What are the Most Important KPIs in ITIL? List & Formulas

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) uses Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure IT service effectiveness. Here are 5 crucial KPIs that provide strategic insight into your IT service management:

1. Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR)

Measures the average time taken to resolve an incident. Learn more about MTTR and other tactical incident management KPIs.

MTTR = Total time spent resolving all incidents / Total number of incidents

2. First Contact Resolution Rate (FCR)

Percentage of incidents resolved during the first interaction with the user. Explore detailed strategies to improve your FCR in ITIL incident management.

FCR = (Number of incidents resolved on first contact / Total number of incidents) x 100

3. Service Level Agreement (SLA) Compliance

Measures whether services meet agreed standards and business requirements.

SLA Compliance = (Number of SLAs met / Total number of SLAs) x 100

4. Change Success Rate

Percentage of changes to systems or processes implemented without issues.

Success Rate = (Number of successful changes / Total number of changes) x 100

5. Service Availability

Percentage of time a service is operational and accessible to users.

Availability = ((Total planned time - Downtime) / Total planned time) x 100

Strategic Considerations

Organizations focusing solely on basic ITIL KPIs often encounter:

• Difficulty demonstrating IT's value to business stakeholders
• Challenges in prioritizing improvement initiatives
• Misalignment between technical metrics and business outcomes

Practical tip: Start by measuring these 5 essential KPIs monthly, then progress to more sophisticated metrics as your ITIL maturity increases. Always connect KPI performance to business impact for maximum strategic value.

For a more detailed analysis of these KPIs and how to implement them, check our article: