Part 7 (2/2)

Everyone that you plan to share your metrics with becomes a customer of that metric If they are not customers, then there is no reason to share the information with them You may be a proponent of openness and want to post your metrics on a public web site, but the infor to you It is the property of those providing the data It is not public inforanization answer a root question Why share it with the world? And today we know that if you share it publicly, it's in the public domain forever

The provider of the data should be the primary metric customer

The possible custooes into creating the metric

Those who you choose to share your metrics with

Those who ask you for the metric and can clearly explain how they will use the metric

It is important to clearly identify the customers of your metrics because they will have a say in how you present the metric, its validity, and hoill be used If you are to keep to the promise of hoill and won't be used, you have to knoill use it and on't

These customers should be documented in your development plan, with a note on the type of custo the data? Are they the front-line supervisors? Are they executive ement? The type of customer will help define what level of information they receive and the communications necessary around the metric's use

Who will and won't use the metric is as io to the next component, let's take a sanity check I know quite well that sometimes you can't tell your boss ”no” I know that your bossdata, measures, or information and may not be sympathetic to your need for assurances that he won't misuse or abuse the information you provide If I believe the accounts of nuers far outnu that you fall on your sword over an innocuous infor on your position in the organization, that if you are put in the unenviable position as a er and the workers-do everything you can within your power to ensure that the information you provide is not , and Collecting

The gathering of the data, measures, and inforure 3-3 shows the tiure 3-3 Schedules

Mostat annual, monthly, or weekly reports of most metrics Some are event-driven and require that you report them periodically As part of your metric development plan, you will have to schedule at least three of the following facets of yourLook at the schedule fro Start hat you need Take into account the customers that you've identified to help determine when you will need the metrics Based on how the metrics will be used will also determine when you'll need to report it

Schedule for analysis Based on the need, you can work backward to determine when you'll need to analyze the information to finalize thetrifecta, since it is purely dependent upon how long it will take you to get the job done Of course, the other variable is the amount of data and the complexity of the analysis But, ultih in advance to get it done and review your results I highly recommend you have at least one other pair of eyes review your analysis Depending on the complexity of your data, you may need a quality check of the raw data used in the analysis also

Schedule for collection When will you collect the data? Based on when you will have to report the data, determine when you will need to analyze it Then, based on that, figure out when you will need to collect it Often, the schedule for collecting the data will be dependent on how you collect it If it's autoather it whenever you want If it's dependent on human input, you may have to wait for periodic updates If your data is survey-based, you'll have to wait until you administer the surveys and the additional time for people to complete them

Since you started at the end, you knohen you need the data and can work backwards to the date that you need to have the data in hand Depending on the collection method you've chosen, you can plan out when you need to start the collection process and schedule accordingly

Nothing new here-if you want to achieve success, you et the chance” Plan it Schedule it If it's worth doing, it's worth planning to do it right

And if it's worth doing right, it's worth ht more than once But remember, the develop it right the first ti yourself to think it all out

analysis

Docu the analysis phase

Figure 3-4 analysis

This may be the most obvious section of the , the next thing most people think of when I mention metrics is analysis All of the statistics classes I've taken lead to the saathered This analysis documentation in the plan orithms; each should be clearly spelled out for future reference

What may be in contention is the infallibility of the analysis tools There are those that believe if you have accurate data (a few don't even care if it's accurate), you can predict, explain, or ih statistical analysis I'reat respect for the benefits of analysis and, of course, I rely on it to detern of the metric-from the root question, to the abstract picture, to the complete story-is more important than the analysis of the data That may seem odd If we fail to analyze properly, ill probably end up with the wrong conclusions and, thereby, the wrong answers But, if we haven't designed the ht answers-regardless of the quality of our analysis

And if we have a good foundation (the right components), we should end up with a useful metric If the analysis is off center, chances are we'll notice this in the reporting and review of thefoundation, the quality of the analysis is irrelevant

While the analysis is secondary to the foundation, it is important to capture your analysis The analysis techniques (formulas and processes) are the second-raphical representation) When the ed If I've laid a strong foundation through n, the final product will still need to be tweaked

Consider it part of the negotiations with ement If you've worked with the leadershi+p to detered not to wear out your welco your part of the bargain You are going to give the leader what she wants-useful answers to help inforh the question is hers, she er accepts a metric as is They almost always feel the need to ger-picture view of the organization or simply the need to feel that they contributed, I don't know and it doesn'tthe graphical representation

If the graphical presentation changes, you may very well have to also tweak the analysis that fed the e of custoe custoe your analysis

The raw data (the nus frothe analysis and the analysis itself needs to change

It helps to have the analysis docuain to help you think it through, but also for replication Of all the parts of the plan, this component needs to be documented to allow repeatability You have to ensure that you analyze the data the saes are captured since this directly affects the final metric displayed

A Picture for the Rest of Us

You've drawn a picture of your metric This picture was an abstract representation of the answer to the root question Another ht-out metric is another picture-one your custoraph, or table Plan to include one in your ure 3-5 Visual Depiction

It can easily be more than one picture If you need a dashboard raphs, and tables-then so be it If you've done a good job with the root question and abstract version of your raphically represent the ood news is that you can't go wrong with this component If you pick a stacked bar chart, and later realize it should have been trend lines-you can change it No hare the way you represent your metric if you find a different structure would tell your story better, but you may need to have multiple representations anyway This will depend on who the customer is, how each custoroup, the manner in which you present the metric may vary

This coh Find ways to explain visually so that you need less prose A picture can truly tell a story of a thousand words No ood it is, you'll want to add prose to ensure the viewer gets it right, but ant that prose to be as brief as possible We want the picture to tell the story, clearly Don't over-complicate the picture

You may, in fact, have more data than necessary to tell your story You may find yourself reluctant to leave out information, but sometimes less really is more Especially if the extra information could confuse the audience You're not required to put data into your metric just because you've collected it

Also, experiht even test ideas for the visuals with your metric customers

Narrative Description

I love it when someone asks, ”Do I have to spell it out for you?” My answer is frequently, ”Thanks! That would be nice”