Metrics: How to Improve Key Business Results

Metrics: The BasicsAn Introduction

Of all the possible organizational-improvement tools, metrics stands out for me as the most requested, misunderstood, feared—and useful. Defining metrics from a high level requires that I give you the What, Why, When, Where, Who, and How.

What

Metrics can be defined in many ways. I spend the beginning of the book offering a common language for defining and using metrics. For me, metrics are a means of telling a complete story for the purpose of improving something. Usually, the idea is to improve an organization. Sometimes, though, you will want to focus on improving a process. In the end, anything you improve should be able to align back to improvements that help the organization.

Metrics are a tool for improvement. ...