Exagon consulting: KPIs are not derived from frequently Kerpen from the business requirements, 14.12.2010 – no later than with promoting ITIL key performance indicators systems have received from indentation in IT service management (ITSM) as a tool for power control. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are an integral part of the current version of the rulebook. However they are according to the observations of Exagon consulting often still not consistently and correctly used. Exagon – Managing Director Joachim Fremmer has compiled some of the typical metrics sins in practice: key figures are not derived from the business requirements: the IT processes are in the service of the business requirements. Therefore must refer to it also the indicators, for example, the error rate in customer-oriented business processes and take into account the subjective perceptions of service of business customers elementary. There are rarely such an orientation in the organization. Instead the index concepts often exhibit a self-centered focus and serve the own quality legitimacy. Thus, they remain largely useless as a tool of business-related power control.

Sometimes more is less: the development of indicator systems sometimes gets a great momentum by a desire to more and more figures and a self-obsessed employment thus created. The aspect of usability is more important than the amount of analysable information but: figures must remain operable for the specific use. For this reason you should be limited to rather a limited number of well controllable KPIs instead of losing yourself in an excess analysis to. Performance measurement systems to make not too transparent: be analyzed the performance of the IT processes, thus of course also weaknesses are apparent. While this is one of the goals of KPIs is met in practice not always popular, because unsatisfactory values trigger ground pressures and criticism. Therefore often not so much to love the transparency in practice and made of opportunism A key performance indicators systems, without having to use it but seriously.