dbcrawford

The Proof Is In the Performance

April 28th, 2009
posted by: dbcrawford in: Performance Measurement
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I’ve been gratified to see so many people engaging around the topic of metrics. Yet, I know from experience that when you start advocating for a measurement program, there are always a few skeptics who view it as just more process and overhead. That’s why I wanted to share today some links to brief case studies we’ve done with a few of our consulting clients.

You see, one of the things we promise in each and every client proposal is that we will care enough about their success to measure the impact of the work we do. So it’s exciting to see that promise making a difference. For example, a targeted mentoring program established at Merchants Insurance Group resulted, among other value-adds, in one program realizing 758% revenue growth in the first two months of introduction. In another case, helping a manufacturing company to complete a new factory on schedule helped the company to begin realizing profits seven months ahead of schedule. Not only that, but 400 new jobs were created by the project.

With job creation as a primary focus of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, it seems to me that the need for project discipline, and smart performance tracking, has never been greater. Not only the public agencies who are now receiving the funds, but the contractors and vendors who carry out the work are being called on to plan realistically, execute efficiently, and show by the numbers that they’ve succeeded.

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2 Responses to “The Proof Is In the Performance”

Dan Lorenc Says:

I appreciate the thoughts, Deb…very timely in my case as I’m in the front-end of a metrics project now.

Your comments on skeptics is very close, as it DOES take time and effort; therefore, the business benefit has to be readily apparent … and it does not hurt to have executive sponsorship pushing down the need as well (mmm..where have I heard that before?)…

Regarding the ARRA, I understand the feds have architected a 360 with the states, transparency and accountability…so that should be interesting to see the jobs created numbers…Illinois’ is at http://www.illinois.gov/recovery...
thank you again for the blog!

 

Matt Says:

This is a great post and seems to be a very pressing need in the current economic state. I read an article today that discusses why organizations should outsource project management tasks. Outsourcing would allow organizations to focus on core competencies and receive expertise in performance measurement and tracking. This article is an interesting take on that point.

http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrategy/67205/tasks-you-fear-outsource-should-try

 

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