IT Service Delivery: The Challenge of Meaningful Metrics

IT Service Delivery: The Challenge of
                   Meaningful Metrics




  Dr. Serguei Dobrinevski
  serguei.dobrinevski@hypersoft.com



                               © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Introduction
Hypersoft Information Systems
        • More than 200 enterprise customers for business service
          metrics
        • More than 2 million users in organisations measured by our
          software
        • Offices in Germany, France, USA and Belarus
        • Specializes in data collection and analysis of major IT
          services
        • Cooperation with final customers and service providers


 Dr. Serguei Dobrinevski
        • Degree in physics
        • Founded Hypersoft in 1993
        • Developed and formalised strategic concepts for Hypersoft
          products

                                                 © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Agenda

  Business Service Delivery Metrics


     Aligning IT and Business

     Top-down and Bottom-up approaches to service metrics

     How are they relevant to business objectives and values

     What KPIs to choose and monitor

     How to tell the difference between high and low quality metrics




                                                   © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Using Metrics to Align IT and Business

     •   Expressing IT process logic in meaningful metrics
     •   Compliance with best practices, legislation and standards
     •   Maintaining clear business focuses of service delivery




   Top-down approach – business           Bottom-up – raw metrics
   value of the service defines metrics   define the limits of the
   to collect                             possible




                                                     © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Metrics Collection Pitfalls and Challenges


          Distributed nature of the infrastructure
          Large and complex environments (two types of scalability)
          Security and policy boundaries
          Need to avoid approximation (no quality metrics without
           quality raw data)
          Automated data gathering and operational status
          Data consolidation: scalability versus quality




                                                  © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
From Top to Bottom

                     What services are we offering?

                     How to find out service performance?

                     What are its reasonable KPIs without knowing
                     the technology behind the service?

                     Is it possible to measure them at all and how do
                      we measure them?

                     Does the service correlate with the existing
                     infrastructure?



                                              © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Service Definition – Contract Creation
                               • Defining KPIs

                               • Assigning the responsibilities

                               • Agreeing upon service
                                 performance levels




                                         © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Contract Maintenance

                       • Proactive KPI monitoring

                       • Informing the client of
                         contract performance

                       • Reacting to deviations
                         from service levels

                       • Adjusting to contract
                         conditions




                         © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Client-Provider Interaction
                                   Leveling client-
                                   provider relationship
                                   with SLA monitoring

                                   Integrating service
                                   provision and incident
                                   resolution




         End-user probing
         simulation for quality
         assessments
                                  © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Integrating IT Assets With Service Delivery
                                             Ensure adequate
                                             assets inventory
                                             for service portfolio




Maintain up-to-date
equipment, systems,
and processes status

                                        © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Ascending From the Bottom


                • Collecting and monitoring raw metrics
                • Transforming them into meaningful statistics
                • Identifying high-level metrics
                • Do they indicate an important service activity?
                • Producing the KPIs
                • In the end, do we still remember what this
                  service was about?




                                         © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
What Metrics are Business Relevant?

                                                    Processes and
                                                    resource usage
                                                    estimation




Good for technology
purposes but
irrelevant for business


                                      © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Infrastructure Analysis
                          Measuring events,
                          connections, and their
                          dependencies: takes us one
                          step further but still not to
                          the business level




                                  © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Optimization and Consolidation

                                 Infrastructure storage and capacity
                                 assessments and planning




  Helps optimise the costs but
  still deals just with the
  „necessary evil“                         © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Alerting and Monitoring

                               Threshold alerting on
                               service KPIs




        Limited to the
        firefighting mode of
        operation
                                © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
So How do We Get to the True Business Metrics?

  Top-down:                               Bottom-up:

 KPIs are understood by provider         Technically driven
and client, both internal and external
                                          Focused on resources allocation
 Clear assignment of service              and optimization
 delivery metrics to business values
                                          Requiring technical competence
 Standardized service portfolio           from business users

 True end-to-end monitoring              Adapting service definitions to
                                           execution capabilities




                                                   © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Transaction Integration as a Key to Business Metrics




       Starting with a transaction definition at the business level and
       detailing the transaction to its elements on multiple systems and
       platforms.
                                               © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Deciding on KPIs for Optimal Service Delivery

      • Start with service definitions and keep them technology
        agnostic
      • Develop metrics that can be explained to business users,
        and do that prior to looking at the delivering applications
      • Proactive service means analysing the reasons for the
        failures. Reactive service remains reactive even if the
        reaction is quick.
      • High level of accuracy is actually possible, as opposite to
      wide-spread disbelief.



                                               © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Conclusion


     • Metrics are the face of IT (and IT-supported) services
     turned towards the customer
     • Quality end-to-end metrics require transaction integration
       across platforms and systems
     • Service delivery goals do not depend on technology. They
      are technology agnostic




                                              © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007
Contact Information




       • www.hypersoft.com
       • serguei.dobrinevski@hypersoft.com




                                             © Hypersoft Informationssysteme GmbH, 2007