Task: Define Practice Measures
This task identifies a set of practices as part of the solution for improving IT effectiveness in the achievement of the defined operational objectives.
Disciplines: Project Management
Purpose
Practice measures provide the ability to monitor individual and team behaviors for effectiveness. This is the lowest level of granularity enabling the management team to monitor results over a shorter period of time. Establishing measures at the control level of a multi-tiered Performance Measurement System enables management to make tactical adjustments towards the achievement of the operational and related business objectives.
Relationships
Main Description

Practice measures provide control metrics enabling managers and individual team members to evaluate and understand the impact of changes in IT towards improving operational effectiveness. Typically, these will focus on:

  • Effectiveness of individual behavior and team collaboration
  • Quality of work products
  • Rate of change adoption related to an initiative
  • Maturity of individuals and teams

Measures dealing with the monitoring, analyzing, and reporting of adoption and maturity are subjective measures while measures of the quality of work produced are objective. Practice measures provide interim snapshots for how the individuals and teams are progressing towards meeting the operational and related business objectives.

Steps
Identify Practices

Practices are narrowly focused processes for individuals and teams. Practices are applied in IT in support of a change initiative for improving operational effectiveness. For each defined operational objective, identify one or more practices needing improvement or adoption, to improve operational effectiveness.

Describe how each practice supports the achievement of one or more operational objectives. Document this information in the artifact, Measurement Requirements.

Prioritize Practices

The amount of change associated with practices must be understood in light of the impact to individuals and teams. The amount of change is not constant, meaning not all companies or all groups within them accept changes at the same rate. Implement the changes in small increments. To do that, they must be prioritized. The prioritization of practices and their measures must be synchronized with the operational objectives and their related business objectives.

The role performing this task, working with IT management prioritizes these practices and documents this prioritized list in the artifact, Measurement Requirements.

Define Practice Measures
For each selected practice, identify the control measures to monitor and evaluate short term progress towards achieving the longer termed operational and business objectives. The role performing this task is responsible for documenting each practice measure, the reason for its adoption, and a set of control measures to monitor application and adoption of the practice in the artifact, Measurement Requirements.
Define Measurement Process

The performance measurement process is described at a high level. The following information should be included:

  • A roadmap that will identify timing and content of each increment for fully implementing a multi-tiered measurement system
  • The orgainizational entities that will be participating in the performance measurement system
  • An outline of the major processes involved in the daily operation of the performance measurement system
  • The timings of the measuremt processes, (i.e when are data feeds scheduled and reports run)
Define the Measurement Infrastructure

Describe the characteristics for how each derived measure is implemented, configured, and stored in the artifact, Measurement Infrastructure. See Measures, Metrics and Attributes, for clarity of definitions. 

For each metric, identify the following:

  • Name
  • Manner of collection
  • Identify the attributes used in the collection
  • Identify the location of the attributes to collect
  • Define the calculations or aggregations to be used for a derived measure 
  • Identify whether the metric will be derived each collection or stored
  • Identify the location for the storage of derived measures

A topology type diagram may be included as a way to communicate some of the above information.

Illustrations
More Information