research in the school is well recognized and oriented towards professionalism as well as design and

development. The overall research profile is Business-IT-Services which combine knowledge and skills in

informatics as well as in business administration. The research is profession-oriented, which is reflected in the

research, in many cases conducted on action research-based grounds, with businesses and government organizations

at local, national and international arenas. The research design and professional orientation is manifested also in

Innovation Lab, which is the department's and university's unit for research-supporting system development.

VISITING ADDRESS: JÄRNVÄGSGATAN 5 · POSTAL ADDRESS: ALLÉGATAN 1, SE-501 90 BORÅS

PHONE: + 46 33 435 40 00 · E-MAIL: [email protected] · WEB: WWW.HB.SE/HIT