With that definition in mind, the majority of authors studied noted that the first step in good metrics collection is understanding the goal. Rather than ask what should be measured, ask what is important to the organization and its customers.
Many organizations have trouble with this; however, the Communications and Information Directorate at AFSC did a thorough review of its customers' requirements and understood what was important to the organization's success. The SC directorate validated its organizational goals and objectives with its customers, suppliers, and senior managers, when it published its strategic plan. Re-validated semiannually, this eight-page document outlines the direction the unit is expected to take in the next few years. Notably missing from the organization's strategic plan was a link of metrics to measure the progress of these goals. In re-validating this strategic plan, using metrics as a tool to measure these goals, many people noted that the goals were too general because they could not be measured. These goals and objectives were revaluated, ensuring that each objective had an associated measurement to ensure progress.
Management Issues
Although these goals are important to every organization, it can be difficult to focus on defining clear, measurable goals, based on what is important to customers. Senior management can be skeptical about the value of spending time defining such goals. The Communications and Information Directorate at AFSC understood the need for such goals but proceeded cautiously, defining those goals that were most easily quantified first.
Measures of a system's up-time rates and availability were clear targets with measurable rates and long data histories. Once these goals were proven to provide useful decision points, senior leaders were willing to define other goals of interest to the organization and ultimately to the customer. Each organization must decide how many goals it needs to effectively manage its resources and meet its customers' requirements. Through trial and error, the organization found that its customer requirements could be encapsulated into about 10 measurable goals and 40 more specific subgoals called objectives. The goals provided a broad-based definition for what was important to the organization, while the objectives specified actions necessary to meet customer requirements. Each objective was written so as to be clearly measurable, and at least one associated metric was created for each objective to provide decision-making information to senior management.
Every organization will have a different approach to establishing goals based on customer requirements, but regardless of the approach, it is important that these goals are measured and quantified in terms that senior management can understand and fully support.
