Metrics

¹met·ric noun \me-trik\: a standard of measurement

In project management situations, we often use metrics to define our performance against a plan.  In fact, metrics are used as a way to measure effectiveness using absolutes, thus keeping emotion out of the equation.  Basically when reading those metrics, it should be WYSIWYG….What you see is what you get.  Factual.  Truth.  Nothing should be glaring you in the face and having you react to it such as, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming….”

In fact, metrics are no more than data being used to show a trend.  The trend tracks historical data to show you the future:  Am I going to succeed?  Are we on the plan?  Are we failing?  All can be seen with the crystal ball of good metrics.  So if you use metrics, the more data you have to forecast a trend the more truthful that trend is.  If you use metrics over time, you should never be shocked or surprised by what it is telling you.

But let us understand one thing:  metrics should be used to report to Senior Leaders who are not involved in the day to day running of your project.  You cannot lead or manage from behind a desk.  You need to be out in the field, on the floor, on the deckplate, whatever the metaphor, so you can see, hear, touch, and smell the problems before they become a problem.   Talk to those who are doing the work.  Usually the instincts of your people, who just “feel” that something isn’t right, are right.

The indications are there long before the metrics smack you in the face, you just FAIL to react to them.

            I have recently discovered people arguing metrics that have long been embraced in my field.  Truth is, people are arguing because they have become defensive that the trend is showing maybe a poor performance of a project, which they manage. 

I am also hearing arguments from the other side that, to those the metrics are reported to, are saying they are not ready to push the ‘I believe’ button to the trended forecast.  What they are saying is they don’t believe the metrics which they implemented as the standard.

Project Management:  If the metrics are good, you believe them.  If the metrics show a downward trend, you argue the validity.

Senior Leadership:  When the metrics are reported to you and they are good, you question the validity.  If they are bad, you believe them and chastise your PM.

How it should be:  Metrics are just that--metrics!  They are neither good nor bad.  They show only the trend from the data collected.  Use them for what they are for….if it shows a downward trend, make course corrections to fix.  If they show an upward trend, capture what you are doing right.

That is it.  Simple.  Truth.

Procedural/Process Origami; Why Going Back to the Fundamentals is Necessary

 I’m no magician, however I can turn a widget into Origami, and here’s how:

Imagine I am a new employee at your business.  I am employee A.  I am attending training for a new piece of equipment that will revolutionize my job.  It is called the widget.  I will attend training on this all week.  When complete, I will have a thorough understanding of the widget, including everything from how it is made, the specs of it, and how to use it.  I will have all of the necessary information to perform my job with efficiency.  Over the next few months and years, I learn that the rectangular widget is still very useful, even with a corner broken off.

As I continue to do well in my job, I get a new employee (employee B) to come take my spot as I move on to bigger and better things.  As I turnover my work to employee B, I show him/her the widget.   Employee B has never seen one before.  I explain everything, and leave them, knowing they understood that I told them everything about the widget.  Employee B has accepted my information as truth.

Even though the widget is missing a corner, employee B knows this to be a rectangular widget.  As this person decides to remodel the office, employee B cuts another corner of the widget.  Months or years later, a new employee comes in to take over.  This is employee C.  Same routine; same result.  Employee C believes this widget to be a rectangular widget.  Another remodel, another corner cut. 

This goes on and on until employee Z.  Now the widget has been so altered it is an Origami Swan, but employee Z is still told it is a rectangular widget.

This is what happens to processes and procedures that have been used over time.  People cut corners and explore what they can get away with.  The problem becomes, how many corners can be cut before we become unsafe?  Before we fall behind schedule?  Before costs skyrocket?

If the person cutting corners doesn’t understand the fundamentals first, the next cut may be detrimental. Imagine you are steps away from the edge of a cliff, and I have blindfolded you. Your starting point is the basics, and every step away from the basics could be a detrimental last step. The first corner cut in a process or procedure may be understood well due to a thorough understanding of the basics, but as time goes on that understanding gets blurred and each cut thereafter can become critical.