IT Performance Monitoring and Reporting

One of the important elements of IT governance is the monitoring of IT performance. The knowledge that IT operations are moving in the desired direction provides management with a level of comfort. It is extremely important to develop metrics for monitoring performance. The following sections explain these metrics.

Development of Performance Metrics

Developing performance metrics usually involves three steps:

Figure 4.3: Steps for developing performance metrics

1. Identify the critical processes: The first step is to identify the critical processes that need to be monitored.
2. Identify the expected output: The second step is to define the expected output or target for each process that needs to be monitored.
3. Compare the actual output with the target: On a periodic basis, compare the actual output with the target. If the target is not achieved, conduct a root cause analysis to determine areas of improvement...