Planning and Designing Effective Metrics

154 Pages·2014·1.78 MB·English

by  Martin Klubeck

PLANNING AND DESIGNING
EFFECTIVE METRICS
________________
Martin Klubeck
Planning and Designing Effective Metrics
Copyright © 2015 by Martin Klubeck This work is subject to copyright. All
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ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-48420827-4
ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-0826-7
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Managing Director: Welmoed Spahr Lead Editor: Jeff Olson
Technical Reviewer: Russ Cheesman Editorial Board: Steve
Anglin, Mark Beckner, Gary Cornell, Louise Corrigan, James
DeWolf, Jonathan Gennick, Robert Hutchinson, Michelle
Lowman, James Markham, Matthew Moodie, Jeff Olson,
Jeffrey Pepper, Douglas Pundick, Ben Renow-Clarke, Gwenan
Spearing, Matt Wade, Steve Weiss Coordinating Editor: Annie
Beck, Rita Fernando Copy Editor: Kimberly Burton
Compositor: Mary Sudul
Indexer: SPi Global
Artists: Martin Klubeck and Alyssa Klubeck Cover Designer: Anna
Ishchenko
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For my children and my wife. My best measures of
success are your levels of happiness.
Contents
About the Author
About the Technical Reviewer
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Metrics: The Basics
Chapter 2: Establishing A Common Language
Chapter 3: Designing and Documenting Your Metrics
Chapter 4: Using Metrics as Indicators
Chapter 5: Using the Answer Key
Chapter 6: Establishing Standards and Benchmarks
Appendix A: Tools and Resources
Index
About the Author
Martin Klubeck is a strategy and planning consultant at the University of Notre
Dame and a recognized expert in the field of practical metrics. He holds a
master’s degree from Webster University in human resources development and a
bachelor’s in computer science from Chapman University. Other books by
Martin include; Why Organizations Struggle So Hard to Improve So Little,
Metrics: How to Improve Key Business Results, and The Professional
Development Toolbox. His passion for simplifying the complex has led to the
development of a simple system for developing meaningful metrics. Klubeck is
also the founder of the Consortium for the Establishment of Information
Technology Performance Standards, a nonprofit organization focused on
providing much-needed standards for measures. You can find more information
about Martin and his efforts in simplifying the complex at his website,
MKKnowledgeBuilders.com.
About the Technical Reviewer
Russ Cheesman is a senior information technology professional and consultant
with experiences in all phases of the System Development Life Cycle. Much of
his career had been devoted to enabling IT solutions for business problems
and/or opportunities. He has served as an IT manager and practitioner in many
industry sectors, including banking/financial, manufacturing, construction, retail,
pharmaceutical, telecommunications, and health care. Mr. Cheesman, in recent
years, has been practicing business performance measurement and management
within several IT and health care organizations through the use of business
strategy, balanced scorecards, metrics, key performance indicators, and business
analytical systems.
Mr. Cheesman was happy to serve as the senior technical reviewer for this book
and related concepts on metrics, and looks forward to its release and subsequent
value to all those individuals, groups, and organizations that desire improvement,
continuous maturation, and peak performance.
Acknowledgments
The purpose of an acknowledgment, as I understand it, is to let those people who
helped make this achievement possible know that I didn’t forget their
contributions. This chore makes this easily the most stressful part of writing a
book.
I don’t want to forget any of my friends or colleagues who helped me by
reviewing, critiquing, or suggesting edits to the work as it was in progress,
especially: Don Padgett, Danita Leese, Leah Lang, Keith (Mac) McIntosh, Marin
Stanek, and my brother Irving. Thanks for the short-notice reads. Thanks for the
kind words. And thanks for being there.
Of course, Russ Cheesman has to be thanked for his work as my technical
reviewer. Although Russ and I disagreed as often as we agreed about metrics and
their use, when asked for a recommendation, I immediately thought of Russ for
the job. His honest and passionate position, his large knowledge base, and his
expertise made him an easy choice. Thanks, Russ, for your hard work, your
many suggestions, and your honest appraisals.
I want to give a special thanks to Michael Langthorne. Not only were you my
most dependable reviewer, but your early and consistent encouragement to take
this journey, on my own, was instrumental to me starting and finishing this work.
I appreciate your help, guidance, and gentle but steady shoves very much.
Thanks. I truly could not have done this without you.
I also want to thank Jeff Olson, Kimberly Burton, and Annie Beck. Although
you made up the Apress editorial team, and were “just doing your jobs,” I can’t
say I saw you that way. I greatly appreciate your help. You were honest,
consistent, and fair. You were focused on producing the best product possible for
Apress while showing sincere concern for my position as an author. Someday, if
the chance ever arrives, I’m buying the first round.
Last, but as the saying goes, not least, I want to thank my family. Especially my
wife, Kristine. This time around, you successfully feigned interest in my
progress, if not in the work itself. I appreciate the effort and I love you dearly.
Alyssa, thanks for your help with the fairy tales and allowing me to use your art
work for the book. I look forward to seeing your name on more jacket covers. I
love you.
And a final, special thank you to you, whoever you are, reading this book. You
are special—you must be because no one reads the acknowledgements unless
they think they’ll find their name listed. So you must be one of the rare people
who read books from cover to cover. That means you may also be the type of
reader who will use the material within these pages. You may also be the type of
person who will share your thoughts, likes, and dislikes. So, here’s to hoping I
hear from you and thanks in advance for any feedback you choose to share. I
hope this book helps you navigate the sometimes dangerous waters of
developing metrics.
Note 1: This book is an abridged version of my book, Metrics: How To Improve
Key Business Results (Apress, 2011). We thought a shorter version of the book
might help those who have a more focused need on just getting a metrics
program started. This version is intended to provide the minimum needed to be
successful in creating meaningful metrics.
Since this abridged version of Metrics: How To Improve Key Business Results is
a child of the original, the acknowledgments are the same except I’d like to offer
another thanks to the Apress team for believing enough in my mission of
simplifying metrics that they championed this version.
Note 2: While I have worked hard to provide you, the reader, with real
examples (real situations, interactions, experiences, measures, and data), I had to
temper that effort with protecting the privacy and data owned by others. To this
end, I have, where necessary, blended and combined individuals into composites.
I have also done the same with data. As you will read, I fully believe that data is
“owned” by the provider(s) of that data, so I have protected the identities and
data of those whose experiences I used for much of this book.