Live from Congility: The balanced scorecard

The balanced scorecard: measuring the success of enterprise cooperation, by Dawn Stevens

Why measure success?

• To prove that the promises, goals, etc were met
• To validate (or correct) assumptions we made on the project
• To alert the team to anything odd that happened in this project

What is important to measure?

• How much money are we saving?
• Are we moving fast enough to finish our goals?
• Are we making errors, and how many? Are we reducing them?
• Gather information on what customers think
• Are we improving as we go along?
• Are we making progress toward a long-term goal?

Different types of indicators:

• Input
  • How many resources did we use?
  • How many hours did we spend?
• Output
  • What were the outcomes?
  • How many of something did we create?
• Process
  • Are we being efficient?
  • Are we being productive?
  • How much time are we spending editing?
• Directional
  • Are we improving?
  • Are we reducing errors?
• Financial
  • Translation costs
  • Other monetary concerns
• Leading
  • Predictions – what do we think the outcome will be?
• Lagging
  • Something we measure afterwards, to use for next time
  • Might measure customer satisfaction, for example
• Actionable
  • We want to measure things within our own control
  • Otherwise it just ends up being frustrating

Warnings:

• People will get focused on what you’re measuring, and may stop doing other thigns
  • i.e. measuring productivity may make people stop helping one another
• People will not do what not asked, if they’re very aware of measurements
  • i.e. measuring bug fixed might result in writing sloppier code
• People may fear they’re being evaluated personally, rather than see the measurements as neutral
• Although there are tons of things you can measure, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are all things you should measure

How much to measure?

• If you don’t gather enough information
  • You won’t get the full picture
  • It won’t be actionable
  • You won’t get the necessary insight into what would make you successful
  • You may end up treating the symptoms, and not the disease
• If you gather too much information
  • You won’t learn what to focus on
  • It blurs the bigger picture information
  • The organization turns into a reporting factory
• The right amount of information:
  • A clear vision and strategy
  • The concerns of customers, the team, the business
  • A variety of indicator types
  • Both quantitative and qualitative data

How do you create a balanced scorecard?

• Identify your goals
• Select 3-6 domains for measurement
• Write down 1-3 critical success factors for each
• Identify no more than 6 measurable key performance indicators for each success factor
• Define success criteria for each performance indicator
• Weight the success factors, performance indicators, and criteria as needed (determine the highest priorities and weight accordingly)

Don’t bother tracking metrics if you don’t intend to use them!!!