Measure and visualize productivity within ITSM

IT Service Management (ITSM) is becoming a more relevant topic and the view of services is growing, therefore it is natural that new difficulties arise. When it comes to the manufacturing industry, it has not been seen as a difficult process to measure productivity. That is because it only refers to the ratio between output and input. However, when it comes to measuring the productivity of a service, many different factors have to be included. This is something several scientists agree to be a more difficult process. This difficulty is causing a lot of problems for businesses whose clients want to know if the service they are paying for is productive or not. This study aimed at developing a simple prototype that makes it possible to measure the productivity of IT services. Based on previous research and the experience of another company from when they were measuring service productivity, a number of overall goals were set for the prototype. The objectives intended to counteract the problems identified in the previous research and thus the previous research served as a good starting point for the development of the prototype. This study used design research to develop an innovative artifact, which got evalutated by experienced practitioners during two occasions. The purpose was to identify additional design principles that may be necessary in the development of this type of tool. The development and evaluation were conducted in two iterations. In the first iteration, there was a more informal discussion with an experienced ITSM practitioner about the artifact’s design, allowing for further development of the artifact. The evaluation conducted in the second iteration was more formal and was carried out using a focus group consisting of a number of practitioners with varied knowledge and experience relevant to the area. The obtained results were then compared to theory and previous research to contribute to the conclusions of the study. The study resulted in two new design principles deemed necessary for this type of measurement tools. The informants and previous researchers’ thoughts about what they considered as important factors were the basis of the design principles. After the implementation of the prototype, there were problems that remained unsolved which were possible to present as future research opportunities. This study does not claim that its results make these kinds of tools complete. There needs to be more research on the subject to optimize the tool further and more design principles may be necessary. This study, on the other hand, may be the basis for future research or for practitioners who choose to implement or develop a similar tool