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Information about Metrics

For other uses, see Metric.


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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.

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.

Element Description
MetricName of the metric
Metric DescriptionDescription of what is measured
Measurement ProcedureHow is the metric measured
Measurement FrequencyHow often is the measurement taken
Thresholds EstimationHow are the thresholds calculated
Current ThresholdsCurrent range of values considered normal for the metric
Target ValueBest possible value of the metric
UnitsUnits of measurement
(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.

There is strong disagreement with these views from other quarters. No agreed standard set of best practice metrics exists; Kaner[1] has raised serious objections about the purported validity of metrics used in software engineering. Douglas Hubbard published his findings [2] that unless the value of information is quantified, managers are unlikely to choose the highest payoff metrics. Subsequent US Government studies further demonstrated this [1].

Citations

1. ^ [2]
2. ^ Douglas Hubbard, The IT Measurement Inversion, CIO Magazine, 1999.

See also

External links

Metric may refer to:
  • Metric system, a system of units developed in France in the 18th century
  • SI, or Système International, the international system of units since 1960, a subset of the former

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Benchmarking (also "best practice benchmarking" or "process benchmarking") is a process used in management and particularly strategic management, in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best practice, usually within their own sector.
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The term business model describes a broad range of informal and formal models that are used by enterprises to represent various aspects of business, such as operational processes, organizational structures, and financial forecasts.
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In 1992, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton introduced the balanced scorecard, a concept for measuring whether the activities of a company are meeting its objectives in terms of vision and strategy.
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Knowledge Management ('KM') comprises a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning.
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Trend may refer to:
  • The process of getting others to follow/copy, of their own free will your actions and/or style.
  • A fad or fashion trend (see Fads and trends)
  • Trendsetter (or early adopter). A person among the few who start a fashion or technology.

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productivity is the amount of output created (in terms of goods produced or services rendered) per unit input used. For instance, labour productivity is typically measured as output per worker or output per labour-hour.
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Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are financial and non-financial metrics used to quantify objectives to reflect strategic performance of an organization. KPIs are used in Business Intelligence to assess the present state of the business and to prescribe a course of action.
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IT Service Management (ITSM) is a discipline for managing information technology (IT) systems, philosophically centered on the customer's perspective of IT's contribution to the business.
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Itil may mean:
  • Atil or Itil, the ancient capital of Khazaria
  • Itil, also Idel, Atil, Atal, the ancient name of the river Volga.
ITIL can stand for:
  • Information Technology Infrastructure Library

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Applied information economics (AIE) is a decision analysis method developed by Douglas W. Hubbard[1]. It builds on several methods from decision theory and risk analysis including the use of Monte Carlo methods.
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In 1992, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton introduced the balanced scorecard, a concept for measuring whether the activities of a company are meeting its objectives in terms of vision and strategy.
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The level of measurement of a variable in mathematics and statistics is a classification that was proposed in order to describe the nature of information contained within numbers assigned to objects and, therefore, within the variable.
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Router metrics are metrics used by a router to make routing decisions. It is typically one of many fields in a routing table.

Router metrics can contain any number of values that help the router determine the best route among multiple routes to a destination.
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A software metric is a measure of some property of a piece of software or its specifications.

Since quantitative methods have proved so powerful in the other sciences, computer science practitioners and theoreticians have worked hard to bring similar approaches to software
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