Effective Metrics: What is Measured, Improves

Anju is a Program Manager, John Snow Labs in Delhi.

A metric is a quantifiable or countable measure. Metrics can be used in different functions like planning, organizing, controlling and improvement. They tell you accurate measurements about how a process is functioning and provide a basis for you to suggest improvements. Paving the road to success depends on companies’ ability to be well-informed about their own business—and they achieve that knowledge by developing and utilizing effective metrics.

Management philosophy believes that what is measured gets managed. Hence, metrics suggest whether the process is in order or needs external interference. They form the basis of control in any organization. Effective metrics will:

  • Drive the organization’s strategy
  • Provide focus for an organization, department or employee
  • Help make decisions
  • Drive performance

There are number of software packages that help to gather metrics and can be used to check the performance. With the evolution of business intelligence and data visualization platforms, more impressive dashboards are being thrown at you—which can really give you that momentarily “Wow!” feeling.

But it is very unlikely that any pre-defined metrics will be the right set for your organization. Nevertheless, large companies spend a lot of money and resources—first in evaluating these software applications, and then …

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Published at Mon, 12 Mar 2018 04:00:00 +0000