Some companies are also tracking how effectively technology is supporting external customers. At DHL Express, the IT organization monitors customers' ability to use the company's Web site to track and trace package shipments, says Simon Bentley, interim CIO of U.S. and Canada DHL Express business IT in Scottsdale, Ariz.

And that's just the beginning. "In terms of IT operations, we measure just about anything you ever heard of," says Bentley.

Bucking tradition

Still, many IT organizations continue to struggle with mapping their performance against business outcomes. "IT has traditionally measured itself in very technical terms that don't mean much to people outside of IT," says Craig Symons, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. These include statistics about availability and costs per megabyte of computing.

Business leaders agree. "There's been a huge disconnect between what business people care about -- i.e., capabilities delivered -- and what IT people care about," such as the percentage of projects that are being delivered on time and within budget, says Christopher Lochhead, chief marketing officer at Mercury Interactive Corp., a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of business software.