Conversations from the Mirror42 Team

SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound

The key ingredients for ‘good’ definitions of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and its goals. I would add Relative to these ingredients to ensure that your KPI definitions (and goals) still apply when your business or volume grows. For example, you could take the number of open service calls (per period) as a KPI, but when the volume of service calls grows it is only natural that the number of open service calls grows. Therefore, the relative value against the number of reported service calls (e.g. % of open service calls) allows comparision of KPI values through time, even if the volume changes.

Therfore, SMARTeR.

Three (relatively simple) KPIs to measure the quality of the call-answer process:

• ABA (Abandon Rate): Percentage of calls abandoned while waiting to be answered
  
• ASA (Average Speed to Answer): Average time (usually in seconds) it takes for a call to be answered by the service desk
  
• TSF (Time Service Factor): Percentage of calls answered within a definite timeframe, e.g. 80% in 20 seconds

For more KPIs visit the Mirror42 KPI Libraries.

Meet Mirror42 and our partner Westbury at the HP Software Universe 2007 Asia Pacific in Brisbane, Australia, from March 5-9.

Why the need for integrated IT management dashboards? Take as an example the application life cycle and its management. Software applications are normally introduced in organizations by a business case. After approval of the business case, a project is started, either to make or buy, and to design and purchase infrastructure. If a make-decision has been approved, a development project is started. A developed application is tested, for bugs and performance. And after delivery it is handed over to the IT operations organization to run it as a service to the business. After a while, business will have new requirements (demand) for the application and meanwhile changes to the infrastructure must be made to ensure quality of service. New requirements are implemented and a new version of the software is release and deployed. Etc.

Where is all the management information on this application life cycle residing? Indeed, in a range of IT management applications, such as a project portfolio management tool (e.g. HP/Mercury PPM - formerly Kintana, or CA Clarity - formerly Niku), an IT service management tool (e.g. BMC Remedy, HP ServiceCenter/ServiceDesk, or CA Servicedesk), an application test tool and a whole range of operational management tools for applications and infrastructure.

If, management is now interested in a single consolidated view of the application life cycle, it will need to consolidate reports from all the underlying sources. In pratice this is time consuming, error prone, and in most cases the lag in information delivery may hurt the management decision process. Therefore, amongst others, the need for integrated IT management dashboards.