Control over the IT process of Manage Performance and Capacity that satisfies the business requirement for IT of
- optimizing the performance of IT infrastructure, resources and capabilities in response to business needs
- meeting response time requirements of service levels, minimizing downtime, and making continuous IT performance and capacity improvements through monitoring and measurement
- Planning and providing system capacity and availability
- Monitoring and reporting system performance
- Modeling and forecasting system performance
- Number of hours lost per user per month due to insufficient capacity planning
- Percent of peaks where target utilization is exceeded
- Percent of response-time service levels not met
1 Non-existent
2 Initial/Ad Hoc
3 Repeatable but Intuitive
4 Defined
5 Managed and Measurable
6 Optimized
Benchmarks/Guidelines for Scoring
1 Non-existent when
Management does not recognize that key business processes may require high levels of performance from IT or that the overall business need for IT services may exceed capacity. There is no capacity planning process in place.
2 Initial/Ad Hoc when
Users devise workarounds for performance and capacity constraints. There is very little appreciation of the need for capacity and performance planning by the owners of the business processes. Action taken toward managing performance and capacity is typically reactive. The process for planning capacity and performance is informal. The understanding of current and future capacity and performance of IT resources is limited.
3 Repeatable but Intuitive when
Business and IT management are aware of the impact of not managing performance and capacity. Performance needs are generally met based on assessments of individual systems and the knowledge of support and project teams. Some individual tools may be used to diagnose performance and capacity problems, but the consistency of results is dependent on the expertise of key individuals. There is no overall assessment of the IT performance capability or consideration of peak and worst-case loading situations. Availability problems are likely to occur in an unexpected and random fashion and take considerable time to diagnose and correct. Any performance measurement is based primarily on IT needs and not on customer needs.
4 Defined when
Performance and capacity requirements are defined throughout the system life cycle. There are defined service level requirements and metrics that can be used to measure operational performance. Future performance and capacity requirements are modelled following a defined process. Reports are produced giving performance statistics. Performance- and capacity-related problems are still likely to occur and be time-consuming to correct. Despite published service levels, users and customers may feel skeptical about the service capability.
5 Managed and Measurable when
Processes and tools are available to measure system usage, performance and capacity, and results are compared to defined goals. Up-to-date information is available, giving standardized performance statistics and alerting incidents caused by insufficient performance and capacity. Insufficient performance and capacity issues are dealt with according to defined and standardized procedures. Automated tools are used to monitor specific resources, such as disk space, networks, servers and network gateways. Performance and capacity statistics are reported in business process terms, so users and customers understand IT service levels. Users feel generally satisfied with the current service capability and may demand new and improved availability levels. Metrics for measuring IT performance and capacity are agreed upon but may be only sporadically and inconsistently applied.
6 Optimized when
The performance and capacity plans are fully synchronized with the business demand forecasts. The IT infrastructure and business demand are subject to regular reviews to ensure that optimum capacity is achieved at the lowest possible cost. Tools for monitoring critical IT resources are standardized and used across platforms and linked to an organization-wide incident management system. Monitoring tools detect and can automatically correct performance- and capacity-related issues. Trend analysis is performed and shows imminent performance problems caused by increased business volumes, enabling planning and avoidance of unexpected issues. Metrics for measuring IT performance and capacity have been fine-tuned into outcome measures and performance indicators for all critical business processes and are consistently measured. Management adjusts the planning for performance and capacity following analysis of these measures.