Timing
When can I reasonably begin measuring?
04/01/10 18:19
Depending on the
quality of the data the organization has to begin with you can tier
the measurements for success. It will take 3 – 6 months for
the staff once you have implemented the system to be proficient
with it.
Any attempt to measure success during this time period is difficult and could be considered dangerous to the overall health of the project and staff to start too soon. You will need a good solid 6 months to a year worth of data to compare with your original data to determine the success or failure of the project.
Also you will need the willingness to modify the application and your measurement standards to insure success with the project. One of the issues we have seen is a management team that thinks it fully understands its market and what its representative are doing only to find out they were doing something totally different. I once remember a manager who wanted to change a feature in their sales process which we thought was incorrect.
After being told they new their system and we were wrong they came back to us about 30 days later and advised us to not make the change they had requested. It seems that once they began checking with the mid level management team they discovered we were correct. You need to be willing to make changes to the system and your measurement metrics as both the system matures and your market changes.
Any attempt to measure success during this time period is difficult and could be considered dangerous to the overall health of the project and staff to start too soon. You will need a good solid 6 months to a year worth of data to compare with your original data to determine the success or failure of the project.
Also you will need the willingness to modify the application and your measurement standards to insure success with the project. One of the issues we have seen is a management team that thinks it fully understands its market and what its representative are doing only to find out they were doing something totally different. I once remember a manager who wanted to change a feature in their sales process which we thought was incorrect.
After being told they new their system and we were wrong they came back to us about 30 days later and advised us to not make the change they had requested. It seems that once they began checking with the mid level management team they discovered we were correct. You need to be willing to make changes to the system and your measurement metrics as both the system matures and your market changes.