What's your process performance measurement strategy?

1 Define your objectives

Before you start measuring your process performance, you need to define what you want to achieve with your processes. What are your strategic goals, customer expectations, and quality standards? How do you align your processes with your organizational vision and values? How do you measure your process effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptability? By clarifying your objectives, you can identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect your desired outcomes and impact.

2 Select your metrics

Once you have defined your objectives, you need to select the metrics that will help you track and evaluate your process performance. Metrics are quantifiable measures that indicate how well your processes are performing against your KPIs. For example, you can use metrics such as cycle time, throughput, error rate, customer satisfaction, or profitability to measure different aspects of your process performance. However, not all metrics are equally relevant, reliable, or actionable. You should choose metrics that are aligned with your objectives, easy to collect and analyze, and meaningful for decision making and improvement.

3 Choose your methods

After you have selected your metrics, you need to choose the methods that will help you collect and analyze your process performance data. Methods are the techniques and tools that enable you to gather, organize, and interpret your metrics. For example, you can use methods such as surveys, interviews, observations, benchmarks, or audits to collect data from your processes. You can also use methods such as charts, graphs, dashboards, or reports to visualize and communicate your data. However, not all methods are equally suitable, accurate, or efficient. You should choose methods that are appropriate for your metrics, consistent with your data sources, and useful for your stakeholders.

4 Implement your tools

Finally, you need to implement the tools that will help you execute and automate your process performance measurement. Tools are the software and hardware that facilitate and support your methods and metrics. For example, you can use tools such as process mapping, modeling, or simulation to design and test your processes. You can also use tools such as process mining, analytics, or management software to monitor and optimize your processes. However, not all tools are equally accessible, compatible, or scalable. You should choose tools that are aligned with your methods, integrated with your systems, and adaptable to your changes.

Process performance measurement is not a one-time activity, but a continuous cycle of planning, executing, reviewing, and improving. By following these steps and tips, you can develop a process performance measurement strategy that helps you achieve your process design goals and deliver value to your customers and organization.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?