MOPS

Metrics.

Many IT Production Organisations today are investing in a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) that may be used to maintain some of this information.

However, we would hold the view that any CMDB (or sub-set) needs to be deployed in a pragmatic way, and focusing on the end-results above.

In addition, experience suggests that other statistics that are often not stored in a CMDB are also important to IT Production Managers.

Metrics collection is an essential element of IT Production Management for a number of reasons.

Collection of suitable management metrics enables managers to:

• Identify where IT Support team effort is being expended, and hence re-direct/re-prioritise accordingly
• Identify applications or services which are consuming disproportional support effort, and therefore need addressing
• Plan expected resource demand based on historical data
• Justify the IT Production effort by means of quantitative reports which demonstrate the service being delivered

Identify Key Information to be captured and maintained in order to make informed Management decisions and justify IT Investment.