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8.7.1 IT Availability reporting
8.7.2 IT Availability measures - the
traditional view
8.7.3 The disadvantages of traditional
IT Availability measures
8.7.4 Measuring User Availability
8.7.5 Business driven measurement
and reporting
8.7.6 What to measure
8.7.7 IT Availability Metrics Model
A key output from the Availability Management Process is the measurement and reporting of IT Availability. This provides the basis for:
Availability measures should be incorporated into SLAs, OLAs and any Underpinning contracts. These should be reviewed regularly at Service Level review meetings.
| Famous sayings and truths about measurements: 'If you don't measure it, you can't manage it' 'If you don't measure it, you can't improve it' 'If you don't measure it, you probably don't care' 'If you can't influence it, then don't measure it' |
'What to measure and how to report it' inevitably depends on which activity is being supported, who the recipients are and how the information is to be utilised. It is important to recognise the differing perspectives of Availability to ensure measurement and reporting satisfies these varied needs:
In order to satisfy the differing perspectives of Availability, Availability Management needs to consider the spectrum of measures needed to report the 'same' level of Availability in different ways. Measurements need to be meaningful and add value if Availability measurement and reporting are ultimately to deliver benefit to the IT and business organisations. This is influenced strongly by the combination of 'what you measure' and 'how you report it'.
The IT support organisation have for many years measured and reported on their perspective of Availability. Traditionally these measures have concentrated on component Availability and have been somewhat divorced from the business and User views.
Typically these traditional measures are based on a combination of an Availability percentage (%), time lost and the frequency of failure. Some examples of these traditional measures are as follows:
The business may have, for many years, accepted as a fait accompli that the IT Availability that they experience is represented in this way. However, this is no longer being viewed as acceptable and the business is keen to better represent Availability in measure(s) that demonstrate the positive and negative consequences of IT Availability on their business and Users.
The continued advances in IT technology design and Service Management focus are resulting in Availability improvements. These improvements are clearly evidenced by the traditional IT Availability measurements.
A positive consequence of technology advancement and IT Availability improvements is the creation of new business opportunity i.e. to offer new and enhanced Services, to gain more Customers and to increase Customer value. However, with this business benefit comes an increased business Dependency on IT Availability and a greater business impact when IT failure occurs.
Figure 8.10 illustrates an interesting paradox. The traditional IT Availability measures show a trend of continuous improvement with non-Availability declining. Whereas the business oriented measures used by the business show the impact from non-Availability increasing!
Figure 8.10 - The disadvantages of traditional IT Availability measurements
The traditional IT approach to measurement and reporting provides an indicator on IT Availability and component reliability which is important for the internal IT support organisation. However, to the business and User these measures fail to reflect Availability from their perspective and are rarely understood. This often fuels mistrust between the business and IT where despite periods of instability the '%' target has been met even though significant business disruption has occurred and Customer complaints have been received.
Furthermore, this method of measurement and reporting can often hide the benefits delivered to the business from IT improvements. The traditional IT Availability measures can simply mask real IT 'added value' to the business operation.
While the traditional IT Availability measurement and reporting methods can be considered appropriate for internal IT reporting, the disadvantages of this approach are that they:
Availability, when measured and reported to reflect the experience of the User, provides a more representative view on overall IT Service quality.
The User view of Availability is influenced by three factors: -
Measurements and reporting of User Availability should therefore embrace these factors.
The methodology employed to reflect User Availability could consider two approaches:
The method employed should be influenced by the nature of the business operation. A business operation supporting data entry activity is well suited to reporting that reflects User productivity loss. Business operations that are more Customer facing, e.g. ATM services, benefit from reporting transaction impact.
The IT support organisation needs to have a keen awareness of the User experience of Availability. However, the real benefits come from aggregating the User view into the overall business view.
A guiding principle of the Availability Management process is that 'Improving Availability can only begin when the way technology supports the business is understood'. Therefore Availability Management is not just about understanding the Availability of each IT component.
From the business perspective, an IT Service can only be considered available when the business is able to perform all vital business functions required to drive the business operation. For the IT Service to be available it is therefore reliant on all components on which the service depends to be available, i.e. System, key components, network, data and application.
The traditional IT approach would be to measure individually the Availability of each of these components. However, the true measure of Availability has to be based upon the positive and negative impacts on the vital business functions upon which the business operation is dependent.
This approach ensures that SLAs and IT Availability reporting are based on measures that are understood by both the business and IT. By measuring the vital business functions that rely upon IT, measurement and reporting becomes business driven with the impact of failure reflecting the consequences to the business.
| Industry view 'Effective management requires the ability to view Availability from the perspective of the business application' Source: - International Data Corporation |
This clearly needs to be undertaken and agreed with the business. A simple way to establish this is to simply ask the business 'what is the major consequence on your business or Customers if there is an IT failure?'
While for most IT Services the major consequence will be understood and obvious, it is still worth probing the business on their initial response to ensure that jointly the true consequence is established.
| Example ATM service Q: - what is the major consequence on your business or Customers if there is an IT failure? Is it: A1: The consequence of IT failure impacting an ATM service is that our ATM machines are unavailable. A2: The consequence of IT failure impacting an ATM service is that our Customers cannot obtain cash from our ATM machines. While both are correct, the vital business function for an ATM service is the ability to dispense cash not provide an ATM. The more meaningful and powerful Metric to measure therefore is the obtaining of cash. |
The benefits of basing Availability measurement and reporting upon the vital business functions can be summarised as follows:
Some of the possible problems with trying to develop this approach are:
See Section 8.9 for some example approaches that can be undertaken to develop business and User driven measurement.
To satisfy the differing reporting needs of the business and IT support organisation it is necessary to provide a spectrum of measures that reflect the differing perspectives of IT Service and component Availability.
The following are examples of the different elements of an IT Service that should be measured and reported:
To provide measurement and reporting that demonstrate the consequences (contribution and impact) of IT Availability on the business function(s) key to the business operation, e.g. for a Tele-sales business a vital business function would be Customer order fulfilment.
To provide measurement and reporting of the application services required to run the business operation and service User input.
To provide the measurement and reporting of data Availability that is essential to support the business operation. For example, many business operations are dependent on all data being updated by overnight batch processing to provide a new 'start of day' position.
To provide measurement and reporting that reflects Availability, Reliability and Maintainability of IT Infrastructure components supplied and maintained by the IT Support Organisation.
To provide measurement and reporting of the IT platform that ultimately supports the processing of the business application(s).
To provide a balanced and meaningful view of the Availability of an IT Service or component, reporting should consider the following dimensions:
To provide measurement and reporting that reflects Availability against defined and agreed targets.
To provide measurement and reporting that reflects the frequency of failures.
To provide measurement and reporting that reflects the duration of failures.
To provide measurement and reporting that reflects the performance as experienced by the User. Capacity Management may supply (reports).
The IT Availability Metrics Model (ITAMM) in Figure 8.11 is recommended as an aid to considering the range of measures and reporting dimensions that should be borne in mind when establishing Availability measurement and reporting.
Figure 8.11 - The IT Availability Metrics Model
Consider where the Availability measurement and reporting produced to support the Availability Management process can be used as input to other IT Service Management processes. Some examples are as follows:
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