Technical References

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Cisco Prime Service Catalog 10.0 Reporting Guide
OL-31037-01
Chapter 1 Advanced Reporting Data Mart
Metrics and Attributes
Which Duration to Use?
Prebuilt reports about the duration of tasks performed during service delivery use the
PERFORMERACTUALDURATION measure. This measure takes the performer’s working calendar
into account, so that weekends and other nonworking hours are not counted against their time working
on the task. Conversely, the CUSTOMERDURATIONOFSERVICE measure makes the calculation
taking the customer’s calendar into account, making it an inaccurate measure of the performer’s work.
When to Use Date vs. Duration-Based Measures
There are two ways to assess whether the delivery team is performing their tasks well. Both are valid,
but they have different meanings and uses:
• Is the task late, relative to the promise (Due Date) made to the customer?
To make this assessment, reports include the TASKONTIMEFLAG, TASKDUEDATE and
TASKCOMPLETEDDATE measures. This is good for determining whether a queue or service team
is meeting its promises to customers in terms of absolute dates. It is NOT, however, a good measure
of the performance of individuals. Assume that performing a service requires three tasks, done by
Persons A, B and C. If you are measuring the performance of Person C, their tasks could be late
because Person A or B was late. So this measure is used only to assess the customer service of whole
teams or queues.
• Has the task been performed within the standard time we plan for this kind of task?
To make this assessment, standard reports use the TASKSTDCOMPLIANCEFLAG,
TASKPROJECTEDDURATION and PERFORMERACTUALDURATION measures. This allows
you to compare the actual duration spent on performing the task with the standard planned duration
for this kind of task. This measure is more appropriate for assessing the performance of individual
team members, because focusing on the duration isolates the task performance from any upstream
effects: it is entirely possible for a task to be completed late according to its due dates, but with a
duration that is equal to or less than the standard duration. That indicates a person who is performing
their own work well, but falling behind due to upstream effects.
A solid, customer-focused measurement regime requires BOTH metrics. If you base everything on task
duration, you are in effect saying “Who cares what we promised to the customer, as long as we are
meeting our internal standards?” On the other hand, focusing only on the dates provides an inaccurate
picture of team members’ performance, which does not allow you to make the effective resourcing
decisions you need to improve your performance for customers.
Attributes
The dimensional attributes used in the report packages are derived from the data maintained in the
Service Catalog OLTP database. Attributes are summarized below.
Attributes Description
Customer* The person who is the recipient of the service, either when it is ordered
directly by the same person or when the service is ordered on behalf of the
customer, and the home organizational unit of that customer