Risk identification and project health prediction in IT service management

Strategic Outsourcing (SO) services allow clients to offload the operation of IT systems and processes to a specialized service provider, so they can focus on their core business functions. SO projects are multi-year engagements and are governed by a myriad of factors throughout their lifetime. The goal of service management is to ensure uninterrupted delivery of service from the provider to the client, while meeting a number of quality and performance goals. For the service provider, such objectives include continuous profitability of the contract, high execution quality and ultimately, high client satisfaction. The latter requires quality in delivery (as evidenced by a number of key performance indicators), controlled cost, and service responsiveness.