Eliciting Strategies for the GQM+Strategies Approach in IT Service Measurement Initiatives

GQM+Strategies is a goal-oriented measurement approach that supports organizations in identifying goals, strategies to achieve goals, and measures to monitor strategies and goals. However, identifying proper strategies is not an easy task. This paper presents two studies performed to investigate how strategies can be established to achieve IT service goals. First, we carried out a qualitative study involving three IT service-related departments of a large company to find out how they have been defining strategies and problems faced. We noted that strategies were defined by leaders, in a top-down approach, or by teams, in a bottom-up approach, and causal analysis techniques have been used to investigate aspects which can impact goals achievement. We also found the relation between the IT service strategies and goals was not clear for the teams. Considering these findings, we performed an empirical study in another IT-service related department applying an approach combining GQM+Strategies plus some instruments (checklists, templates and examples) and causal analysis to support IT strategies identification. As a result, we noticed that by using that approach the team was able to derive IT strategies based on goals, define measures to monitor goals and strategies, and better understand the alignment between the goals to be achieved and the strategies to be performed. Moreover, results showed that causal analysis is useful to define strategies and that supporting instruments facilitate using the approach and building GQM+Strategies grid.