CISA Governance and Management of IT Practice Question
An IT manager needs to ensure that the organization's IT resources are used efficiently. Which of the following is the BEST metric to measure IT resource utilization?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse availability metrics (uptime) with utilization metrics, or they mistakenly equate operational outputs (tickets resolved, project completion) with resource efficiency, leading them to pick a superficially plausible but incorrect answer.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Average server CPU utilization
Average server CPU utilization directly measures how much of the computing capacity is being consumed over time, making it the most relevant metric for assessing whether IT resources are being used efficiently. High or low CPU utilization can indicate over-provisioning, under-utilization, or potential performance bottlenecks, enabling the IT manager to optimize resource allocation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
System uptime percentage
Why it's wrong here
Uptime measures availability of systems, not the proportion of provisioned capacity actually consumed, so fully idle hardware still reports high uptime. It is tempting because availability is a core operational metric, and would be correct when the requirement is measuring service reliability against agreed service level targets.
- ✓
Average server CPU utilization
Why this is correct
Average server CPU utilisation directly quantifies how much processing capacity is consumed versus available, giving a concrete efficiency measure of IT resource usage. It satisfies the manager's need to measure utilisation, unlike metrics such as incident counts or uptime that reflect availability rather than efficiency.
- ✗
Number of help desk tickets resolved per day
Why it's wrong here
Ticket resolution counts service demand handled, not consumption of CPU, storage or network capacity, so it cannot reveal idle or over-provisioned infrastructure. It is tempting because help desk throughput genuinely measures support team productivity, and would suit a service-desk performance objective rather than an IT resource utilisation one.
- ✗
Percentage of projects completed on time
Why it's wrong here
Schedule adherence reflects project delivery performance, not how heavily servers, storage or network capacity are consumed. It is tempting because on-time completion is a recognised efficiency indicator for project management, and would be the right metric when the objective is assessing delivery capability rather than infrastructure utilisation.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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