Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) Explained: How to Measure & Improve It

In network operations, every second of downtime can mean lost revenue, frustrated customers, and damaged reputations. At the heart of measuring a NOC's effectiveness lies a critical metric: Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). But MTTR is more than just a number—it's a reflection of your team's efficiency, your network's resilience, and your ability to deliver on promises made to clients.

However, MTTR is often misunderstood and, more critically, mismeasured. Many NOCs are flying blind, operating on incomplete data and false assumptions about their true performance. In this guide, we'll pull back the curtain on MTTR, revealing why your current measurements might be wildly inaccurate and how this inaccuracy could be costing you dearly.

We'll explore how top-performing NOCs are leveraging automation, standardized processes, and a culture of continuous improvement to drive their MTTR down to unprecedented levels. Whether you're struggling with "selective ticketing," grappling with recurring issues or simply looking to take your NOC's performance to the next level, this guide will provide you with actionable strategies to transform your approach to incident resolution.

What is Mean Time to Resolution?

First things first, we need to clarify what we're talking about when we say MTTR. There are actually several "R"s that get thrown around:

• Mean Time to Restore
• Mean Time to Repair
• Mean Time to Resolve
• Mean Time to Recovery

Each of these has a slightly different focus, and those distinctions are critical.

For instance, Mean Time to Restore is about getting services back up for customers, while Mean Time to Repair is about fixing the underlying network issue. In our NOC, we often focus on restoration for our clients' services, but we also track repair times for our network.

Mean Time to Resolution vs. Other MTTR Metrics

Let's level set here by looking at these metrics through the lens of the NOC:

It's important to note that different stakeholders might be interested in different metrics. Your network engineers might be more concerned with repair times, while your customers are focused on restoration times. As a NOC, we need to be able to track and report on both, but our primary focus is on how quickly we can get services back up and running for customers.

The Importance of Accurate Measurement

You can't improve what you don't measure, and you can't measure what you don't see. This is where a lot of NOCs and ITOps teams more generally fall short. We call it "selective ticketing" — only creating tickets for big, obvious issues and letting smaller ones go unticketed and, therefore, untracked. But here's the thing: those small issues add up, and they're crucial for understanding your true MTTR.

But this approach can severely skew your MTTR measurements. Let's say you have ten 5-minute outages and one 1-hour outage. If you only ticket the big one, your MTTR looks like it's an hour. But if you're tracking everything, your actual MTTR is closer to 6 minutes. That's a huge difference — and one teams ought to care about.

This discrepancy can lead to several problems:

• Inaccurate performance metrics: You're not getting a true picture of your network's stability.
• Missed patterns: Small, recurring issues might indicate larger underlying problems.
• SLA violations: You might be promising better uptime than you're actually delivering.

We've seen this firsthand with clients who come to us saying they have about 20 incidents a month. Once we implement comprehensive ticketing, that number often jumps to 50 or more. It's not that their network suddenly got worse — we're just capturing everything that was already happening.

This can be a shock for IT and network teams. They might say, "We never had these problems before!" The reality is, they did — they just didn't know about them. Or worse, they were relying on team members to handle issues informally, like waking up in the middle of the night to fix something without logging it.

Getting to accurate MTTR measurement

Simply put, to get an accurate MTTR, you need to:

Implementing these practices does more than just give you a more accurate MTTR. It provides several key benefits. You'll have a much clearer picture of how stable your network really is, including all those small hiccups that might have been flying under the radar. You'll also be able to do better capacity planning. If you're seeing a lot more incidents than you thought, for example, it might be time to expand your team or invest in more automation.

It also helps with problem management. With a complete record of all issues, you're better equipped to spot patterns and address root causes.

Perhaps most importantly, you can get more accurate SLA reporting by confidently reporting on your uptime to clients, knowing you're capturing every second of downtime. Lastly, with hard data on all your outages, it's easier to make the case for network upgrades or new tools.

Remember, the goal isn't to make your MTTR look good on paper. It's to truly understand how your network is performing so you can make it better. Sometimes, implementing comprehensive measurement might make your MTTR look worse in the short term. But that's okay — you're now working with real data, and that's the first step to real improvement.

Improving Your MTTR

Once you're measuring accurately, you can start improving.

Here are some key strategies we typically employ ourselves, and for the NOCs, we advise through our consulting service.

The Role of Visibility

Improving MTTR isn't just about fixing things faster - it's about seeing the whole picture. If you're not documenting everything, you can't measure it, and if you can't measure it, you can't fix it.

Good ticketing practices and accurate measurements give you visibility into what's really happening in your network.

This visibility is crucial for several reasons:

• Identifying Recurring Issues: Small, seemingly insignificant issues like dribbling bit errors on a link can be signs of potential failures. Many teams ignore these because investigating them can be difficult and expensive. However, tracking these minor issues can help spot patterns that indicate larger problems brewing.
• Spotting Trends Over Time: With comprehensive data, you can start to see patterns that might not be obvious day-to-day. For instance, you might notice that a piece of equipment is slowly failing over time. This kind of trend analysis can help you predict and prevent future outages.
• Justifying Investments: When you have hard data on your network's performance, it's easier to make the case for upgrades or new equipment. You can determine when it's worth investing to push for that extra "nine" of uptime, versus living with a slightly lower uptime to avoid excessive costs.
• Providing Accurate Uptime Statistics: This is crucial for maintaining good relationships with your customers. Large clients may be monitoring your service 24/7. If you promise 99.9% uptime but only deliver 99.5%, they're likely to ask for service credits.
• Understanding Your True Network Stability: When transitioning from a homegrown NOC to a more structured approach, it's common to see the number of reported incidents increase significantly — sometimes doubling or more. This increased visibility can be shocking at first, but it's necessary for truly understanding and improving your network's performance.

Also, with better visibility, you can better inform your customers. Instead of relying on ad hoc processes or individual memory, a clear process ensures that issues are properly tracked and customers are kept in the loop.

Remember, visibility isn't just about looking good on paper. It's about truly understanding your network's performance so you can make informed decisions and provide the best possible service to your customers. If you sell a service without knowing about frequent brief outages, you'll end up paying for it later.

Improving visibility might make your stats look worse in the short term, but it's the first step towards real, sustainable improvements in your network's performance and reliability. It allows you to see the full picture of your network's health, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately provide better service to your customers.

The Human Factor

While we've talked a lot about systems and processes, it's crucial not to overlook the human element in improving MTTR. Complacency can be a significant issue in NOCs, and it manifests in various ways that can negatively impact your network's performance and your ability to resolve issues quickly.

One common form of complacency is getting used to recurring issues. For instance, a T1 line might go down every day at a specific time, and over time, the team just accepts it as normal. This acceptance can lead to missed improvement opportunities and mask larger underlying issues.

Another aspect of the human factor is the tendency to take shortcuts or bypass established processes. In smaller or less structured NOCs, team members might handle issues informally. They might wake up in the middle of the night to fix something without logging it, or they might know a quick fix for a common problem and implement it without creating a ticket. While this might seem efficient in the moment, it leads to incomplete data and can hide systemic issues.

The human factor also plays a role in how issues are prioritized and handled. Without clear processes, individuals might make subjective decisions about what's important enough to ticket or which issues to escalate. This can lead to inconsistent service and missed opportunities for improvement.

To address these human factors, we've found it's important to:

Sometimes the quickest way to improve MTTR is simply to ensure everyone is following the processes you already have in place. By addressing the human factors and fostering a culture of discipline and continuous improvement, you can significantly enhance your NOC's performance and responsiveness

Final Thoughts and Next Steps

Improving your Mean Time to Resolution isn't just about making numbers look good on a spreadsheet — it's about delivering better service to your customers, reducing the strain on your team, and, ultimately, protecting your bottom line. The journey to optimal MTTR is ongoing, but the steps are clear:

Start with accurate measurement. You can't improve what you don't measure, and you can't measure what you don't see. Implement comprehensive ticketing for all issues, no matter how small.

Standardize your processes. Develop clear runbooks that guide your team through common issues, ensuring consistent and efficient responses.

Automate where possible. From ticketing to simple resolutions, automation can dramatically reduce your MTTR for common issues.

Invest in redundancy. While it doesn't directly improve MTTR, it can significantly enhance service uptime—which is what your customers ultimately care about.

Implement robust problem management. Don't just fix issues as they arise; dig deep to find and address root causes.

Foster a culture of continuous improvement. Encourage your team to always be looking for ways to enhance processes and reduce resolution times.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the challenge, you're not alone. Many organizations struggle to implement these changes effectively while still managing their day-to-day operations. That's where INOC comes in.

At INOC, we've helped numerous clients dramatically improve their MTTR and overall NOC performance. Our team brings years of experience in implementing best practices, leveraging cutting-edge tools, and fostering a culture of excellence in NOC operations.

We've seen firsthand how proper measurement can reveal hidden issues, doubling or even tripling the number of incidents a NOC is aware of. We've helped clients implement automated systems that not only improve MTTR but provide a true picture of network stability. And we've guided teams through the process of standardizing their operations, leading to more consistent, efficient incident resolution.

Whether you're looking to overhaul your entire NOC operation or simply need guidance on implementing some of the strategies we've discussed, we 're here to help. We can work with you to assess your current performance, identify areas for improvement, and develop a tailored plan to take your NOC to the next level.

Reach out to us today, and let's start the conversation about how we can help you achieve world-class NOC performance.

No matter where our discussion takes us, you’ll leave with clear, actionable takeaways that inform decisions and move you forward. Here are some common topics we might discuss:

• Your support goals and challenges
• Assessing and aligning NOC support with broader business needs
• NOC operations design and tech review
• Guidance on new NOC operations
• Questions on what INOC offers and if it’s a fit for your organization
• Opportunities to partner with INOC to reach more customers and accelerate business together
• Turning up outsourced support on our Ops 3.0 Platform