Conversations from the Mirror42 Team

“There’s a lot of talk these days about key performance indicators (KPIs). They are the backbone of scorecards and dashboards, which have become an irresistible way for organizations to present performance information to executives and staff. Unfortunately, BI developers seem to focus more on creating visual metaphors (dials, gauges, arrows, etc.) than understanding what constitutes a good KPI that delivers long-term value to the organization. Part of the problem is that people use the terms “KPI” and “metric” interchangeably. This is wrong. A KPI is a metric, but a metric is not always a KPI. The key difference is that KPIs always reflect strategic value drivers whereas metrics may represent the measurement of any business activity. When developing KPIs for scorecards or dashboards, you should keep in mind that KPIs possess 10 distinct characteristics. Although metrics may exhibit some of these characteristics, good KPIs possess all of them.”

Read more in this overview of characteristics of Key Performance Indicators from TDWI.

“If you’re going to manage IT in a businesslike manner, internal contracting is essential.”

Read more in this article explaining Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

“From studying and working with hundreds of enterprises, we have distilled the lessons from many outstanding leaders into ten principles of IT governance.”

Read more, in this excerpt from a new book published by HBS Press.

This nice overview of 7 steps toward SOX compliance, is in my opinion valid for any type of “governance”:

1. Framework / Foundation
2. “Governance” Office
3. Visibility / Dashboards
4. Automate
5. Embed
6. Test
7. Monitor