Metrics

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"Metrics are a system of parameters or ways of quantitative and periodic assessment of a process that is to be measured, along with the procedures to carry out such measurement and the procedures for the interpretation of the assessment in the light of previous or comparable assessments. Metrics are usually specialized by the subject area, in which case they are valid only within a certain domain and cannot be directly benchmarked or interpreted outside it."

If the forgoing isn't enough to scare you off, then you are considerably more erudite than the typical reader. Metrics are measurements. It is just as simple as that. We use them all the time in our everyday lives. Entangling them in wordy definitions is just intended to make them seem more mysterious and technical than they really are. So what sorts of things do we measure in our daily lives and how do we use them. Shopping for food is a good place to start. At the meat counter, there is a choice of cuts of different kinds of meat, all at different prices. If we just look at the total price, we may be mislead. A nice round steak might cost $10.00 while a round roast might cost $8.00 even though it weighs the same as the steak. So to get the best value for our money we tend to look at the price per unit weight. This is a microcosm of the field of metrics. There are two basis types of metrics. The first type is the elemental or basic measurement such as weight, length, time, volume, and in this example, cost. The second type is derived, normally from the elemental measurements. At the meat counter, the derived metric is dollars/weight (VIZ. $7.49/kg). This is called a normalized metric. Generally speaking, normalized metrics are the most useful because they allow us to make comparisons between things that are different. Some other examples are miles/gallon, dollars/gallon, dollars/share, dollars/hr, and dollars/square foot to give but a few. We also see metrics in sports. In hockey its shots on goal and plus/minus ratio. In baseball its batting average and errors per game. All of these numbers are provided in newspapers and sports magazines and if they disappeared there would be a great uproar among fans. “When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of the meager and unsatisfactory kind.” - Lord Kelvin Now Lord Kelvin wasn't right about everything he spoke about. He predicted that heavier than air flight was impossible. But about metrics, he was dead right. We as shoppers apply this principle whenever we go to the market. If a cut of meat is marked $10.00 but has no weight assigned, we are likely to look for something else. The same would apply if the weight were given but no price. This is just plain old ordinary common sense. Yet we may go though our professional lives without using metrics to guide us in our work. Maintaining a "meager and unsatisfactory" knowledge about the way you earn your living is probably not the best approach. We now return to the program already in progress.

The following ISM3 table suggests the elements that must be known for a metric to be fully defined. This table is criticized sometimes as it omits controls against bias.

(Source of this table: ISM3) Metrics are used in business model, CMMI, ISM3, Balanced scorecard and knowledge management. These measurements or metrics can be used to track trends, productivity, resources and much more. Typically, the metrics tracked are key performance indicators, also known as KPIs. For example, you would use metrics to better understand how a company is performing compared to other companies within its industry. Most methodologies define hierarchies to guide organizations in achieving their strategic or tactical goals. An example can be:

• • Objectives
    • Goals
      • Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
        • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs or Metrics).

The intention is to identify future-state objectives, relate them to specific goals that can be achieved through critical success factors or performance drivers which are then monitored and measured by key performance indicators. Through this hierarchy, organizations can define and communicate relationships between metrics and how they contribute to the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. Metrics are important in IT Service Management including ITIL; the intention is to measure the effectiveness of the various processes at delivering services to customers. Some suggest that data from different organizations can be gathered together, against an agreed set of metrics, to form a benchmark, which would allow organizations to evaluate their performance against industry sectors to establish, objectively, how well they are performing.