Service Management Best Practices

Overview

A service performance report that contains the same information for every audience is a report that serves no audience well. Operational teams need granular, actionable data. Portfolio Owners need aggregated trend information. Senior leaders need strategic summaries with highlights and exceptions. When every stakeholder receives the same undifferentiated report, either the report is too detailed for leaders or too high-level for operators — and in either case, the information does not drive the decisions it is meant to inform.

Best Practice

Design service performance reporting for different audiences at appropriate levels of detail. Operational reports for Service Owners and operators should be granular, current, and focused on actionable findings. Portfolio reports for Portfolio Owners should aggregate performance across the portfolio with trend analysis and exception highlighting. Executive reports should summarize strategic performance themes, highlight significant risks or achievements, and focus on what leadership needs to know to make good decisions about service investment and direction.

Benefit(s)

Audience-appropriate reporting ensures that performance information drives the right decisions at the right level of the organization. Operational teams act on data that is specific enough to be actionable. Portfolio Owners govern with data that reveals portfolio-level patterns and trends. Leaders make strategic decisions with data that provides the right level of context without drowning in operational detail. The investment in performance measurement delivers its full value when the data is presented in forms that different audiences can understand and act on.