51 IT Metrics That Any Business Can Evaluate Right Now
posted by Anna Mar, July 17, 2011How do you covert the knowledge in an architect's head into valuable metrics?
Metrics do not need to be complex or expensive. The following 51 IT metrics can be calculated with a simple architectural questionnaire.
These metrics can be evaluated at the enterprise, business unit, platform, system or project level. They support decision making and IT transparency — converting architectural knowledge into executive knowledge.
1. Business strategy in place
55% of business units have an up-to-date business strategy.2. Technology strategy in place
77% of systems have a up-to-date roadmap.3. Technology strategy maps to business strategy
42% of technology strategies are mapped to business strategy.4. Full compliance with enterprise architecture principles
Enterprise Architecture Principles are enterprise level architectural goals and guidelines. Example: 12% of applications are in full compliance with EA principles.5. Full compliance with enterprise standards
57% of applications are in full compliance with enterprise standards.6. Published SLA
94% of applications have a published SLA.7. Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in place
100% of major applications have a BCP plan.8. Strategic / tactical
Do projects solve short term problems or contribute to the long term strategy of business and IT? Example: 67% of IT projects are tactical.9.Use of non-standard technology
22% of new projects use non-standard or retired technologies.10. High availability (HA)
96% of applications are designed and deployed for high availability.11. Application scalability
83% of applications are scalable.12. Extensible
46% of applications are extensible.13. Application health monitoring
71% of applications are health-monitored.14. Open source
31% of applications use open source components or tools.15. Runbook
42% of applications have an approved runbook.16. Lifespan
60% of applications have a projected lifespan of more than 5 years.17. Buy vs Build
41% of projects this year implemented COTS technology.77% of applications are bespoke.
94% of projects costing more than $10 million dollars were based on COTS technology.
18. Strategic common services
75% of reports use the enterprise reporting platform44% of business processes are managed by the enterprise bpm platform
19. SOA reference architecture
91% of SOA implementations conform to the enterprise SOA reference model.20. Maintenance cost trend
Maintenance costs increased for 77% of applications this year by an average of 14%.21. Transaction volume
44% of applications can handle projected 5 year transaction volume.22. Data volume
80% of applications can handle projected 5 year data volume.23. User load
84% of applications can handle projected 5 year user load.24. Use strategic data sources (golden source, golden copy)
87% of applications use strategic data sources..
25. Use strategic ESB for real-time messaging
34% of applications use the enterprise ESB for real-time messaging.26. Use strategic ETL for batch data transfer
44% of applications use the enterprise ETL for batch data transfer.27. Data stewardship
62% of enterprise databases are managed by a data steward.28. Real-time data
13% of data integrations are real-time.29. Intraday data
71% of data integrations are intraday.30. Complies with enterprise master data management (MDM) standards
87% of critical reference data complies with enterprise MDM standards.31. Data backup
84% of enterprise databases are regularly backed up (at least once a month).32. Data validation at source
87% of data is validated at source.33. Data strategy
27% of critical data has a published data strategy.34. Published data retention policy
13% of data has a published data retention policy.35. Published data quality targets
12% of data has published data quality targets.36. Application and data are decoupled
95% of applications have decoupled data layers.37. Zero data rekeying
9% of business processes involve rekeying data.61% of data repositories contain rekeyed data
38. Spreadmarts
67% of business processes involve spreadsheets (unmanaged data).Enterprise-wide there are 986 unmanaged spreadsheets that have been identified.
39. Zero touch processes
44% of business processes are zero touch.40. Straight Through Processing (STP)
37% of business processes are STP.41. Measure business capabilities with metrics
14% of business capabilities are regularly measured with metrics.42. Threat identification
19% of applications have undergone a security threat assessment.43. Risk assessment
69% of applications have undergone a security risk assessment.44. Penetration Testing
47% of applications have been penetration tested.45. Separation of duties
77% of applications have implemented separation of duty controls.46. Role-based security
80% of systems use role-based security.47. Least privilege
23% of systems implement the least privilege design pattern.48. Centralized authorization and authentication
87% of systems use the enterprise repository for authorization and authentication.49. Compliance with enterprise user management standards
44% of applications are in compliance with enterprise user management guidelines.50. Compliance with enterprise information security standards
23% of applications are in compliance with enterprise information security standards.51. Audit trail
98% of major applications have audit trail functionality.Application Health Dashboard
An example of a IT dashboard based on the metrics above.
Data Health Dashboard
Project Health Dashboard
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