Metrics to Support IT Service Maturity Models - A Systematic Mapping Study

Background: Maturity models for IT service such as CMMI-SVC and MR-MPS-SV requires identification of critical business process and definition of relevant metrics to support decision making, but there is no clear direction or strict suggestion about which should be those processes and metrics. Aims: We aim to identify adequate metrics to be used by organizations deploying IT service maturity models and the relationship between those metrics and processes of IT service maturity models or standards. Research questions are: (i) Which metrics are being suggested for IT service quality improvement projects? (ii) How do they relate to IT service maturity models processes? Method: We have defined and executed a systematic mapping review protocol. The protocol and its results were evaluated by a specialist on systematic mapping review and IT service maturity models. Results: Of 114 relevant studies, 13 addressed the research questions. All of them presented quality metrics, but none presented tools or techniques for metrics identification. Conclusions: We identified 133 metrics, 80 related to specific processes areas of service maturity models. Even being a broad result, not all models aspects were considered in this study.