Intelligent Business

Measuring performance: Big Brother is watching you!

Published by Mariska Bulten | December 16th, 2008

Currently, I am working on a big implementation of MS Project Server for operational and tactical planning. With this tooling, the organization that I am working for wants to create insight into many aspects of one of their programs. Hours spent, resource allocation, forecasts, project statuses, resource calendars: they all are being mentioned as part of the scope of our project. With the recording of the data of many projects and resources, they hope to gain control over the progress and quality of their entire program. An interesting endeavor!

In this phase of the project, we are collecting data from the first projects and sub-programs. And indeed: over allocation of resources and tasks that overlap become apparent! Tomorrow, I will start creating reports based on this data, with the functionality of Microsoft Analysis Services. But I am wondering, what will these reports show and cause? What will the organizational impact and acceptance be? It seems to me that these aspects are currently being forgotten…

In my opinion, introducing a tool for planning is not often seen as a form of performance measurement, while it actually is! You are writing down how many hours you expect to work on a certain assignment and after a while you are judged upon the hours spent and the Estimated Time to Complete. Seeing the implementation of, for example, MS Project Server as a form of performance measurement leaves me with two major question marks.

1. How do we make sure that we measure the correct things?
One of the big problems in performance measurement is that it creates wrong incentives for people to act upon. If one department is for example doing everything in their power too increase their profit, including the charge of higher internal rates too other departments, they are reaching their target at the cost of others (Hood, 2003). One example from literature comes from Schachter (2008):
“Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the federal department that handles first nations issues, told The Globe and Mail last week that the government had won a victory by settling 54 land claims in the fiscal year that ended yesterday. This beat the 12-month target of 50 set by former Indian Affairs minister Jim Prentice, and was miles ahead of the ministry’s long-term average of settling 14 land claims a year.” (Schachter, 2008, p.1).

Of course, many methods exist to balance the measurement of the performance of your organization in order to prevent these problems. An example is a statement that I found online: “It should be apparent (…) that performance should be measured in a manner that is appropriate for the specific organisation.” (Accaglobal website).  But in the project that I am currently working on, we are not using these methods to determine which variables we use in our tool. Do we really want to steer upon the ratio hours planned / hours spent, or do we need to balance this with steering upon quality of deliverables? If any of you have suggestions as to how to implement performance measurement techniques in a planning tool, please let me know!

 
2. How do we handle the resistance within the organization to the new way of working?
Considering that performance measurement is known for causing a lot of resistance in organization, the same can be expected for the implementation of a planning tool.:
“As with any other organisational change management program, implementing a performance measurement system will encounter resistance especially in large bureaucratic organisations.” (Wikipedia).
The way of working and the way the steering happens will be different for all involved. Not everybody likes to have someone looking over their shoulder, especially when these measurements come back to ‘haunt’  you. Many different methods apply when change management is needed, but are they always considered when the implementation of a planning tool is started? In the project that I am working on, this component is left aside.

It is time to start using the many methods and approaches that are already thought of for performance measurement for the implementation of planning tools, especially because with these tools you actually measure performance!

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Entry Filed under: Corporate Performance Management, General

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