Information technology is a fast growing industry where innovations take place at a rapid pace. According to the World Economic Forum, the US leads in the discovery of new trends simultaneously in the technology industry contributing to a major portion of its GDP. IT sector offers a plethora of services to support various businesses while maintaining its own foray of technology enablers like data security, infrastructure, end-user services, data analysis, data processing, data visualization, knowledge management, API services, hardware equipment and other software services.
Although the industry has grown multifold in the last few decades, OKRs were introduced in the IT industry as early as the 1990s in companies like Google and Intel which claim to attribute the majority of its success due to implementation of the right OKRs. As technologies continually evolve and upgrade, IT also needs to cope up with handling modern challenges like cybersecurity, cloud computing, etc. When OKRs are tied to the objective of any organization, it gives a clear picture for aligning its execution towards the vision.
Let us take a look at the 10 best IT OKRs examples that can be implemented in your organization to manage the challenges and adapt to the digital evolution.
#1: Information Security
Data processing can be enhanced by increasing the number of data centers and disaster recovery sites. Frequent backups of customer data also prevents data loss and improved customer satisfaction.
Objective
Enhance data disaster recovery process
Target Date: Q2-2021
Visibility: All Employees
Key Results
Increase number of data centers in the EU region from 3 to 6
Number of data centersReduce the data backup time from 90 mins to 30 mins
Data Backup timeIncrease the number of disaster recovery sites from 2 to 6
Number of disaster recovery sites#2: Information Security
Even if the organization has implemented strong cybersecurity practices, it should have the right response system to handle security breaches due to phishing attacks, DDoS and other targeted malware attacks. Even big companies like Twitter and Facebook have had their servers down for a couple of hours due to such attacks due to the lack of a good response system.
Objective
Optimize the process of controlling and managing security incident response system
Target Date: Q2-2021
Visibility: All Employees
Key Results
Increase frequency of reporting by the critical incident response center(CIRC) from 4 to 8 in a quarter
Number of reports from the CIRC team Increase number of training sessions for end-users on security breach response actions from 0 to 2 in a quarter.
Number of training sessionsDecrease the number of security related service downtime from 5 hours to 2 hours
Number of security related service downtime#3: Information Security
Sometimes, threats to information security also arise due to inadequate implementation of security patches and lack of resources. This objective focuses on eliminating those constraints thereby improving the efficiency of cyber security.
Objective
Develop essential competencies and increase awareness on cyber securityKey results
Target Date: Q2-2021
Visibility: All Employees
Key Results
Increase the number of cyber security awareness training sessions from 1 to 3 per quarter
Cyber security awareness training sessionsDecrease percentage of phishing emails opened by end-users from 5% to 1%
Phishing emailsDecrease the number of attempts to access unauthorized web pages from 20 to 15 per employee
Unauthorized web page access#4: Infrastructure
Hardware infrastructure management is an essential component of a good infrastructure system. This objective focuses on how to manage cabling, routers, power systems and other associated equipment properly.
Objective
Improve maintenance of hardware assets and installations
Target Date: Q2-2021
Visibility: All Employees
Key Results
Increase number of professionals in the hardware installation and maintenance team from 2 to 5 in Q2
Number of professionals Dispose all unused, redundant and outdated hardware by the end of Quarter
Discard unwanted hardwareIncrease number of authenticated users for access from 1 to 2 for use of server rooms
Number of authenticated users#5: Infrastructure
An important aspect of IT infrastructure comprises the network infrastructure. It refers to interconnected equipment that enables the flow of unhindered services to the resources and resolving the major network and infrastructure issues.
Objective
Efficient management of network infrastructure
Target Date: Q2-2021
Visibility: All Employees
Key Results
Improve WAN Links performance management by decreasing the number of WAN bottlenecks from 12 to 6 per quarter.
Number of WAN bottlenecksReduce the average handling time for an infrastructure service ticket per user from 24 hrs to 12 hrs this quarter
Average handling timeReduce mean time to resolve network infrastructure issues from 48 hours to 12 hours
Mean time to Resolve (MTTR)#6: Infrastructure
Software infrastructure comprises one of the branches of infrastructure, without which the existence of a good hardware or network system may not be useful. This objective focuses on the management of software infrastructure.
Objective
Improve the quality of software infrastructure
Target Date: Q2-2021
Visibility: All Employees
Key Results
Increase maintenance services for server operating systems from 2 to 4 per quarter
server maintenance servicesIncrease the frequency of cloud backup from 1 to 2 in a week
Frequency of cloud backupImprove the automation coverage of hypervisor system management from 50% to 70%
Automation coverage#7: Infrastructure
This objective focuses on monitoring important KPIs that measure the reliability of the IT infrastructure of the company.
Objective
Improve the reliability of existing infrastructure
Target Date: Q2-2021
Visibility: All Employees
Key Results
Reduce the average downtime related to infrastructure issues from 18 hours to 10 hours in the current quarter
Average downtime related to security issues Decrease the average MTTR(Mean time to repair) to resolve infrastructure issues from 3 hours to 1 hour
Mean time to repairIncrease the MTBF(Mean time between failures) between infra assets from 280 days to 365 days
Increase KPI KPI: Mean time between failures#8: Application development
A large number of IT companies face regular challenges in application development, scalability, delivery lead time and increased unit test coverage. This objective focuses on tackling such challenges with the help of OKRs.
Objective
Eliminate challenges in application delivery and post deployment defects
Target Date: Q2-2021
Visibility: All Employees
Key Results
Decrease the post release defects found in production from 2 to 0
Number of defects Decrease the lead time from idea to delivery of software from 3 weeks to 2 weeks
Lead timeIncrease the unit test coverage from 80% to 90%
Unit test coverage#9: Application development
While there are quite a number of challenges in developing an application, the real challenge lies in the management of applications.This objective focuses on continuously improving the application after development.
Objective
Improve efficiency of application management
Target Date: Q2-2021
Visibility: All Employees
Key Results
Increase number of new feature releases from 2 to 4 per month
Number of new feature releasesIncrease the frequency of regular assessments for application rationalization from 2 years to 1 per year
Application rationalization assessmentsIncrease code optimization to improve code quality from 1 to 3 per quarter
Code optimization#10: IT Administration
Financial indicators measure the efficiency of using the allotted budget in an accurate manner and help in analyzing how to reduce expenditure.
Objective
Reduce the financial expenses on the asset and other expenses in the IT Admin department.
Target Date: Q2-2021
Visibility: All Employees
Key Results
Decrease the Asset maintenance cost per quarter from $300 to $250
Asset maintenance costDecrease infrastructure expense per employee from $400 to $350 in the current quarter.
Infrastructure expense per employeeDecrease training expense per user from $1200 to $800
Training expense per userConclusion
These OKRs focus on making any company in the IT industry effective and powerful enough to stand out in terms of overall performance based on alignment, execution and traceability. Information technology is an ever changing and dynamic industry that requires constant monitoring and observation. It is essential to cope up with the industrial trends without compromising the performance parameters. A great OKR software always focuses on enhancing the profitability and improving the reliability of an organization. Also don’t forget to check out some of the other great OKR examples on Customer experience OKRs, Banking OKRs, Sales OKRs, Marketing OKRs, HR and Engineering OKRs.