This entry describes performance management in an Information Technology context. See Performance Management

Performance management

Performance management includes activities that ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on the performance of an organization, a department, employee, or even the processes to build a product or service, as well as many...

for a description of performance management in a more general context.

IT performance management is a term used in the Information Technology (IT)

Information technology

Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

 field, and generally refers to the monitoring and measurement of relevant performance metrics to assess the performance of IT resources. It can be used in both a business or IT Management context, and an IT Operations context. Companies who offer IT performance management tools include IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

, CA, BMC

BMC Software

BMC Software, Inc. is a multinational corporation specializing in Business Service Management software, with record annual revenue in fiscal 2009 of $1.87 billion...

 and HP Software Division.

Some of the different types and categories of IT performance management include those related to networks, applications, self-learning, and business transactions.

Business vs. operations context

In a business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

 or IT Management context, IT performance management is concerned with measuring the expenditure of capital

Capital (economics)

In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...

 and human resources

Human resources

Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...

 on Information Technology projects. This allows the business to determine how these expenditures improve strategic

Strategic management

Strategic management is a field that deals with the major intended and emergent initiatives taken by general managers on behalf of owners, involving utilization of resources, to enhance the performance of firms in their external environments...

 and operational

Operations management

Operations management is an area of management concerned with overseeing, designing, and redesigning business operations in the production of goods and/or services. It involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as little resources as needed, and...

 capabilities of the firm in designing and developing products and services for maximum customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction, a term frequently used in marketing, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation...

, corporate productivity

Productivity

Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...

, profitability

Profit (economics)

In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total opportunity costs of a venture to an entrepreneur or investor, whilst economic profit In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total...

, and competitiveness

Competitiveness

Competitiveness is a comparative concept of the ability and performance of a firm, sub-sector or country to sell and supply goods and/or services in a given market...

. This type of IT Performance Management is usually of interest to executive level IT personnel, all the way up to the Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Chief information officer

Chief information officer , or information technology director, is a job title commonly given to the most senior executive in an enterprise responsible for the information technology and computer systems that support enterprise goals...

, and is related to IT Portfolio Management

IT portfolio management

IT portfolio management is the application of systematic management to large classes of items managed by enterprise Information Technology capabilities. Examples of IT portfolios would be planned initiatives, projects, and ongoing IT services...

.

In an IT operations context, IT performance management is the subset of tools and processes in IT Operations which deals with the collection

Data collection

Data collection is a term used to describe a process of preparing and collecting data, for example, as part of a process improvement or similar project. The purpose of data collection is to obtain information to keep on record, to make decisions about important issues, to pass information on to...

, monitoring, and [Data analysis|analysis]] of performance metrics. These metrics can indicate to IT staff whether a system component is up and running (available), or that the component is behaving in an abnormal way that would impact its ability to function correctly—much like how a doctor may measure pulse, respiration, and temperature to measure how the human body is "operating". This type of monitoring originated with computer network

Network management

Network management refers to the activities, methods, procedures, and tools that pertain to the operation, administration, maintenance, and provisioning of networked systems....

 components, but has now expanded into monitoring other components such as servers

Server (computing)

In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...

 and storage devices

Data storage device

thumb|200px|right|A reel-to-reel tape recorder .The magnetic tape is a data storage medium. The recorder is data storage equipment using a portable medium to store the data....

, as well as groups of components organized to deliver specific services

IT Service Management

IT service management is a discipline for managing information technology systems, philosophically centered on the customer's perspective of IT's contribution to the business. ITSM stands in deliberate contrast to technology-centered approaches to IT management and business interaction...

 and Business Service Management

Business Service Management

Business service management is an approach used to manage business-aligned IT services. A BSM philosophy promotes a customer-centric and business-focused approach to Service Management, aligning business objectives and priorities with IT or ICT from strategy through to operations and continual...

).

Types and categories

Types and categories of IT performance management include:

• Network performance management
  Network performance management
  - Factors affecting network performance :Not all networks are the same. As data is broken into component parts for transmission, several factors can affect their delivery....
  
  : a set
  Set (computer science)
  In computer science, a set is an abstract data structure that can store certain values, without any particular order, and no repeated values. It is a computer implementation of the mathematical concept of a finite set...
  
   of functions that evaluate and report the effectiveness of the network
  Computer network
  A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
  
   or network element
  Network element
  A network element is usually defined as a manageable logical entity uniting one or more physical devices. This allows distributed devices to be managed in a unified way using one management system....
  
  , and the behavior of telecommunication
  Telecommunication
  Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
  
  s equipment. It also includes a set of subfunctions, such as gathering statistical information
  Information
  Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
  
  , maintaining and examining historical logs, determining system
  System
  System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....
  
   performance
  Performance
  A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
  
   under natural and artificial conditions, and altering system modes of operation.

• Application performance management (APM)
  Application Performance Management
  Application performance management, or APM, refers to the discipline within systems management that focuses on monitoring and managing the performance and service availability of software applications....
  
  : the discipline within systems management that focuses on monitoring and managing the performance and availability of software applications. APM looks at workflow
  Workflow
  A workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps. It is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person, a group of persons, an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms. Workflow may be seen as any abstraction of real work...
  
   and related IT tools deployed to detect, diagnose
  Diagnosis
  Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of anything. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines with variations in the use of logics, analytics, and experience to determine the cause and effect relationships...
  
  , remedy, and report on application performance issues to ensure that application performance meets or exceeds the expectations of end-users
  User (computing)
  A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
  
   and businesses.

• Self-learning performance management: the use of technology to help automate the performance management of information technology systems. This is done through the use of software that employs applied mathematics
  Applied mathematics
  Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...
  
   (such as statistics
  Statistics
  Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
  
  , time series
  Time series
  In statistics, signal processing, econometrics and mathematical finance, a time series is a sequence of data points, measured typically at successive times spaced at uniform time intervals. Examples of time series are the daily closing value of the Dow Jones index or the annual flow volume of the...
  
   analysis, and forecasting
  Forecasting
  Forecasting is the process of making statements about events whose actual outcomes have not yet been observed. A commonplace example might be estimation for some variable of interest at some specified future date. Prediction is a similar, but more general term...
  
  ), automated baselining
  Baselining
  Baselining is a method for analyzing computer network performance. The method is marked by comparing current performance to a historical metric, or "baseline"...
  
  , neural network
  Neural network
  The term neural network was traditionally used to refer to a network or circuit of biological neurons. The modern usage of the term often refers to artificial neural networks, which are composed of artificial neurons or nodes...
  
  s, pattern recognition
  Pattern recognition
  In machine learning, pattern recognition is the assignment of some sort of output value to a given input value , according to some specific algorithm. An example of pattern recognition is classification, which attempts to assign each input value to one of a given set of classes...
  
  , and other similar technologies. The intent is to automate manual processes and "fixed baseline" approaches used to determine when IT systems are operating out of normal ranges, which would indicate potential system problems. Self-learning performance management is complementary to the disciplines of systems management
  Systems management
  Systems management refers to enterprise-wide administration of distributed systems including computer systems. Systems management is strongly influenced by network management initiatives in telecommunications....
  
  , network performance management, and application performance management, and is sometimes referred to by IT analyst firms like Gartner
  Gartner
  Gartner, Inc. is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001....
  
   by the term behavior learning technology or behavior learning softwar.

• Business transaction management (BTM)
  Business Transaction Management
  Business transaction management , also known as business transaction monitoring, application transaction profiling or user defined transaction profiling, is the practice of managing information technology from a business transaction perspective...
  
  : the discipline within systems management that monitors business transactions across the data center
  Data center
  A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems...
  
   in order to manage IT performance.

Business context

Direct financial gains

• Focuses IT resources on projects that grow sales
  Sales
  A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....
  
  
• Focuses IT resources on projects that reduce cost
  Cost
  In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost. In this...
  
  s
• Aligns IT organization directly behind corporate financial goal
  Financial goal
  A financial goal or financial target is an objective which is expressed in or based upon money. Examples include debt reduction, sufficient wealth to retire or minimisation of tax....
  
  s

Improved management control

• Demonstrates the direct business value of each IT project or operation
• Helps audit
  Audit
  The general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product. The term most commonly refers to audits in accounting, but similar concepts also exist in project management, quality management, and energy conservation.- Accounting...
  
   and comply
  Regulatory compliance
  In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law. Regulatory compliance describes the goal that corporations or public agencies aspire to in their efforts to ensure that personnel are aware of and take steps to comply with relevant laws and...
  
   with legislative
  Legislation
  Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...
  
   requirements
• Allows reallocation of IT resources to projects of most importance to the corporation
• Facilitates the elimination of IT projects that are not delivering on expected benefits

Operations context

Outage prevention or remediation

• Alerts as to which components may be failing
• Isolates failing components
• Provides details to incident management
  Incident management
  Incident Management refers to the activities of an organization to identify, analyze and correct hazards. For instance, a fire in a factory would be a risk that realized, or an incident that happened...
  
   process to speed the repair or remediation process

Service Level Management

• Provides real-time
  Real-time data
  Real-time data denotes information that is delivered immediately after collection. There is no delay in the timeliness of the information provided. Real-time data is often used for navigation or tracking....
  
   and historical data to determine whether or not a service level agreement
  Service Level Agreement
  A service-level agreement is a part of a service contract where the level of service is formally defined. In practice, the term SLA is sometimes used to refer to the contracted delivery time or performance...
  
   is being met
• Provides historical data on component usage and workload to help IT organizations determine appropriate costs and charges for internal
  Internal customer
  Internal customer is a buzzword used in management, popularized by Joseph M. JuranHe defined an internal and external customers as anyone affected by the product or by the process used to produce the product, in the context of quality management....
  
   and external customer
  Customer
  A customer is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...
  
  s

Capacity planning

Capacity planning

Capacity planning is the process of determining the production capacity needed by an organization to meet changing demands for its products. In the context of capacity planning, "capacity" is the maximum amount of work that an organization is capable of completing in a given period of time...

• Provides historical data on IT component workloads and usage to help information technology planning staff increase, consolidate, or reduce resources in the future