Blog: David Loshin

« Oracle and Siebel - My Two Cents | Main | Are Your Customers Yours Forever? Or Only Until The Warranty Expires? »

Data Intelligence and Performance Metrics

Here is my latest challenge to you readers: I had a heck of a time trying to explain to some colleagues the value of presenting the results of measured metrics tied to business performance, and I need some help in figuring out a good way to do it.

Consider the scenario: An organization has the ability to provide some basic reporting statistics on the technical (and some of the operational) aspects of their applications. But it is not necessarily clear what business value is being provided by these statistics, and whether these metrics are relevant to achieving business objectives.

Perhaps because I eat, live, and breathe data and business intelligence, the definition and use of business performance metrics tied to business data is obvious. In this case, the questions revolve around performance improvement. But how can you improve a process if you can't measure how successful you are at it in the first place?

Here is what I want to be able to convey:
1) Before improving a process, determine what the success criteria are
2) Success criteria are communicated via meeting or beating a threshold of expected performance
3) Expected performance is quantified by measuring key performance indicators
4) Key performance indicators are measurable aspects of the outputs of your process
5) Continued monitoring of your key performance indicators helps in alerting the business manager when a process does not perform within expected control limits

That is what I wanted to say, but I think it kind of came out like this:

"... bla bla bla performance indicators bla bla ... process improvement ... bla bla bla ... control limits ... bla bla bla"

Suddenly, I am gripped with fear that I have transformed into a buzz-phrase spewing robot. (Don't worry, I got over it pretty quickly.)

But here is the challenge: How do you effectively communicate the value of systemic thinking and reporting to an audience largely experienced in procedural and operational processing?

Share: