Key Performance Indicators: Developing, Implementing, and Using Winning KPIs, 3rd Edition
by David Parmenter
Chapter 1The Great KPI Misunderstanding
Many organizations are working with the wrong measures, many of which are incorrectly termed key performance indicators (KPIs). I believe it is a myth to consider all performance measures to be KPIs. From my research over the past 25 years I have come to the conclusion that there are four types of performance measures. These four measures are in two groups: result indicators and performance indicators.
I use the term result indicators to reflect the fact that many measures are a summation of more than one team's input. These measures are useful in looking at the combined teamwork but, unfortunately, do not help management fix a problem as it is difficult to pinpoint which teams were responsible for the performance or nonperformance.
Performance indicators, on the other hand, are measures that can be tied to a team or a cluster of teams working closely together for a common ...