To drive or analyze a process with measurements

There is a lot that can be measured when it comes to processes. The terms KPI and metric is frequently used when talking about measurements. I like to look at measurement from two different angles. I call them Drive or Analyze. There is probably more accurate industry terms for them but i call them that to keep it simple. They are what they are called. I like simple. If you have read what i have written earlier you have seen that it is an important part in my interpretations.

The meaning of Drive. Well, what do you do when you are driving a car? You are constantly adjusting the steering wheel to keep the car within the lane. Sometimes you change lanes but always according to route. There are some short time goals which forces you to adjust while driving a car. If there is a car in front of you, you will avoid driving into it. There are speed limits that indicate the maximum allowed speed etc. Simply put. Tons of adjustments that you do to reach you final goal, arrive at the expected destination. The key here is usually that a measurement indicates if an action needs to be performed or  to be changed. This is a very short perspective and the information must be real-time. Basically it should be defined in the way that it tells you specifically what to do. Steer right or you will end up in the ditch. break or you hit that car. turn on headlights to make the surrounding aware. Put gas in the car or it will stop. No one of these are in any way described in the context of the final goal. But if you follow them you will significantly increase your probability to reach it. No one of these measurements are done to improve the process design either. They are instruments to execute the process correctly. To drive the process. They should be essential and ALWAYS AVAILABLE for any process operator driving the process. Would you step into a car knowing that the driver has a driver license but is currently become blind?

The meaning of Analyze. This is all retrospective. This can be from outcome (effectiveness), compliance, efficiency or improvement etc perspectives. A process is a living thing and it needs to be analyzed on a regular basis. It is here you will find your process weaknesses and as soon as you find an antidote for it you will find a new one to focus on. Usually it is not good to have too many at any current time. If you give a patient 5 different medicines at once, how do you know which one worked the best. Pick the one or ones that will give you the biggest positive impact and make them visible for everyone. How to make them visible? Create a driving measurement that prevents the unwanted handling with a defined counter action. 

But wait a minute here. Am I saying that analytics are to identify weaknesses and driving measurements are to mitigate/prevent them from happening? Sure! It is often during analysis the driving measurements are born. The driving measurements are the countermeasures for weaknesses found during analysis. If you create a driving measurement and it is used by the process operators things will happen in the process. Other parts of the process will be affected and new analysis is needed. This is a never ending story. If you do not plan to perform this continuously your process will slowly deteriorate and that is something karma would not like.

As an afterword i would like to add that when talking about effectiveness aka outcome it is the guiding star of them all. It has to be nailed and maintained like a new born baby. The purpose of it is to quantify the consumers ability to achieve their goals and to illustrate how IT has contributed to it. Nothing more and nothing less. 

What is a KPI in everyday life

The use of the term KPI is very frequent and i think sometimes misused. The term stands for Key Performance Indicator and should be a measurement, which when followed, should lead to an expected success. So lets apply this in everyday life.

The example is a very common one and is applicable in any situation when you have a specific destination to get to at a specific time. It could be at work, school, appointment etc. where you are expected to be at the final destination at a specific time certainly have a couple of KPI's.

I will use my wakeup and morning routine as the example. When i wakeup in the morning the first thing i do is to brew my coffee and while waiting for the coffee to be ready i sit in the couch to wake up thoroughly. When the coffee is ready i sometimes drink two or even three cups before i feel satisfied. After the coffee its shower time. Depending on if i need to shave, the time in the bathroom can vary up to 5 minutes. Now it is time for the wardrobe and the whole clothing dilemma, then pack the work stuff in the portfolio and make sure the phone, keys etc. are packed. After that a i quick stroll from home to the train (yes i travel with train to work). After the train a short trip with underground subway to finally end up at work.

So how about those KPI's?

If i stack the stuff in my morning story it would look like this.
- Brew coffee (5 minutes)
- Drink coffee (15-20 minutes)
- Bathroom (10-15 minutes)
- Get dressed (5-10 minutes)
- Pack stuff (5 minutes)
- Stroll (5 minutes)
- Train (30 minutes)
- Subway (10 minutes)
And then I am finally at work.

So how do i apply KPI's in this scenario? Well there are som hard facts here. One very obvious is the train. The frequency of the train is once every hour and if i would fail to catch the train at the planed time i would not succeed with my goal, to be at work at a certain time. The subway on the other hand have a frequency of every 5 minutes so i just take the first one that comes. The train is a very obvious KPI so all my other measurements i do, watch the time during the earlier activities should be based on the probability to catch the train, which in this case is key for success. Each of the earlier activities has a varying time estimate so this means that i have to adapt each activity based on my measurements i do (checking the time) and considering how much time the next activity might require of me. If needed I could walk faster, dress quicker or even skip the shaving if required to catch the train in time but i cant change the time of the train.

So the KPI here is my ability to catch the train at a certain time. To achieve this, i do allot of measurements that all indicate my status compared to my goal. These measurements are not KPI's and they will always change over time depending on the activities that i want to carryout in the morning. So do not mixup measurements and KPI and don't mixup the goal with the KPI. Always try to identify a few or even ONE KPI if possible to indicate you ability to succeed. If you get to many you are probably identifying measurements and not KPI's.