The Executive’s Guide to Information Technology, Second Edition

Chapter 18. IT Performance Measurement

	If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
	--Tom Peters[1]

This chapter outlines a method of measuring overall IT performance. It distills the most practical measures of performance and discusses approaches for implementing an IT performance measurement program in the organization. The chapter covers the following key topics:

• The value of performance measurement.

• Developing and managing an IT measurement program.

  • Defining the IT dashboard.

  • Conducting a baseline survey.

  • Developing management, analysis, and reporting processes.

  • Managing the measurement program.

  • Reassessing the program.

• IT metrics.

• Commissioning and managing a corporate IT health check.

This chapter presents a pragmatic viewpoint to implementing an IT performance-reporting program.

Why This Topic Is Important

Today’s CIO is confronted with an unending growth of new responsibilities. This book discusses many of them: strategic planning, infrastructure planning, operations management, personnel, and many others. In addition, managers are regularly confronted with urgent and critical situations that must receive focused attention immediately. Unfortunately, at the bottom of the priority list is a performance management program. As the daily urgent matters monopolize the available time, the need to perform is much greater than the need to track performance; thus, this tracking gets perpetually delayed. Implementing performance management and process control can increase the performance and ...