TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter offers some guidelines for metrics to use in your organization. It presents some metrics that are commonly collected in organizations, some tips on how to devise metrics, and some advice on structuring your metrics process.
We could not possibly discuss everything necessary to set up and administer a top-notch metrics program in one small chapter. To that end, we have listed several books on the subject in the Summary section of this chapter.
For a discussion on the importance of collecting consistent data, and when and how to collect that data, read Chapter 18 ("Statistical Process Control") and Chapter 19 ("A High Maturity Perspective"). By the way, you will find that we use the terms "measurement" and "metric" interchangeably. We apologize if this offends you, but we decided that we really do not want to weigh in on the war of words around measurement. We expect our readers to be smart enough to make the translation from the word "metric" to "measure," if they prefer.
When beginning a process improvement effort in an organization, invariably a project manager or the executive in charge will pull one of us aside and ask, "What metrics should we collect?" We hate that question. We hate it because it shows that the person asking the question has no clue about what process improvement is and generally only wants a "quick fix" for his organization. "Just tell us what to collect, we'll do it, and then we're done." We do not...
