• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Resources

Whereas I told you to research before you buy any tools (tools are high-cost compared to a book or a membership in an organization), in this section, I recommend you try the resource. If you don't want to buy the book, check it out from your local library. For the most part, to determine the usefulness of a resource, you'll need to have complete access. Most of the resources I offer are either free or low-cost (less than $50).

When you search for resources, depending on your industry, you will find many to choose from. In the information technology arena, I've been hearing a lot about the COBIT framework, ISO/IEC 20000 (international standard for IT service management), and the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

Rather than provide you a list of web sites, I will share some ways to perform a search. Search engines offer results in different formats: video, web, images, blogs, shopping, etc. Most useful will be web, video, and blogs. The web classification is where you'll find everything from articles in e-zines, books, and encyclopedic definitions, to how-to guides for developing metrics.

If you search “metrics” you will find too many results on the metric system of measurement. You'll want to narrow your search. “Performance Metrics” will bring you a lot closer to what you're looking for. Even then, you may want to narrow your search depending on your particular needs and industry. For example, you can search on “IT metrics” or “IT performance metrics” if you are in the information technology arena. You can also search on “business intelligence” (the newest catch phrase for data-based decision making) or “IT solutions.”

Depending on your industry, you may find a healthy store of standards, bench-marks, and predefined data, measures, and information for your metrics. The financial industry is one example of a robust metric environment. Another is the manufacturing industry. If you are reading this book, you are not likely in an industry that has an established metrics framework. Chances are you are in need of meaningful metrics for your organization and your processes. Even so, you can learn from other industries and their metrics. You may be able to leverage some existing works for your own metrics efforts.

A simple search via your favorite web-based search engine returns a long list of measurement, statistical analysis, and metrics tools. I won't provide you with a list that you can visit on your own. Instead I offer insights and a short list of resources and references.

While I built the list from tools and references that I've personally used, I highly recommend that you do what I've preached from the beginning——investigate for yourself. I have found some books to be “on target” and others to have views that I would argue strongly against. Every book, blog, and article I've read has been useful in developing my overall view and concepts about metrics. Even the ones I've found outlandishly off-target have proven to be beneficial to the overall concept I offer in this book.

Don't discard the entire work because you find some portions to be “wrong,” in your viewpoint. You can learn much from those who disagree with you. One of my colleagues who helped in the writing of this book disagreed with me more often than we agreed; it was one of the reasons that I asked him to be the technical reviewer for the book. I trusted him to provide an honest view, even if it were a totally dissenting one. While I believe in the concepts and tools I've presented, I'm open to other opinions. I welcome them as they should help to make my understanding of how to make metrics work better.

I want you to look at the resources and references listed here, and any others you investigate later, in the same way. There are no silver bullets, there is no holy grail. There is no one right way to do organizational development or process improvement. There is no one way to do metrics. Stay open to new ideas and different opinions. And always make sure what you use works for