Measuring a Program's success

Kaplan and Norton say in The Balanced Scorecard: "An organization's measurement system strongly affects the behavior of people both inside and outside the organization. If companies are to survive and prosper in information age competition, they must use measurement and management systems derived from their strategies and capabilities."

Very often, I hear organizations say that their business is to pump oil or move airplanes and railcars, why should they worry about IT & Measurement and ScoreCard? Well, this is not about IT, this is about any programs and projects you do tie up with where your company is headed and your employees, investors, shareholders & speculators need to know that. The only way you can ever know yourself that you are headed in the right direction is by measurement.

Measurement information is a vital input to two backbone decision processes:

1. Progressive commitment of resources through the stage gate system to manage risks and rewards

2. Dynamic benefits path adjustment, to respond to changing environment.

Without a strong measurement system, the basis for well informed decisions will erode, and the quality of decisions will be, at best, suspect.