Jason Dove's 3-part series has so far discussed the risks of measuring elapsed time across reporting periods and the pitfall that arises when ITIL reporting focuses purely on SLA metrics. In his third and final instalment we look at the flaws of Snapshot Reporting; why they are not auditable, recreateable and are capable of potentially undermining the entire ITIL framework.

The first paper in this series focused on an issue that purely resided in the reporting area. The second paper looked at a problem that is as much a process issue as it is reporting. In this, the third and final part of the series, we look at the flaws of Snapshot Reporting; why they are not auditable, recreateable and are capable of potentially undermining the entire ITIL framework.

Snapshot Reporting: A Short Definition

A Snapshot Report is a type/style of report that is used to capture data as it is at the single point in time when the report was refreshed and tends to rely on the values in status fields as opposed to defined date ranges.

Reading that description may make Snapshots sound harmless enough, but misusing them can lead to a range of pitfalls as the reporting suite grows and evolves.

This often means that organizations do not realize there is a very real risk until the flawed solution is already entrenched. By this time a suite of Snapshot Reports can have expanded, building one pitfall on top of another…

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