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IT organizations typically measure, monitor, and act upon data provided by a broad range of performance management tools and techniques; these effectively monitor and control what we shall refer to as technical performance (e.g., through "configuration management" and "fault management").

When asked about the performance management systems and processes, CIOs and IT managers will typically speak at length in terms, such as:

• the polling function of the topology map provides a snapshot of overall network vitality, and it can issue alerts when nodes become unavailable or are slow to respond. When a node is failing, it automatically alerts network management. To get more information on a node, we drill down for critical station statistics, and
   
• the protocol distribution function tracks total packets, octets, percent utilization, packet rate, and average packet size.

Management of technical performance is an important part of an IT organization’s job; there is no doubt about that. But, the IT organization’s management responsibility doesn’t stop there; IT managers are responsible for assuring that they are meeting their organization’s highest priorities and business needs to the extent possible with the available resources.

This performance information that most IT organizations lack relates to the non-technical aspects of the job; the information that can tell IT and senior management whether:

1. IT projects / activities are progressing as planned
2. there are telltale signs of future performance problems
3. there are troubled projects / activities that require higher management’s intervention, or
4. actions already taken to correct problems actually worked.

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Introduction To IT Performance Management And Measurement, Lesson 3 of 13

 

 

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