Establish a Service Metrics Program That Meets Business NeedsMeasure IT right and measure it well.CIOs are constantly challenged to prove the value of IT. A large part of IT’s value comes from the continuous improvement of IT services to satisfy the changing needs of its end users. A service metrics monitoring and reporting program enables the continuous improvement of IT services. However, IT metrics systems are rarely set up with business goals in mind. Often, the metrics results are not used to identify areas for continuous improvement. Almost always, the amount of effort that goes into producing reports and dashboards is not rewarded with the attention it deserves from its audience. Metrics must be presented in business terms. Collecting and presenting metrics is not difficult; collecting relevant data and translating it into business terms for the right audience is the real challenge.Metrics will drive behavior. Be careful when setting targets as metrics can influence behavior in unexpected ways, resulting in undesired and unexpected consequences.The success of your metrics program rests on understanding why you want the program in the first place. It’s not enough to meet business objectives, you also need to optimize metrics maturity to most efficiently collect the right metrics.Metrics should not be collected simply because they are convenient; the right metrics should be used to generate actionable results for both the business and for IT.The key to effectively communicating on metrics is by reporting only the relevant data. A bit of art is required to correctly translate IT metrics into business-relevant terms. Customize reports for each audience. The executive levels are looking for different information than the business unit leaders are. Take the time to present the correct information to each audience.Metrics can be an opportunity to demonstrate the value of IT; be prepared to show the right metrics. You don’t want business units to have the wrong impression of IT. Continually update your metrics program. As the business strategy, objectives, or audience changes, your metrics program should be updated to reflect such changes and to remain relevant. All of these insights are repeated in the project steps below. They have more context below and so I would rather see them there. So please disregard this section.

http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/establish-a-service-metrics-program-that-meets-business-needs