In science, measurement is the process of obtaining the magnitude of a quantity, such as volume or energy, relative to a unit of measurement, such as a meter cubed or a kilojoule.
In ITIL we measure many different aspects of our service to ascertain how it's functioning and if it's delivering business value. Utility is a great example of a service measurement. We use utility in ITIL to measure the relative satisfaction from, desirability of, or consumption of our service. Each of the processes in our service exist to deliver a specific result. Results come in different forms but all are identifiable and countable. For example we can count the number of incidents that were logged in a particular day.
We can use metrics as the basis for measuring how successful a business is. For example, two simple metrics that we all recognised are 'profitable' and 'market share'. To be profitable, an organisation aims to make gains in business activity for the benefit of the owners of the business. This is the difference between a firm's total revenue and its opportunity costs, both of which are measurable
Value is a vital measure. Before we can measure value itself, we need to think about collecting and collating the business metrics. We need to extract all of the data from our monitoring tools and processes. Typically, we start by getting reports out of the ticketing or call logging systems, such as ticketing volume data to see what's happening with the service. We then put those metrics into a Score Card for analysis. It's usually early in the design phase that we start thinking about measurements and metrics. It also helps to consider the feedback and value as early as possible.
There are various techniques for collecting data and measuring customer satisfaction. Some of the most common include:
- Periodic questionnaires or customer surveys
- Feedback from service review meetings with customers
- Post Implementation Reviews (PIRs)
- Satisfaction Surveys
- Forum meetings
- User groups
- Analysis of complaints or appraisals (from customers)