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October 26, 1998

What To Look For In Metrics

By Noah Shachtman

etrics vary enormously from project to project, but there are rules of thumb that are fairly universal. One common denominator for gauging any IT outsourcing agreement is whether the service provider is on schedule and on budget. Here are some other metrics, by outsourced project, to keep in mind.

Mainframe: The best-tested, most straightforward measurements are used here. These include availability and response times--especially during crucial periods--of the system in general, and with regard to specific, business-critical applications. Completion rate, or turnaround time, for key batch jobs such as payroll processing is also important.

Network and telecommunications: Similar to mainframe assessments, metrics include network availability and response time, particularly during important periods. Also key is mean time to repair.

Help desk: Here, "softer" measurements, such as customer satisfaction, come into play. Commonly used standards include average time to answer the phone; average time end users are on hold; percentage of questions answered completely on the first call; use of help-desk calls to analyze root causes of problems; and satisfaction ratings gathered from end-user surveys.

Desktop: Often-employed metrics include total cost of ownership, LAN availability, and the amount of time between ordering a PC and having it up and running on an employee's desk.

Application development and support: This is the most difficult area to gauge, according to many experts. Businesses use a variety of standards, including the on-time completion rate of function points (places in a program where users can input or extract information); implementation of Carnegie Mellon University's Capability Maturity Model levels; and rate of defects in an application.

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