Metrics: Ratios for Incident to Problem

[KimHinton]

I am trying to determine the best way to develop a ratio between incident and problem. In the past I have used a simple total # of problems over the total # of incidents. It was pointed out that this may not be the best approach since the relationship is most often 1 to many. Does anyone have a way they are developing ratios?

[UKVIKING]

Well 3 of the 5 ways i tried did not work
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John Hardesty
ITSM Manager's Certificate (Red Badge)

Change Management is POWER & CONTROL. /....evil laughter

[Diarmid]

What on earth do you want to use the ratio for?

What is the relationship between problems and incidents? - problems are the underlying causes of incidents and also of potential incidents (do you have a way of counting the number of potential incidents?).

A problem can exist for which there have been no incidents, one incident, a few incidents, many incidents, a multitude of incidents. - what good will a ratio be? how will you use it to help in the management of your services?

Do you think that reducing the ratio indicates a better service. Well you can reduce it by finding more problems or by having less incidents; A problem that has caused no incidents, so far, could constitute a risk (threat) of a million pound incident; a problem that has been the cause of fifty incidents could have cost the business less than one hundred pounds.

The only good thing I can think of for having this ratio is that you can probably get your computer to work it out and report it for you.

After all that, I prefer John's answer!
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"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718