Mean time to respond
(also MTTR)
Mean time to respond definition
In the context of information technologies (IT), the mean time to respond is the average time it takes to restore an IT system to normal operations after issuing an alert about its failure. Mean time to respond is closely tied to the concept of the “mean time to repair,” but it also includes the time it takes for the IT professionals to begin repairs.
See also: mean time to repair, mean time to recovery, recovery time objective, cyber incident response plan, cyber incident, response time
Measuring the mean time to respond
The mean time to recovery covers the length of time between notifying the IT professionals about the failure and the system being restored to full functionality. You calculate the mean time to respond by dividing the total response time spent over the duration of a maintenance contract by the total number of failures.
Mean time to respond components
- Notification: Time taken to alert the repairing party about the failure (for example, by submitting a request form or calling the IT department).
- Diagnosis: Time spent determining the root cause of the failure, including analyzing logs, examining configurations, and investigating dependencies.
- Repair: Time needed to fix the issue and restore the service to full functionality.
- Testing: Time spent on tests to make sure the service is functioning as expected after the repair. The IT technicians may need to test different scenarios to finally approve the solution.