Project Measurement: A Framework for Success

Article 4 of 20

Setting out on a path to improve project performance can be a rewarding opportunity to learn more about yourself, your team and your organization. It can also yield benefits for everyone involved – from possible career promotions to better team and organizational performance.

A common thread across successful measurement initiatives is a framework that provides clear direction on how the initiative will deliver results. A framework will also enable the ‘measurement team’ to clearly communicate with stakeholders about how the initiative will be undertaken.

A best practice framework for implementing a performance measurement initiative often includes the following characteristics:

  • Focuses on improving results by identifying key performance indicators (KPIs). The process to identify meaningful project- or organization-specific KPIs is more robust and involved than simply picking ‘go-to’ key result indicators (KRIs) that only report results. This is a necessary framework characteristic if performance improvement is an objective of the initiative.
  • Repeatable so it can be implemented across projects. Lessons learned can be incorporated into the framework to ensure continuous improvement.
  • Includes phase gates to prevent jumping ahead too quick. The framework guards against focusing solely on technology solutions or picking popular metrics that may not be best suited for your projects or organization. This will also help to keep the focus on the necessary reports and dashboards stakeholders need to improve results.
  • Easy-to-follow and communicate. Avoid complicated frameworks that are hard to understand or hidden from key stakeholders.

The best way to illustrate the impact that a framework can have on an initiative is a case study. My team recently completed a project measurement initiative for an Oil & Gas Fortune 500 company that was experiencing a prolonged uptick in their capital projects (measured by both expenditures and number of projects). The Project Management Office (PMO) of the Capital Projects organization wanted to do more than just report on cost, schedule and scope – they also wanted to show continuous improvement of their projects to management.

Like many other measurement initiatives, the PMO’s initial approach was to assign an internal resource, with limited involvement from stakeholders, to pick a set of common metrics to report on. The criteria for metric selection was focused solely on the ease of data collection for key results, like the percentage of projects that were delayed with qualitative explanations and some earned value metrics. This work led to a new weekly report that provided project updates to leadership; however, after several months the reports went unread with no evidence of project improvement.

To turn-around this metrics project, we introduced a Performance Improvement Framework (PIF) to the PMO organization. The “PIF” framework was created by Darby Consulting and consisted of four easy-to-follow steps that led to fewer, more impactful reports, less day-today effort from the PMO organization and improved project performance.

Below is an illustration of Darby Consulting’s 4-Step Performance Improvement Framework (PIF) as well as a brief description of each step.

PIF-Framework

 

  • Step 1: Identify critical success factors. Learn what leaders care most about when determining the success of their projects. These ‘care abouts’ are then translated into critical success factors (CSFs). This is accomplished through a mapping exercise that will be introduced in next week’s article.
  • Step 2: Determine the KPI objectives. This can be done from what leaders need to know about their projects. It’s important that KPI objectives are well balanced to ensure chosen KPIs are not concentrated on just one objective, but rather several. This elevates a performance indicator that likely focuses on just one objective to a ‘key’ performance indicator that is tied to several objectives. Most measurement initiatives include four to six KPI objectives, such as process, execution, customer, employee, financial and environment.
  • Step 3: Identify and develop KPI metrics. This is necessary to determine whether CSFs are being met. Many measurement initiatives jump straight to this step, but in order to improve the likelihood of success and foster an environment of continuous performance improvement, it is critical to identify CSFs and KPI objectives before identifying and developing metrics.
  • Step 4: Determine actions to be taken. These identified actions will be undertaken when metrics fall outside pre-determined thresholds. Taking action is imperative for the project team and organization to realize improved results and to sustain a continuous improving culture. Data visualization tools help to enable leaders and stakeholders to quickly take action.

The next four articles will discuss PIF’s four steps in greater detail starting with next week’s topic focused on identifying critical success factors.

How Can Darby Help?

So what are your metric challenges? Does your project team or organization have identified metrics and associated actions? Is your team spending too much time gathering data for metrics that no one reviews? Darby Consulting has partnered with many Fortune 500 companies to plan and execute measurement initiatives that support a ‘continuous improving’ culture by not only focusing on reporting key results, but also identifying and measuring key performance indicators that lead to improved portfolio and project performance.

About Darby Consulting

Darby Consulting is a leading North American project and change management consulting firm providing project and program management consulting, project support and change readiness services. We serve organizations across multiple industries and provide experienced, certified project and change management professionals who can quickly and efficiently deploy processes, tools, templates and technologies to meet any project challenge.

 

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