Performance measurement of IT service management: a case study of an Australian university

IT departments are adopting service orientation by implementing IT service management (ITSM) frameworks. Most organisations are hesitant to discuss their ITSM performance measurement practices, tending to focus more on challenges. However there are good practices that are found amidst the challenges. We present a case study that provides an account of the performance measurement practices in the ICT Division of an Australian university. This case study was conducted with the aim of understanding the internal and external factors that influence the selection of ITSM performance metrics. It also explores how and why metrics and frameworks are used to measure the performance of ITSM in organisations. Interviews were conducted to identify the specific ITSM performance metrics used and how they were derived. It was found that a number of factors internal and external to the organisation influenced the selection of the performance metrics. The internal factors include meeting the need for improved governance, alignment of IT strategy with organisation strategy, having a mechanism to provide feedback to IT customers (university staff and students). External factors include benchmarking against others in the same industry and the choice of metrics offered by ITSM software tool adopted

IT service management: towards a contingency theory of performance measurement

Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) focuses on IT service creation, design, delivery and maintenance. Measurement is one of the basic underlying elements of service science and this paper contributes to service science by focussing on the selection of performance metrics for ITSM. Contingency theory is used to provide a theoretical foundation for the study. Content analysis of interviews of ITSM managers at six organisations revealed that selection of metrics is influenced by a discrete set of factors. Three categories of factors were identified: external environment, parent organisationand IS organisation. For individual cases, selection of metrics was contingent on factors such as organisation culture, management philosophy and perspectives, legislation, industry sector, and customers, although a common set of four factors influenced selection of metrics across all organisations. A strong link was identified between the use of a corporate performance framework and clearly articulated ITSM metrics

Performance Measurement Of IT Service Management: A Case Study Of An Australian University (Research In Progress)

IT departments are adopting service orientation by implementing IT service management (ITSM) frameworks. Most organisations are hesitant to discuss their ITSM performance measurement practices, tending to focus more on challenges. However there are good practices that are found amidst the challenges. We present a case study that provides an account of the performance measurement practices in the ICT Division of an Australian university. This case study was conducted with the aim of understanding the internal and external factors that influence the selection of ITSM performance metrics. It also explores how and why metrics and frameworks are used to measure the performance of ITSM in organisations. Interviews were conducted to identify the specific ITSM performance metrics used and how they were derived. It was found that a number of factors internal and external to the organisation influenced the selection of the performance metrics. The internal factors include meeting the need for improved governance, alignment of IT strategy with organisation strategy, having a mechanism to provide feedback to IT customers (university staff and students). External factors include benchmarking against others in the same industry and the choice of metrics offered by ITSM software tool adopted

Pleasant encounters of the VM kind: leveraging on NeCTAR VMs to achieve research outcomes

This paper presents the journey taken by researchers at Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation (QCIF) member universities in achieving research outcomes using QCIF eResearch services. Researchers at University of Southern Queensland (USQ) who need to host web services on tight research budgets encounter the challenge of competing priorities on scarce ICT resources. The process of either setting up a physical server or accessing locally hosted Virtual Machines (VM)s can be time consuming and expensive. This paper provides a study of the journeys of two researchers working on different projects requiring web hosting, detailing their experiences and how use of National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR) VMs is enhancing their research outcomes. Through USQ's QCIF membership, the researchers were able to access NeCTAR VMs and eResearch service support that reduced the time, effort and cost of webhosting services for their research. The key value of the QCIF eResearch service delivered to the researchers was the integrated service model that was responsive to each researcher's unique requirements. The researchers were able to get questions answered and issues resolved in a timely way that allowed for a quick turnaround of their web server implementation. The collaborative approach to providing eResearch services offered by QCIF meant that the researchers in each of QCIF's member universities can draw on the resources, skills and expertise from a larger pool, thus enabling responsiveness, scalability and the agility required to respond to each researchers unique requirements. The eResearch analysts work in a close network and provide mutual support and collaboration in facilitating researcher outcomes

IT Service Management: A Cross-national Study of ITIL Adoption

IT Service Management (ITSM) is transforming the management of the IT function on a global scale with major changes in work practices. The intent of this study is to empirically explore how IT service management is adopted in today’s global economy. The article examines the adoption of ITSM processes as defined in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®). The adoption of operational processes is compared to that of tactical/strategic level processes and the contribution of country, size, and industry sector to variation in adoption of ITIL processes is assessed. Institutional theory is used as a foundation for the study. The analysis is based on 623 responses to three surveys conducted in the UK, USA, DACH (German-speaking countries) and Australia. The study found organisations adopting ITIL implemented more operational level processes than the tactical/strategic level processes. DACH countries exhibit higher ITIL process adoption than the UK, USA, and Australia. Adoption varied on industry sector, and, in part, on organisation size. Based on a discussion of theory and practice, the article derives insights for academics and industry when introducing ITSM in the IT function

You don't know what you don't know: ethics and participant consent issues for eResearch users

This paper shares the experiences of researchers and research support teams to enable eResearch that is ethically sound, particularly with regard to the consent of research participants. A key goal of eResearch is to use compute and data intensive infrastructure and collaborative approaches supported by advanced ICTs (HPC, Cloud Storage, Collaborative tools and High Speed networks) to enable data sharing and re-use. This paper shares the practical challenges and solutions from the perspectives of researchers and research support teams at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and poses questions and suggestions on ethics dilemmas such as ensuring that research participants have consented to share the data collected on them with other researchers. A collaborative and consultative approach involving teams in the USQ Office of Research, the USQ Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) Chair, the ICT Service Division and Library Services division resulted in successful outcomes for researchers

The HPC next door: enabling research outcomes using QCIF HPC facilities

The paper begins with a background of the problem, a description of the research projects requiring use of HPC, followed by the problems with accessing the HPC resources required, and an account of the approach taken to solve the problem. A description of the solutions is provided, followed by a discussion on the research outcomes and a reflection on lessons learnt

A performance measurement framework for IT service management

The use of Information Technology (IT) has become more pervasive and, progressively, there has been a shift from a technology focus to a service focus in managing IT. The performance measurement of IT service management (ITSM) is a major challenge faced by organisations adopting best practice frameworks. The extensive adoption of ITSM frameworks by organisations may point to the acceptance by IT service managers that best practice frameworks such as Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) and standards such as ISO/IEC 20000 can deliver real operational efficiencies, ultimately translating into business benefits. Some organisations implementing ITSM initiatives have reported realisation of benefits in cost savings and standardisations in delivery of IT service. Despite the appeal and the potential to realise benefits, the implementation of ITSM initiatives is complicated by the complexity in measuring performance. Measurement of the performance of ITSM is critical due to the size of the investment and the crucial importance of IT services to organisations. Few guidelines on the performance measurement of ITSM exist for industry practitioners; and scant academic research has been conducted on the performance measurement of ITSM. The objective of this research is to develop a framework that can be used to measure the performance of ITSM and, hence, contribute to ITSM initiatives in organisations. To achieve this objective, the study uses a mixed-method and multi-paradigm approach to develop an ITSM performance measurement framework and contingency theory for the performance measurement of ITSM. The study uses a survey of ITSM benefits and performance measurement to identify ITSM performance measurement practices. A survey was conducted on the ITSM performance measurement practices of members of the IT Service Management Forum of Australia (itSMFA). The survey findings were used to identify six ITSM performance measurement exemplar organisations for case study. The case studies provided further insight into ITSM performance measurement practices. The results of the literature review, survey and case studies formed the basis for the design of the ITSM performance measurement framework. The design science approach of Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) and the design method of Matching Analysis Projection and Synthesis (MAPS) were used to develop the ITSM performance measurement framework. The study provides a comprehensive literature review on the performance measurement of ITSM. A review of the existing industry and academic literature showed a gap in theory for performance measurement of ITSM. There was also a lack of a contextualised performance measurement framework for ITSM. The study developed categories for types of organisation level and process level ITSM, and categories for types of ITSM performance metrics. The performance measurement framework developed by the study is structured using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and can be used to quantify benefits and link organisational level benefits and metrics with process level metrics. The developed framework includes a consolidated ITSM metrics catalogue structure. The study identified the internal and external organisational factors that influence the selection of ITSM performance metrics and proposes a contingency theory for the performance measurement of ITSM. The study makes theoretical and practical contributions in ITSM performance measurement by extending ITSM performance measurement theory, IS design theory and developing a holistic multi-level ITSM performance measurement framework that can be used by organisations. This dissertation is a result of a study funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) linkage project grant in partnership with Queensland Health (QH) and the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF) Australia. The study contributes to the linkage project by addressing the complex interactions of benefits, performance metrics and methods to enable Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and IT service managers to measure the performance of IT service management

A proposal and evaluation of a design method in design science research

Information Systems (IS) design science literature offers a plethora of findings on various aspects, such as the general steps in design science, problem identification, objectives of solutions, and evaluation of the artefacts. However, there appears to be a dearth of guidance on the design of the artefact itself, that is, on design per se. Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) practitioners report challenges in measuring and reporting the performance of ITSM. This area is identified as significant and lacking in research. We are developing a framework for performance measurement of ITSM investments in organisations. The ITSM performance measurement framework (PMF) will provide a basis of standardisation and performance comparison for organisations implementing ITSM. The focus of this paper is the design methodology for the PMF framework. Our work considers literature from IS design science and disciplines outside IS. Previous IS researchers developed frameworks that guide the IS design research process but they do not provide details of the design process. We extend their work by narrowing the focus on the design step found in IS design science approaches giving a detailed treatment of the design step and delve further into the design literature broadly. Of course, design is a very creative endeavour and may not be solely process driven. Using a design process from outside IS design science advocating 'designerly ways of knowing' we apply the integrative Matching Analysis Projection Synthesis approach. We integrate an IS design science research framework with a macro cycle of analysis-projection-synthesis and a micro cycle of research-analysis-synthesis-realisation to create an approach for designing the PMF. Outcomes of the evaluation are also described and discussed. The design process proposed was of limited success but may be useful for other IS researchers seeking guidance on how to design the artefact in an IS design science project

Measuring the performance of service orientated IT management

The growth of the service economy has resulted in service-oriented thinking. IT departments have increasingly adopted IT service management (ITSM) frameworks, particularly the IT infrastructure library (ITIL). Despite the appeal and the potential to realise benefits, the practice of ITSM is hindered by difficulty in measuring performance. Using a systematic literature review, survey and qualitative analysis, we analyse the performance measurement of the three most implemented ITIL processes: change, incident and problem management. This paper offers an empirical analysis and proposes an approach to organising ITSM performance metrics. The findings of a survey of 203 IT service managers conducted in 2009 are presented. The findings show that despite the proliferation of performance metrics, organisations implementing ITSM frameworks report challenges due to lack of expertise, limited resources and poor engagement within business