Q&A: KPIs for KPIs? (AKA Who watches the watcher?)
This is very similar to a previous posting here: Measuring Metrics, coulda shoulda woulda….
Recently someone asked [stated] “IT is strong in process thinking. But it seems there’s often no process in place to manage and control a KPI/Reporting?”
Here’s my response:
Sadly, I agree with your statement/question.
A KPI/Report is just another tool. Like any other tool, it is necessary to frequently revisit its relevance and usefulness to the organization. If KPIs and/or reports are deemed out of date, an effort should be made to update the KPI/report to once again make it useful or the KPI/report should be discarded.
Not only is it important that the data being compiled become usable information, it is also important that the data be turned to a beneficial use for the company. Knowing what decisions should be made, or what business cases should be decided based on the data is also very important and should be clearly stated early on (to help define the types of metrics being derived.)
It is true that too often, too much time is invested in preparing reports and statistics that are of very little use to an organization… it is often possible to reclaim lost time by retiring useless or mis-used data points.
Do a quick Google search for “reporting life cycle”, you’ll find multiple references to “Authoring, Management and Delivery.” These three components are crucial to the success and applicability of metrics to any organization. The reporting life cycle ensures that the data is not only collected from the proper source (raw data), but that it is formatted in a way that works for the end consumer (becomes information) and then is delivered to the right consumers that are capable of acting on the information. Interestingly most of the sites that document the life cycle leave off a “Review” portion of a real life cycle process.
Remember the ol’ Plan-Do-Check-Act (or Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycle? (see attached link to wikipedia.)
Just remember; if you’re implementing reports and metrics — revisit them occasionally. To quote a cliché: “bad data is worse than no data.”
I provided the following link: WikiPedia PDCA
The response to my question, the asker wrote: “Jerry I agree. At the end there’s no process in place or ITIL process used to manage the process from KPI/Report requirement to delivery. Plan Do Check Act? What’s the purpose of a KPI/report? Audience? Why are there so many reports/KPI’s in place/scheduled? Are they still used? What about redundancy?”
Very good questions, what do you think?
