ITIL for Experts: Problem Management KPIs
Measuring the effectiveness of the problem management process can be a challenging task at times. Often there is not enough data available. The other Service Management processes may not be mature enough to contribute to the Problem Management process. Also, the expectations of top management can push people to the limits of their analytical skills. To get off to a good start, the focus should be on analyzing the data readily available in the ITSM tool used in the organization. The tool must be able to record:
- dates of registration, update and closure of issues,
- problem status,
- relationship between problems and incidents.
Based on the above, the following basic set of problem management performance indicators could be prepared:
- number of problems registered,
- number of problems solved,
- number and percentage of problems with identified root cause,
- number and percentage of problems with a workaround available,
- average age of a problem, by business impact,
- percentage of problem-related incidents compared to all incidents in a particular time period,
- Open issue update frequency.
Update frequency is an interesting KPI, especially in the early stages of problem management implementation. It shows the regularity of the work done by the problem analysts. For the process to be effective, the work on it must not be set aside forever. It tends to happen if people are doing other, more urgent activities in parallel. Many companies cannot afford to have dedicated problem analysts and/or problem managers. Since Problem Management focuses more on the quality of the analysis rather than the timing of its completion, you may have problems with people focusing on the work if there is no KPI to monitor it.
The percentage of problems with identified root causes shows management how effective the root cause analysis of the problem is. If you delay, unresolved issues will continue to pile up, slowly but surely overwhelming the organization. The percentage of issues with a workaround shows the effectiveness of reducing the business impact of issues. Implementing permanent solutions can consume time and resources, while workarounds are quick and dirty ways to keep your business running.
The above KPIs should be collectively analyzed to determine the quality of your problem management activities. There is reason to be concerned if few problems are opened, as the police should be concerned if they detect few crimes. The problems are there, the question is whether they are being detected or not. If any other KPI starts to drift significantly towards its highs or lows, it should prompt management to act. Often if that happens, you can get an idea of what’s going on by looking at the other KPIs.