Performance management fundamentals

Lifecycle Performance
Lifecycle Performance Professionals

Management

Fundamentals Guide
© 2007 Lifecycle-performance-pros.com All rights reserved


Table of Contents

About this eBook ................................................................................................1
Distribution Copyrights .......................................................................................1
Introduction .........................................................................................................2
What is Performance? ........................................................................................2
What is Performance Management? ..................................................................2
What is Lifecycle Performance Management™? ................................................4
The Lifecycle Performance Management Model ................................................5
Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis ..................................7
The Lifecycle Performance Framework ..............................................................8
Lifecycle Performance Management Best Practices ........................................10
The Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis .........................22
The Best Practices Roadmap ...........................................................................24
The Lifecycle Performance Roadmap ..............................................................25
Government Performance Framework .............................................................32
Decision Support Systems ...............................................................................45
Lifecycle Performance Methodologies ..............................................................47
Defining Phase .................................................................................................48
Planning Phase ................................................................................................49
Executing Phase...............................................................................................50
Monitoring Phase..............................................................................................51
Reporting Phase ...............................................................................................52
Performance Management Templates .............................................................53
Performance Management Glossary ................................................................63

Tables and Figures
Figure 1 - The Lifecycle Performance Management Model ......................................... 6
Figure 2 - Lifecycle Performance Framework .............................................................. 8
Figure 3 - Performance Index Scoring Table .............................................................. 23
Figure 4 - Best Practices Roadmap ............................................................................. 24
Figure 5 - Lifecycle Performance Roadmap ............................................................... 25
Figure 6 - Lifecycle Performance Methodologies ...................................................... 47

© 2007 Lifecycle-performance-pros.com All rights reserved


About this eBook

Hi and thank you for downloading my Lifecycle Performance Management
Fundamentals Guide. This eBook will help you approach performance
management more successfully by introducing the Lifecycle Performance
Management Model and describing the best practices and key activities that
make high performing organizations successful. By reading it you will learn
the high-level processes necessary to ensure a smooth, successful
performance initiative.

You will also find out the essential plans, processes, technology and metrics
to successfully manage your organization’s performance, whether it is
employee/team performance, process improvement, systems performance,
project performance, financial performance or the entire enterprise. This
guide will walk you through the chapters of the 120 Day Plan: Step by Step
Guide to Implementing a World Class Performance Solution and provide
a look into the Lifecycle Performance Roadmap and some of my proven,
performance management methodologies.

For the complete Lifecycle Performance Management Kit, including the
Lifecycle Performance Framework and Roadmap, the 300 page step by step
implementation guide, 37 performance management templates and plans, the
120 Day Performance Plan in Microsoft Project, 600 performance metrics and
KPIs, 30 illustrated step by step performance management processes, and
the Business Intelligence tools guide; all of which complement the high level
processes outlined in this eBook, click here

Also, check out my comprehensive and very informative Organizational
Performance and Best Practices Analysis. It utilizes a performance index
scoring system, a feasibility analysis, and an impact value analysis to identify
cost savings opportunities and provide a custom, step-by-step roadmap for
your organization to implement immediate performance improvements. It is a
must have for organizations that are serious about understanding what makes
them tick.

Distribution Copyrights

This eBook has been provided to you free of charge, on the condition that it’s
not copied, modified, published, sold, re-branded, hired out or otherwise
distributed for commercial purposes. Please feel free to distribute the URL
to anybody who may be interested in downloading their own copy.

© 2009 Lifecycle-performance-pros.com All rights reserved 1


Introduction

What is Performance?

Organizational performance, in basic terms, is the actual output or results of
an organization as measured against its intended outputs or goals and
objectives. The key words here are “actual” and “intended”. When
performance is at or above the intended goals, accomplishments are
returned. When performance is below the intended goals, fewer
accomplishments and more failures are the result. The more an organization
can set near and long term goals, the more accurate performance can be
measured.

What is Performance Management?

Performance management is the foundation of any organization that has a
vision and knows where they want to be in the near and long term future. As
today’s rapidly evolving business environment challenges organizations to
adapt to constant change, the need for organizations to be sure that their
projects and activities are aligned with overall strategic goals and business
objectives is critical. Performance management is the gauge that lets you
know whether or not you are reaching strategic goals and which areas within
your service delivery could use improvement. Performance management
also justifies whether or not your organization is getting its return on
investments. Most important, performance management establishes a culture
of high performance where the entire organization is synergistic towards
reaching organizational objectives.

By definition, performance management is the systematic process by which
an organization involves its employees and all stakeholders in the
development and implementation of a plan to improve organizational
effectiveness and reach organizational objectives. In 1883 Lord Kelvin, a
leading physicist of the early 19th century wrote:

“I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking
about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it;
but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in
numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind;
it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in
your thoughts advanced to the state of Science, whatever the
matter may be.”


In a nutshell, we implement performance management so that we can
quantify in numbers how effective we are at what we do. Below is a list of
additional advantages of implementing/re-establishing performance
management in your organization.

• Gains visibility into project execution and effectiveness
• Analysis of process strengths and weaknesses
• Metrics provide inputs for future estimations and planning
• Metrics identify the areas for improvements
• Metrics can be used to eliminate problem areas and root causes
• Establishes a continuous improvement culture across the company
• Helps management and employees make well-informed and decisions
• Measures at the enterprise, divisional, systems, program, project and
employee levels

Why are some performance management initiatives more effective than
others? Some performance management plans simply lack one or more
considerations or processes that could ensure success. This guide will allow
you to look at your organization’s current performance management
processes and identify processes that can improve service delivery.

This guide explains in simple terms the processes for a successful
implementation. It was designed to cover all of the decisions and
dependencies that a performance management initiative encounters.
Whether you are looking to improve your current business intelligence
systems or develop your performance management capabilities from scratch,
the Lifecycle Performance Management Kit will walk you through a successful
implementation from start to finish.

You can buy the best business intelligence tools on the market and you can
measure performance based on all the best practice metrics for your industry,
but if you don’t have a well organized, proven performance management plan
with detailed steps on how to implement the plan, you will only have numbers
with little meaning and a culture of misdirected service delivery.

Your organization may not be ready to implement all of these processes, as
the Lifecycle Performance Management Kit introduces some processes that
are for organizations with highly advanced performance programs and well
developed strategic plans. However, the kit was developed to guide any
organization through the Lifecycle Performance Management Process
regardless of their current performance level.



What is Lifecycle Performance Management™?

Lifecycle Performance Management™ is the systematic implementation of an
enterprise-wide performance strategy involving all business units, systems
and personnel. It is a sequence of management processes, when combined,
achieves a complete approach to managing performance from start to finish.
Lifecycle Performance Management focuses on all areas that determine the
success of an enterprise, including:

• Employees
• Departments / Divisions
• Processes
• Finance
• Programs (e.g. implementing organizational policies)
• Products / Services
• Projects
• Business Units / Teams

Lifecycle Performance Management involves integrating key documents into
a performance plan, aligning performance to organizational goals, applying
best practices, identifying the right metrics, developing a plan to act on the
results, and constantly improving the knowledge and performance of your
people, processes and technology.

Lifecycle Performance Management is centered on the Lifecycle Performance
Management Model (illustrated on the next page). The Lifecycle
Performance Management Model is broken down into four areas:

• Integrating supporting organizational management documents
• Aligning performance through management functions
• Implementing performance management best practices, and
• Executing key performance management activities


The Lifecycle Performance Management Model


Figure 1 - The Lifecycle Performance Management Model
Utilizing these best practices and processes outlined in this guide will enable
you to:

• Develop performance measures that drive decision making
• Assure that your projects and activities are aligned with overall
strategic goals
• Transform your employees into high performers and ensure team
effectiveness
• Identify your mission critical processes and improve those that limit
your organization's performance
• Leverage business intelligence tools
• Manage change through knowledge and insight.
• Get the best performance out of your systems and reach your business
objectives



Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis

For less than the cost of one day of training for one employee, I can help your
entire organization tap into it's hidden resources and improve performance,
increase productivity and save money!

Here's How It Works

The Organizational Performance and Best Practice Analysis consists of 15
general questions about your business and your performance goals and
needs, and 36 multiple choice and check all that apply questions which tell
me everything I need to know about how you can transform your
organization's performance. That's it! That's all you have to do.

The Organizational Performance and Best Practice Analysis then develops:

• an evaluation of 280 key performance management processes
• a performance index analysis identifying your performance
strengths, areas for improvement, cost savings opportunities and ways
you can leverage your existing resources
• a feasibility analysis identifying which best practices will drive your
unique organization the most, based on mission alignment,
organizational effectiveness, cost impact and ease of
implementation.
• an impact value analysis which identifies which processes will have
the greatest impact on your organization based on your current
environment and specified needs,
• and a custom performance roadmap that illustrates which
processes, and the order you can implement them, to maximize
performance in the shortest amount of time.

The performance analysis is completely interactive and flexible. As your
organization applies the best practice processes outlined in your Best
Practice Roadmap and the recommendations section of the analysis, or if
your organization simply changes it's performance needs and values, the
analysis will automatically readjust and tell you which processes will continue
to make the greatest impact based on your organizational changes.



The Lifecycle Performance Framework

The key activities in the Lifecycle Performance Management Model are based
on the Lifecycle Performance Framework. The Lifecycle Performance
Framework is a group of performance-related processes and methodologies,
sequenced and integrated to effectively raise organizational awareness of
performance management and simplify the execution of performance
management best practices throughout the performance lifecycle. The
Lifecycle Performance Framework consists of five phases: Defining,
Planning, Executing, Monitoring, and Reporting.

Lifecycle Performance Framework

Figure 2 - Lifecycle Performance Framework

The Defining Phase is the phase where preliminary management processes
are performed. These preliminary processes are those outside of traditional
performance management, but which are critical to the success of your
performance management initiative. They include mission/objective
identification, strategic planning, performance scope development and


performance team development. These are the executive processes that
don’t necessarily include participation from all levels within the organization.

The focus of the Planning Phase is to start the buzz and get your
organization prepared for the cultural changes that will take place during your
successful performance initiative. This is the phase where you gain
employee acceptance into the performance initiative and put employees into
a high performance mindset. It also includes baselining current performance
and setting future goals, breaking down functional silos, identifying key
processes that drive business success, and ensuring a successful
performance management implementation through training.

The Executing Phase involves implementing the planned activities outlined
in the defining and planning phases. This is where we develop metrics, align
performance to organizational objectives, identify cross-functional processes,
and integrate data. During the execution phase the performance
management team must maintain a climate of open communication with
business unit liaisons and executive management, as this is where executive
goals are transformed into action.

The Monitoring Phase where we track performance in all areas of the
organization. This phase involves ensuring that key indicators and thresholds
are in acceptable ranges and enforcing quality characteristics. This is where
we develop our quality management plan, identify data quality metrics,
examine information supply chains and improve processes.

The last phase is the Reporting Phase. The Reporting Phase is the nuts
and bolts of the performance management initiative. This is where the
Performance Management Team analyzes its finding and communicates
system, organizational and individual performance to the stakeholders. The
reporting phase is the final phase in the Lifecycle Performance Framework,
but in many cases it’s the first phase of decision- making processes. This
guide covers the performance reporting process, business intelligence tools,
performance improvement strategies, SLAs, dashboards and scorecards, and
customer satisfaction.

The Lifecycle Performance Management Kit provides all of the processes,
techniques and frameworks to implement a successful enterprise-wide
performance solution.

The Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis will identify your
strengths, weaknesses, and cost savings opportunities, and will plan out the
exact steps to reaching your performance goals.



Lifecycle Performance Management Best Practices

The Lifecycle Performance Management Model is centered on 36 best
practices. These best practices support the key processes that must be
addressed in order to ensure a successful performance initiative. In Lifecycle
Performance Management, these best practices are measured throughout all
divisions within the organization.

Defining Planning Executing Monitoring Reporting
1. Organizational 9. Employee 20. Employee 33. Project
30. Quality
Goals and Mission Acceptance Performance Performance
Management
Management Management Management Management
21. Information
2. Performance 10. Performance 31. Performance 34. Scorecard/
Services
Scope Management Data Dashboard
Performance
Management Planning Management Development
Management
11. Time
3. Performance 32. Business 35. Customer
Management 22. Process
Team Intelligence Satisfaction
(Planning vs Management
Development Management Management
Implementing)
4. Vendor 23. Data 36. Service Level
12. Leadership
Performance Integration Tracking
Development
Management Management Management
24. Performance
5. Vendor 13. Employee
Metrics
Standardization Training
Management
25. Performance
6. Organizational 14. Staff
Alignment
Stability Motivation
Management
15. Automated 26. Cross-
7. IT Cost
Asset functional Process
Management
Management Management
8. Performance- 16. Systems 27. Systems
Based Budgeting Scalability Management
17. Capacity 28. Change
Planning Management
18. Enterprise
29. Procurement
Policy
Management
Management
19. IS Training

Lifecycle Performance Management Best Practices

The definitions and best practice processes are as follows:



DEFINING PHASE BEST PRACTICES

1. Organizational Mission and Goals Management – Organizational
Mission and Goals Management is the practice of ensuring that
organizational mission and goals are well documented and communicated
throughout the organization. Identified by executives and executed by
management and staff, Organizational Mission and Goals Management is
a process that includes participation at all levels and requires continuous
validation throughout the maturation and growth of the organization.
Organizational Mission and Goals Management includes identifying
objectives throughout all business units, personnel, processes and systems
and monitoring the progress of meeting those objectives. The objective is
to control costs by having people, processes and systems within the
organization working toward supporting the mission and goals of the
organization.

2. Performance Scope Management – The practice of defining the
outcomes, documenting assumptions, and defining the scope of your
performance initiative. Performance Scope Management can be
approached in several ways such as defining deliverables, functionality
and data, technical structure, and enterprise/organizational structure.
Performance Scope Management involves setting the high level
processes for which the performance management team will approach
divisions, support teams and individuals in order to align performance to
business objectives. Performance Scope Management ensures that
expectations are met by clarifying roles, processes and expectations.

3. Performance Team Development – Performance Team Development is
a critical process in Lifecycle Performance Management. It involves
ensuring that the performance team is well aware of the issues facing the
organization from the customer, employee, senior management and key
stakeholders perspectives. Performance Team Development includes
ensuring that there is support and commitment from the CEO, a direct
reporting line to executive management, access to systems, data,
organizational charts and processes, and liaisons form each of the
business units to bridge the gap in communication and operational
knowledge.

4. Vendor Performance Management – A low risk vendor conforms to the
GartnerGroup vendor suitability models. The vendor/service provider
model assesses the viability of vendors against a set of characteristics
that have been proven a low risk, high quality purchase. An organization


that utilizes low risk, as well as high quality vendors and providers, will be
less likely to encounter quality, reliability, or supply issues. This practice
compares vendors and service providers on their financial viability,
organizational stability, quality control, stringent testing for compatibility,
independent market support for technology differentiation, and
responsiveness to field service issues.
We believe that vendors that have best in class capabilities will reduce the
risk and associated costs compared to vendors that may offer lower priced
products without sound testing, field support, or management practices.

5. Vendor Standardization – Vendor standardization limits the number of
vendors that an organization purchases from. For given assets, an
organization selects a limited set of vendors from which products or
services can be purchased. Vendor Standardization usually consists of a
primary and secondary vendor. By standardizing on fewer vendors, an
organization can gain purchasing leverage and reduce incompatibility
issues, support issues, vendor liaison requirements, testing of new
technology, and administrative costs of vendor management. While it may
limit the available selection of technology and features somewhat, it
enables larger discounts with volume purchasing. Vendor standardization
is part of a comprehensive asset management process that includes
establishment of procurement procedures and policies, and compliance
monitoring and management.

6. Organizational Stability – Stability of an organization is critical to keeping
the staff members and teams consistent and focused. It enables the
maturation of processes, procedures, and talent. Constant reorganization,
management changes, and political infighting takes a toll on moral,
turnover, costs, risk and progress.

7. IT Cost Management – IT Cost Management is the financial management
of your network that measures the total cost of IT services on a regular
basis, compares the costs to industry benchmarks, and makes decisions
on changes that include financial, not just technical, objectives. The
process, policies, and tools are continuously and regularly applied to track
progress and optimize spending. With IT Cost Management frameworks,
such as TCO Lifecycle Management, proper technology refresh cycles can
be established and investments can be verified as having positive financial
impact and returns prior to implementation.

8. Performance Based Budgeting – A results focused planning and
budgeting framework which focuses on three elements: the strategy (how
to achieve outcome), outputs (activities to achieve final outcome), and the
result (final outcome). Performance-based budgets use missions, goals
and objectives to justify funding. Through the allocation of resources,
performance-based budging achieves specific objectives based on


program goals and measured results. As a result, it is possible to
understand which activities are cost-effective in terms of achieving the
desired result.




PLANNING PHASE BEST PRACTICES

9. Employee Acceptance Management – Employee Acceptance
Management is the process of gaining employee buy-in by emphasizing
performance expectations from the top level down. Employee Acceptance
Management involves transforming employees into a high performance
mindset, communicating employee expectations and enabling them to
understand the impact that their specific role has on the success of the
organization.

10. Performance Management Planning – Performance Management
Planning is the practice of defining the performance strategy and
prioritizing activities according to that strategy—to ensure operational
alignment with organizational goals. Performance Management Planning
involves planning, budgeting, forecasting and allocating resources to
support strategy and achieve optimal execution. The Performance
Management Plan includes consolidating, monitoring, and reporting on
performance outcomes for management, regulatory, and statutory
purposes. The ultimate goal of Performance Management Planning is the
ability to plan and budget in real-time with dynamic plans that provide real-
time feedback to everyone who is part of the process.

11. Time Management (Planning versus Implementing) – Planning is an
essential item on the critical path of every project. Our studies have shown
that cutting corners on planning can triple the cost and time to implement
enterprise level projects. Planning requires adequate information about the
current and target states and accurate estimates of the time and financial
investments required to perform all the steps necessary for change.
Planning also involves putting together a team of committed and motivated
individuals with defined team roles, outlining all tasks, assigning
responsibilities, and proactively managing and mitigating risks. The
planning process should include the development of a vision/scope
document so that each team member understands the project vision, goals,
objectives, schedule, and risks. The planning team should allow adequate
time for team members to understand, investigate, document, and
communicate prior to design and implementation.

12. Leadership Development – Leadership Development is the strategic
investment in, and utilization of the human capital within the organization.
The practice of Leadership Development focuses on the development of
leadership as a process. With the rapid rate of change in our global
economy, leadership has taken on the critical role of adaptation and
innovation in the workplace. As companies restructure their business
processes and employees, they need solid leadership training to
communicate effectively, influence others, maximize creativity, and analyze


your business. How leadership is demonstrated within an organization will
determine how successful that organization will be and how successful
those who follow will become.

13. Employee Training – Employee training is one of the most powerful cost
reduction drivers. Our research shows that the under-trained employee
consumes two to six times the amount of technical support (including peer
support) than an adequately trained user. Employee training should be
performed on systems and applications, being careful to match the
training that is delivered in relation to the employee’s job. Training should
include a mix of instructor-led classroom training, computer-based
training, and just-in-time training to help increase user productivity and
reduce support costs.

14. Staff Motivation – A motivated staff is one that will operate as a team and
will pitch in when needed to solve any problem or challenge at hand. They
will often exceed expectations and provide critical back up for each other.
A motivated staff works harder to meet the goals set by the organization.

15. Automated Asset Management – Electronically supported life-cycle
driven asset process. Automated asset management consists of
electronically supported procurement, automated inventory, and
centralized data repository that are available to financial, administrative,
technical planners, system administrators, and the service desk.
Managed data within the asset management system consists of contract
terms, hardware inventory, software inventory, accounting, maintenance
records, change history, support history, and other technical and financial
information.

16. Systems Scalability – Systems Scalability is a technology infrastructure
that can logically and physically increase in performance and capacity with
continuity to meet reasonable growth and change over time. A scalable
architecture contains a strategic migration plan for continuous growth and
progress. Commitment to scalable architectures enables the rollout of
homogeneous hardware and application platforms across users and
departments with different processing requirements, while providing
technical staff with a common platform to support.

17. Capacity Planning – Capacity planning is a process by which the capacity
of the network and assets is measured, compared against requirements,
and adjusted as appropriate. The process of capacity planning involves
mapping new initiatives to existing infrastructure, understanding the cost
dynamics of network bandwidth and storage, memory, and other system
resources.


18. Enterprise Policy Management – Enterprise policy management is a
managed user environment in which a network or desktop administrator
can control, with rules-based logic, which applications, settings, network
resources, databases, and other IT assets a user can use. This
environment is defined by user ID and is not necessarily machine specific.
It is typically implemented by user profiles maintained at the server and
synchronized with the client device that a user is logged onto.

Enterprise policy management precludes the user from making changes to
the system; such as introducing unauthorized software or changing
settings that may cause conflict with other system resources. As well, a
managed environment controls the ease of use of the desktop, providing a
common set of applications and access for groups of users or individuals.
In this manner, the user is presented only with the tools they have been
trained on and need for the job, and assures that changes are managed.

This process, integrated with a system management and change
management policy, can reduce service desk calls and unplanned
downtime, as well as create a more predictable platform for system
upgrades.

19. IS Training – IS professional training is critical in preparing the IS staff that
are delivering support and service to users to confidently plan and
implement initiatives and solutions, and resolve user issues quickly and
effectively. IS professional training should be obtained for all staff
members on the systems, tools, and applications that are utilized in their
daily jobs. Training should include instructor-led training classes,
certification courses, seminars, and computer-based training.




EXECUTING PHASE BEST PRACTICES

20. Employee Performance Management – Employee Performance
Management is the systematic process by which an organization involves
its employees, as individuals and members of a group, in improving
organizational effectiveness in the accomplishment of agency mission and
goals. The Employee Performance Management process includes
planning work and setting expectations, continually monitoring
performance, developing the capacity to perform, periodically rating
performance in a summary fashion, and rewarding good performance.
Functions within employee performance management are recruit and hire
management, compensation management, incentive management, goals
management, learning management, competency management and
performance measurement.

21. Information Services Performance Management – Information Services
Performance Management is the practice of measuring and monitoring
information systems and services and aligning them to organizational
goals and objectives. Information Services Performance Management
involves supporting employees and customers, aligning business unit
objectives to system capabilities and performance, communicating IT
planning and performance data in a way that is useful to business unit
management, and adapting to growing complexities and constant change.

22. Process Management – Process Management is a series of actions
taken to identify, analyze and improve existing processes within an
organization to meet new goals and objectives. Process Management
involves identifying key business processes and aligning the results of
these processes with the strategic goals. Lifecycle Process Management
consists of baselining the current environment, identifying critical success
factors, redesigning inefficient or ineffective processes, automating
processes, identifying process metrics, and training employees on cross
functional process.

23. Data Integration Management – Data Integration Management is the
practice of gaining business value from information assets through the
effective use of data management technologies and best practices. Key
components of Data Integration Management include data integration,
data quality, database management systems, data warehousing and
enterprise information management. Data Integration Management
enables an organization to secure a single, accurate, corporate view of
key information.

24. Performance Metrics Management – Performance Metrics Management
is the process of identifying quantifiable, results-driven metrics that enable


informed decision making and encourages improved service delivery.
Performance Metrics Management involves understanding the business
and complexities of the organization, focusing on the desired outcomes,
involving all participants for consensus and buy-in, ensuring that formulas
and logic are valid, and storing performance results in a centralized
location for easy access.

25. Performance Alignment Management – Performance Alignment
Management facilitates the translation of business and functional priorities
into strategy. Performance alignment consists of aligning corporate
strategy to four areas: division/departmental, workforce, financial and
resources. Ultimately, Performance Alignment Management develops a
performance strategy that feeds strategic alignment, reflects
organizational priorities, and leads to successful execution of
organizational goals and objectives.

26. Cross-functional Process Management – Cross-functional Process
Management is the process of breaking down functional siloed thinking
and building the organization around core processes rather than specific
functional areas. Cross-functional Process Management focuses on those
major processes which require support from multiple functional support
groups. Ultimately, a well managed cross functional process enables
performance tracking throughout each of the functional “hand offs” and
weak points within a major process are identified and corrected.

27. Systems Management – Systems management is an automated event
management system that proactively and reactively notifies system
operators of failures, capacity issues, traffic issues, virus attacks and other
transient events. The tools allow monitoring of system status,
performance indicators, thresholds, notification of users, and dispatch of
trouble tickets. Systems Management provides optimal system
performance, quicker resolution of problems, and minimizes failures.
Automated solutions are used in support of distributed computing
operations processes and policies for performance and failure detection
and correction, as well as optimization.

28. Change Management – Change management is the procedure, policies,
and tools established to monitor organizational assets to assure that
unauthorized changes are not being implemented. It also affirms that a
database of changes is available so that changes can be easily
recognized during troubleshooting activities

29. Procurement Management – Procurement Management is a set of
policies and procedures to manage the procurement process.
Procurement Management does not necessarily designate that all
procurement personnel are centralized in a single location; rather it


involves the development of a common set of procurement policies and
operating procedures, pooling of information about requests, vendor
contracts, asset data, industry information, and qualified procurement skills
to ensure the pieces required to get a cost effective deal are properly
considered. As well, centralized procurement assures that standardization
rules are in compliance.




MONITORING PHASE BEST PRACTICES

30. Quality Management – Quality Management is the process for ensuring
that all the activities necessary to design, develop and implement a
product or service are effective and efficient with respect to the system
and its performance. Quality Management includes several processes
that enable organizations to ensure quality. Among them are quality
planning, quality assurance, quality control, quality audits and quality
surveillance. The objective of quality management is to define quality
system policies, objectives, and requirements, and to explain how these
policies will be defined.

31. Performance Data Management - Performance Data Management is the
practice of helping organizations understand the stages of data as it
transforms to meaningful information and is distributed throughout the
organization. The Lifecycle Performance Reporting Process consists of 5
phases: data gathering, data extraction, data integration, reporting and
distribution. Some key tasks within the performance reporting process
include gaining buy-in on data gathering methods, determining scope and
purpose of what to gather, and utilizing existing data streams and
maximizing current report capabilities, and identifying proper tools to
invest in to ensure meaningful data.

32. Business Intelligence Management – Business Intelligence
Management is the identification, implementation, and strategic
application of technologies that are used to gather, provide access to, and
analyze data and information about company operations and
performance. It includes creating a process for gaining a more
comprehensive knowledge of the factors affecting your business, and
helping your company make better informed business decisions.
Business Intelligence Management involves carefully identifying which
tools fit best with your type of business, your systems architecture, your
staff technical capabilities, and data complexities. Among the many types
of BI tools include: reporting tools, metadata tools, data warehouse tools,
database/hardware tools, ETL tools, and OLAP tools.





REPORTING PHASE BEST PRACTICES

33. Project Performance Management – Project Performance Management
is the discipline of organizing and managing resources to ensure that the
project is completed within the defined scope. Project performance
reporting is the process of collecting project baseline data and distributing
performance information to stakeholders. Implementing projects
performance measurement ensures that your reporting clarifies how
resources are being used to obtain the objectives of the project.

34. Scorecard / Dashboard Development – Scorecard / Dashboard
Development is the process of planning, identifying and implementing an
easy access view of how well the organization is reaching strategic goals.
Scorecard / Dashboard Development is the process of displaying whether
the activities of a company are meeting its objectives in terms of vision
and strategy through a series of graphs, charts, gauges, and other visual
indicators that illustrate performance in real time. Scorecard / Dashboard
Development includes identifying actionable indicators, lead indicators,
alerts and thresholds and enabling stakeholders to access data easily.

35. Customer Satisfaction Management – Customer Satisfaction
Management is the process of ensuring that customer’s expectations are
met or exceeded over the lifetime of the product or service. Customer
Satisfaction Management involves understanding specifically what, in
customer’s eyes, an organization is doing well and where that organization
needs to improve in order to better support them. Ultimately, Customer
Satisfaction Management leads to identifying opportunities for products
and service innovation and serves as a basis for performance appraisal
and reward systems.

36. Service Level Tracking and Management – Service levels are
predefined by a service level agreement (SLA) between the user
community and the IS department and between IS and external service
providers. Ideally this is a seamless contract that will establish specific
services that IS will deliver to the end-user community with regards to
various uptime, performance, and problem resolution criteria. The metrics
contained in a SLA need to be specific, measurable, track able, and
meaningful.

The Lifecycle Performance Management Kit and Organizational Performance
and Best Practices Analysis provides all of the processes, techniques and
frameworks to implement a successful enterprise-wide performance solution.



The Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis

In most cases, some divisions within an organization manage aspects of
performance management better than other divisions. As illustrated in the
example table below, some performance management best practices come
more natural to certain divisions, depending on the service provided.

Accounting / Finance • Cost management

HR • Employee relations, staff motivation

Marketing / Sales • Customer management,

Operations (Production, Customer Service) • Performance metrics, customer satisfaction

Procurement • Vendor management, asset management

Research and Development • Performance Scope management, Change management

Information Technology • Business intelligence, information systems

Communications/Public Relations • Customer satisfaction management

Administration • Mission and objectives management, policy

The premise of the Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis
is to measure all the critical performance management processes necessary
to be a high performing organization.

The Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis is a service
provided by Lifecycle Performance Professionals which analyzes an
organization's utilization of the 35 performance management best practices
and identifies their performance strengths, areas for immediate
improvements, and cost savings opportunities. By illustrating where strong
performance management best practices exist within an organization,
Lifecycle Performance Management leverages those strengths and
processes to other areas within the organization which require them.

Best Practice Scoring Systems

Lifecycle Performance Professional’s Best Practice Scoring Systems simplify
performance management planning. Our Performance Index, Feasibility
Analysis, and Impact Value scoring systems remove the grueling analysis and
simplifies decision making.

The Performance Index is a scoring system for measuring your performance
management practices and identifying strengths and weaknesses, and


opportunities for cost savings. The Performance Index provides a quantitative
method for illustrating the cumulative effect of performance improvements as
you move closer to reaching your target performance levels.

Figure 3 - Performance Index Scoring Table

The Feasibility Score provides a quantitative value for identifying best
practices that are most aligned to your unique performance management
goals. The criteria for measuring the value of each best practice within the
organization are Mission Alignment, Organizational Effectiveness, Cost
Impact and Ease of Implementation.

The Impact Value is a scoring system for identifying best practices which will
provide the greatest impact on your organization once implemented. Impact
Value takes into consideration both your organizational objectives and what
you want to get out of your performance initiatives.


The Best Practices Roadmap

The Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis provides a
custom Best Practices Roadmap which illustrates performance management
strengths and weaknesses, and provides a logical path for businesses to
follow in order to achieve high performance levels in the shortest amount of
time. The custom roadmap identifies quick wins and the most feasible best
practices and processes which yield the greatest impact.

Figure 4 - Best Practices Roadmap

The Best Practices Roadmap maps performance management best
practices to performance categories (people, processes and technology) and
the Lifecycle Performance Framework phases. The Best Practices Roadmap
provides a logical path for implementing best practice processes. For
example, many of the best practices that fall within the Defining phase must
be implemented before best practices in the later phases can be fully utilized.


Take Organizational Mission and Goals Management. If the processes within
this best practice are not implemented, other best practices will not be as
effective and the performance management initiative will surely fail.

.By understanding which best practices your organization utilizes well and
which divisions and teams have strong processes in place, you can
strategically leverage those processes to assist divisions that do not have
these practices in place.

The Lifecycle Performance Roadmap

The Lifecycle Performance Roadmap contains 90 processes sectioned into 3
performance areas consisting of 10 management functions and spanning
across the 5 performance lifecycle phases. The Lifecycle Performance
Roadmap illustrates how performance management relates to various major
management support functions within your organization. The processes
provide a high level approach to managing performance across your various
management functions and helps ensure that your people, processes and
technology are working together to achieve your organization’s missions and
goals. The roadmap shows how performance management adds value to
and is directly represented in each of these major management functions and
aligns them to the Lifecycle Performance Framework phases.

Figure 5 - Lifecycle Performance Roadmap



This section briefly explains how performance management plays a part in
each of the major organizational management functions.

Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is the process of determining a company's long-term goals
and then identifying the best approach for achieving them. Strategic planning
plays a vital role in the performance of your organization. In order for
strategic goals to be achieved, strategic planning must be aligned to
performance measurements. These performance measurements allow
executive management to gauge the effectiveness of the organizational
strategic plan and determine how the budget and projects will be setup in the
future. How do you ensure that your strategic plan aligns the proper
performance goals to organizational objectives? The 120 Day Plan: Step by
Step Guide discusses this in detail, and the Lifecycle Performance
Management Kit provides the process and templates to ensure your
strategic plan is geared towards performance improvement.

Organizational Development

Often used interchangeably with organizational effectiveness, organizational
development is the process through which an organization develops the
internal capacity to be the most efficient towards its mission work and to
sustain itself over the long term. This definition highlights the explicit
connection between organizational development work and the achievement of
organizational mission. Performance management directly relates to
organizational development, since OD is primarily focused on improving the
performance of organizations and the people within them. Whatever your
organizational challenges, the starting point is to get a clear, objective view of
your organization's performance abilities, such as strengths and limitations.
Identifying proper performance attributes is essential, because sound
management decisions can only be made when performance attributes are
identified and measured accurately.

In order to reach anticipated organizational targets, you must be able to tie
the performance and motivation of individuals to the overall strategic
objectives. The Lifecycle Performance Framework processes illustrate how
performance management, organizational development and strategic
planning share interrelated processes to accomplish organizational goals.
The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step Guide includes a detailed section on
aligning personnel and team performance to strategic objectives. The
Lifecycle Performance Management Kit includes templates for managing
organizational change and measuring organizational impact.

Change Management



Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with change within
every perspective of an organization, from systems to personnel to projects to
functions. Change management is a comprehensive, often difficult
management function to properly implement.

There’s the saying “Organizations don't adapt to change; their people do.”
With that outlook, it is easy to understand how performance management
plays a critical part in managing change. Implementing change within an
organization often requires a change in how employees execute things. You
can implement the most advanced change management tools money can
buy, but if your people don’t buy into or fully support the initiatives, their
performance will suffer and ultimately the organization will be ineffective, or
less efficient than before. So how do you ensure that your organization is
prepared for change? The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step Guide includes a
detailed section on the getting employees ready for change and the Lifecycle
Performance Management Kit provides change management templates to
get started.

Project Management

Project management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources
(e.g. people) in such a way that the project is completed within defined scope,
quality, time and cost constraints. A project is a temporary and one-time
endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service, which brings
about beneficial change or added value. Performance measurement is an
area within the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK). It is the link between performance management and
project management, where cost, schedule and scope performance are
measured and monitored throughout each phase of the Project Lifecycle.

Project performance reporting is the process of collecting project baseline
data and distributing performance information to stakeholders throughout the
project. How do you make sure that your reporting clarifies how resources
are being used to obtain the objectives of the project? The 120 Day Plan:
Step by Step Guide includes a detailed section on the project management
performance measurement processes within the PMBOK.

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is the measurement or determination that a product or
service meets a customer's expectations, based on predetermined quality and
service requirements. It is said that customer satisfaction equals perception
of performance divided by expectation of performance. There is a direct
relationship between performance and customer satisfaction, where the better
you perform to customer expectations, the more satisfied customers will be.


Customer satisfaction is your organization’s level of performance through
your customers, employees, and/or stakeholders perspective. In fact, many
times customer satisfaction feedback, if requested properly, can provide
information and insight for achieving breakthrough increases in organizational
performance and effectiveness.

When measuring customer satisfaction, organizations should review their
objectives and ensure that the customer service strategy is linked to those
objectives. But how can you ensure that your organizational objectives are
linked to your customer service strategy? The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step
Guide includes a detailed section on the performance measurement
processes of customer satisfaction and the Lifecycle Performance
Management Kit includes sample customer satisfaction surveys.

Workforce Performance Management

Workforce performance management is the strategic alignment of an
organization’s human capital with its business activities. It is a methodical
process of analyzing the current workforce, determining future workforce
needs, identifying the gap between the present and future, and implementing
solutions so the organization can accomplish its mission, goals, and
objectives.

People are the most important aspect to any organization. Therefore, the
performance of the people within an organization will greatly impact the
overall performance of the organization. While most employees understand
what they need to do, workforce performance management tells them how
well they must do it. The greatest benefit to workforce performance
management is the process of aligning employee performance to
organizational objectives and goals. But how can a manager truly evaluate
individuals on their alignment with corporate goals and their contributions to
business results? The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step Guide includes a
section detailing the importance of aligning employee performance to
organizational goals and the steps to accomplish this.

Functions within workforce performance management are Recruit and Hire
Management, Compensation Management, Incentive Management, Goals
Management, Learning Management, Competency Management, and
Performance Measurement. Each of these workforce management functions
are described in more detail in The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step Guide. The
Lifecycle Performance Management Kit includes templates to help manage
workforce performance.

IT Performance Management


IT performance management assists organizations with the increasing
demands of maximizing value creation from technology investments, reducing
risk from IT, decreasing architectural complexity, and optimizing overall
technology expenditures. Behind people, technology is the next critical factor
in maximizing efficiency and organizational performance. Many organizations
from small to large are using IT strategically to support profitable growth. IT
performance management includes maximizing technology to improve service
delivery in every area of the organization. IT performance management
utilizes such technology as unified management reporting and dashboard
tools to enhance performance and drives business processes. How do you
find the right technology to enhance your business intelligence? Choosing
the right business intelligence tools and aligning IT/IS systems to business
objectives is discussed in detail in The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step Guide,
and the Lifecycle Performance Management Kit includes vendor
summaries and templates for performing your own vendor assessments with
weighted criteria.

Knowledge Management

Knowledge management refers to the guidelines, policies, and practices that
an organization uses to create and transfer information to support the
performance of the people in the organization. These can include various
documents and copyrights, and intangible processes, models and methods
that their people use to get work done.

The impact of knowledge management on key business results is seen
through its potential for improving the performance of business processes.
Take call centers for example. They may handle hundreds, even thousands
of calls a day. It would be too much too ask for call center representatives to
be able to resolve the majority of these calls without a knowledge
management system in place. With a knowledge management system, the
call center representatives have more information and resources to access
and can thus resolve more customer requests. Performance benefits can be
seen in such areas as first call resolution, time to resolve, and customer
satisfaction.

Knowledge management drives performance by linking knowledge to critical
functions which impact business and putting the supports in place to ensure
knowledge is leveraged across people and circumstances.

Quality Management

Quality management is a method for ensuring that all the activities necessary
to design, develop and implement a product or service are effective and
efficient with respect to the system and its performance. Quality management
includes several processes that enable organizations to ensure quality.


Among them are quality planning, quality assurance, quality control, quality
audits and quality surveillance.

Quality planning is defined as a set of activities whose purpose is to define
quality system policies, objectives, and requirements, and to explain how
these policies will be applied, how these objectives will be achieved, and how
these requirements will be met. It is always future oriented.

Quality assurance (QA) is defined as a set of activities whose purpose is to
demonstrate that an entity meets all quality requirements. QA activities are
carried out in order to inspire the confidence of both customers and
managers, confidence that all quality requirements are being met.

Quality control is defined as a set of activities or techniques whose purpose is
to ensure that all quality requirements are being met. In order to achieve this
purpose, processes are monitored and performance problems are solved.

Quality audits examine the elements of a quality management system in order
to evaluate how well these elements comply with quality system
requirements.

Quality surveillance is a set of activities whose purpose is to monitor an entity
and review its records to prove that quality requirements are being met.

Performance measurement is a necessary instrument for quality management
because in order to measure quality, you must first apply performance
expectations and standards. In the PMBOK, the performance measurement
process group falls under the quality management knowledge area. Quality
management is discussed in greater detail in The 120 Day Plan: Step by
Step Guide and the Lifecycle Performance Management Kit includes
templates for creating quality assurance and quality control plans.

Process Improvement

Process improvement is a series of actions taken to identify, analyze and
improve existing processes within an organization to meet new goals and
objectives. There are many process improvement methodologies that differ in
approach, but the one thing they all have in common is the outcome of better
performance. In fact, by definition performance improvement is the concept
of measuring the output of processes or procedures, then modifying the
processes or procedures in order to increase the output, increase efficiency,
or increase the effectiveness of the processes or procedures.

Often times, the most critical processes that impact business success are
those that require support from multiple functional groups. Identifying and


managing cross-functional processes and removing the functional silos that
inhibit business culture are discussed in great detail in The 120 Day Plan:
Step by Step Guide. The Lifecycle Performance Management Kit
includes a process profile template and a process evaluation scorecard to
help you manage those processes.



Government Performance Framework

Many government agencies struggle to develop performance programs that
meet the agency’s strategic objectives and annual goals. An effective
Performance Management system must be in place to ensure that an
agency’s administrative and support functions (budget, financial
management, human resources, information technology, procurement, etc.)
directly and explicitly serve the needs of program managers in meeting the
agency’s strategic and annual goals.

Before you can effectively manage the performance of a government agency,
you must first understand the laws and regulations, frameworks and
methodologies, and process improvement techniques that are in use today.
In the Government Performance Framework, I have listed some of the
regulations and methodologies I've encountered in my own experience
managing government performance.

Government Performance Management Framework



Controls (Laws, Regulations, Imperatives)

• The 1993 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) holds
federal agencies accountable for using resources wisely and achieving
program results. GPRA requires agencies to develop plans for what they
intend to accomplish, measure how well they are doing, make appropriate
decisions based on the information they have gathered, and
communicate information about their performance to Congress and to the
public. GPRA requires agencies to develop a five-year Strategic Plan,
which includes a mission statement and sets out long-term goals and
objectives; Annual Performance Plans, which provide annual
performance commitments toward achieving the goals and objectives
presented in the Strategic Plan; and Annual Performance and
Accountability Reports, which evaluate an agency's progress toward
achieving performance commitments.

• Government Management Reform Act (GMRA) of requires the head of
each agency to submit an audited financial statement to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) annually. The Government
Management Reform Act calls for agency financial statements that reflect
the results of agency operations and a government-wide financial
statement that includes results of government-wide operations. The
purposes of Government Management Reform Act (GMRA) are to
provide a more effective, efficient and responsive government through a
series of management reforms primarily for federal human resources and
financial management.

• Clinger-Cohen Act (CCA) of 1996 provides that the government
information technology shop be operated exactly as an efficient and
profitable business would be operated. Acquisition, planning and
management of technology must be treated as a "capital investment."
While the law is complex, all consumers of hardware and software in the
agency should be aware of the Chief Information Officer's leadership in
implementing this statute.

• The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 (CFO Act) establishes Chief
Financial Officer responsibilities for systematic measurement of
performance. The CFO Act requires federal agencies to prepare financial
statements and have them audited. Under the act, an Office of Federal
Financial Management was established in the Office of Management and
Budget and an eight-part program was started to move toward better
financial management.


• The President’s Management Agenda (PMA) outlines programs to
radically improve performance by making government agencies more
citizen-centered, results-oriented and market-based. It focuses on five
major issues that all federal organizations must address — budget and
performance integration, strategic human capital, competitive sourcing,
improved financial performance and expanded electronic government.

• The Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) was developed to
assess and improve program performance so that the Federal
government can achieve better results. A PART review helps identify a
program’s strengths and weaknesses to inform funding and management
decisions aimed at making the program more effective. The PART
therefore looks at all factors that affect and reflect program performance
including program purpose and design; performance measurement,
evaluations, and strategic planning; program management; and program
results. Because the PART includes a consistent series of analytical
questions, it allows programs to show improvements over time, and
allows comparisons between similar programs.

• OMB Circular A-11 covers the development of the President’s budget
and tells you how to prepare and submit materials required for OMB and
Presidential review of agency requests and for formulation of the budget.

• The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is known as "the
investigative arm of Congress" and "the congressional watchdog." GAO
supports the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and
helps improve the performance and accountability of the federal
government for the benefit of the American people.

• Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) - The
purpose of the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996
(FFMIA) is to advance Federal financial management by ensuring that
Federal financial management systems provide accurate, reliable, and
timely financial management information to the government’s managers.
The intent and the requirements of this Act go well beyond the directives
of the CFO Act and the Government Management Reform Act of 1994
(GMRA) to publish audited financial reports. Compliance with the FFMIA
will provide the basis for the continuing use of reliable financial
management information by program managers, and by the President,
the Congress and the public.

• The Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996
(ITMRA) is intended to improve the ways that agencies acquire, use, and
dispose of information technology (IT) and, thereby, to improve the
productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of Federal programs. The Act
requires consideration of IT goals in strategic planning and IT
contributions to agency goals and performance.


techniques and frameworks to implement a successful government


Performance Measures

The Lifecycle Performance Framework is a group of performance-related
processes and methodologies, sequenced throughout five phases, and
designed to raise organizational awareness of performance management
best practices.

ISO 9000 is a family of standards published by the International Organization
for Standardization (“ISO”). The objective of ISO 9001 is to provide a set of
requirements that, if they are effectively implemented, will provide you with
confidence that your supplier can consistently provide goods and services
that meet your needs and expectations and comply with applicable
regulations.

Capability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement
approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective
processes. It can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a
division, or an entire organization. CMMI helps integrate traditionally separate
organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities,
provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for
appraising current processes.

The Performance Reference Model (PRM) is a standardized framework to
measure the performance of major IT initiatives and their contribution to
program performance. The PRM structure is designed to clearly articulate the
cause and effect relationship between inputs, outputs, and outcomes. This
“line of sight” is critical for IT project managers, program managers, and key
decision-makers to understand how and to what extent technology is enabling
progress towards outputs and outcomes.

Enterprise Architecture (EA) builds a holistic view of the organization's
strategy, processes, information, and information technology assets.
Enterprise Architect ensures that the business and IT are in alignment. EA
links the business mission, strategy, and processes of an organization to its
IT strategy, and documents this using multiple architectural models or views


that show how the current and future needs of an organization will be met in
an efficient, sustainable, agile, and adaptable manner.

Enterprise Architecture operates across organizational and computing "silos"
to drive common approaches and expose information assets and processes
across the enterprise. The goal is to deliver an architecture that supports the
most efficient and secure IT environment meeting a company's business
needs.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a set of management practices
throughout the organization, geared to ensure the organization consistently
meets or exceeds customer requirements. TQM places strong focus on
process measurement and controls as means of continuous improvement. In
a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving
processes, products, services and the culture in which they work.

The methods for implementing this approach come from the teachings of
such quality leaders as Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V.
Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran. A core concept in
implementing TQM is Deming’s 14 points, a set of management practices to
help companies increase their quality and productivity.

Change Management is a systematic approach to dealing with change within
every perspective of an organization, from systems to personnel to projects to
functions. Change management is a comprehensive, often difficult
management function to properly implement.

There’s the saying “Organizations don't adapt to change; their people do.”
With that outlook, it is easy to understand how performance management
plays a critical part in managing change. Implementing change within an
organization often requires a change in how employees execute things. You
can implement the most advanced change management tools money can
buy, but if your people don’t buy into or fully support the initiatives, their
performance will suffer and ultimately the organization will be ineffective, or
worse, less efficient than before.

Every system, personnel, and procedural change within an organization
should be implemented with the goal of achieving organizational mission and
goals. The actual improvement should be compared to the predicted
improvement to assess the effectiveness of the change. This guide
discusses managing your organization during its many changes throughout
the performance lifecycle.





Performance Measures

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic planning and management
system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and
nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and
strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications,
and monitor organization performance against strategic goals. It was
originated by Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David
Norton as a performance measurement framework that added strategic non-
financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give
managers and executives a more 'balanced' view of organizational
performance.

A Logic Model is a tool used to visually describe the linkages between
program goals, activities, and expected outcomes. They describe how a
program should work, present the planned activities for the program, describe
how activities will be documented, and focus on anticipated outcomes. It is
important to remember that logic models present a theory about the expected
program outcome. They do not demonstrate whether the program caused the
observed outcome. Logic Models display the sequence of actions that
describe what the program is and will do, and how investments link to results.
Logic Maps often include five core components:

1. INPUTS: resources, contributions, investments that go into the
program
2. OUTPUTS: activities, services, events and products that reach people
who participate or who are targeted
3. OUTCOMES: results or changes for individuals, groups, communities,
organizations, communities, or systems
4. Assumptions: the beliefs we have about the program, the people
involved, and the context and the way we think the program will work
5. External Factors: the environment in which the program exists
includes a variety of external factors that interact with and influence the
program action.


Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable measurements that
reflect the critical success factors of an organization. Based on beforehand
agreed measures, they reveal a high-level snapshot of the organization. To
achieve a particular target level of Key Performance Indicators for a company,
every department has to work in synergy towards it. For this purpose, all the
units of an organization need to define their respective KPIs, which should in
turn work towards accomplishing the overall KPIs of the organization.

Critical Few is the concept that focusing on the critical few objectives (CFOs)
that add the most organizational value and channels energy to consistently
deliver results that meet organizational objectives will, in turn, yield positive
results. Establishing critical few objectives helps organizations manage time
effectively as well as sets priorities based upon those “Critical few”
responsibilities and activities needed to achieve its goals

Inputs, Processes, Outputs, Outcomes

A project involves the transformation of inputs into an output or product.
Project inputs are the various needs and resources that projects can draw
upon as it sets out to accomplish its work. Processes plan and control the
performance or execution of a project. Processes deliver OUTPUTS. In
other words, what pops out of the end of a process is an output. Outputs are
only produced (or should only be produced) because there is a customer of
the process who wants them. Outputs can usually be seen, felt, or moved
about. An OUTCOME is a level of performance, or achievement. It may be
associated with the process, or the output. Outcomes imply quantification of
performance.

Scorecards and Dashboards have become the popular method for
communicating and displaying complex data in visual, more simplistic views.
Often the two terms get used interchangeably. While both scorecards and
dashboards display organizational performance in a visual output, there are
important distinctions between the two.

Scorecards often illustrate performance data over a period of time. They
represent a broader organizational strategy and are designed to show
progress toward objectives and goals; kind of like a report card.

Dashboards are simply a series of graphs, charts, gauges and other visual
indicators that illustrate performance in real time. While dashboards don’t
always have to be in real time, they often represent up-to-the-minute
information depending on the situation. For example, a sales team manager
may not need to see real time information and daily information may be just
fine. On the other hand, a call center manager may need up to the second
knowledge of a critical system going down.



Diagnostic Indicators are performance events determined to be the signs of
an overlying problem. In the performance field, diagnostic indicators give
analysts clues for what problems may be arising within an organization.
Diagnostic indicators are the clues that identify performance management
problems.

Exception Reporting is the selection and highlighting of objects that are in
some way different or critical. Results that fall outside a set of predetermined
threshold values (exceptions) are highlighted in color. This enables you to
identify immediately any results that deviate from the expected results.

Exception reporting allows you to determine the objects that are critical for
further analysis. Exception reporting can be extremely complex, but in it’s
simplest project management form, an exception report mainly highlights the
differences between the planned results and the actual results and is
prepared when such differences are substantial.

Decision Support Tools are software, frameworks and other tools that can
be used as part of a structured decision-making process. A few decision
support tools include statistical analysis, sampling plan development, data
acquisition, ranking systems, data management, compliance/emergency
response, modeling, visualization, risk assessment, remedial process
selection, cost estimation and long term monitoring and system optimization.

Benchmarking is the process of comparing the cost, cycle time, productivity,
or quality of a specific process or method to another that is widely considered
to be an industry standard or best practice. The result is often a business
case for making changes in order to make improvements. Benchmarking is
most used to measure performance using a specific indicator (cost per unit of
measure, productivity per unit of measure, cycle time of x per unit of measure
or defects per unit of measure) resulting in a metric of performance that is
then compared to others.

A service-level agreement (SLA) is a negotiated agreement between two
parties where one is the customer and the other is the service provider. This
can be a legally binding formal or informal 'contract'. The SLA records a
common understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantees
and warranties. Each area of service scope should have the 'level of service'
defined. The SLA may specify the levels of availability, serviceability,
performance, operation, or other attributes of the service such as billing. The
'level of service' can also be specified as 'target' and 'minimum', which allows
customers to informed what to expect (the minimum), whilst providing a
measurable (average) target value that shows the level of organization


performance. In some contracts penalties may be agreed in the case of non
compliance of the SLA (but see 'internal' customers below).It is important to
note that the 'agreement' relates to the services the customer receives, and
not how the service provider delivers that service.



Process Level Improvements

Business process reengineering (BPR) is the analysis and redesign of
workflow within and between enterprises. BPR reached its heyday in the early
1990's when Michael Hammer and James Champy published their best-
selling book, "Reengineering the Corporation". The authors promoted the idea
that sometimes radical redesign and reorganization of an enterprise (wiping
the slate clean) was necessary to lower costs and increase quality of service
and that information technology was the key enabler for that radical change.
Hammer and Champy felt that the design of workflow in most large
corporations was based on assumptions about technology, people, and
organizational goals that were no longer valid. They suggested seven
principles of reengineering to streamline the work process and thereby
achieve significant levels of improvement in quality, time management, and
cost:

1. Organize around outcomes, not tasks.
2. Identify all the processes in an organization and prioritize them in order
of redesign urgency.
3. Integrate information processing work into the real work that produces
the information.
4. Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were
centralized.
5. Link parallel activities in the workflow instead of just integrating their
results.
6. Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build control
into the process.
7. Capture information once and at the source.


Lean Six Sigma a business improvement methodology that maximizes
shareholder value by achieving the fastest rate of improvement in customer
satisfaction, cost, quality, process speed, and invested capital. The fusion of
Lean and Six Sigma improvement methods is required because:

• Lean cannot bring a process under statistical control
• Six Sigma alone cannot dramatically improve process speed or reduce
invested capital
• Both enable the reduction of the cost of complexity

Ironically, Six Sigma and Lean have often been regarded as rival initiatives.
Lean enthusiasts note that Six Sigma pays little attention to anything related
to speed and flow, while Six Sigma supporters point out that Lean fails to
address key concepts like customer needs and variation. Both sides are right.
Yet these arguments are more often used to advocate choosing one over the
other, rather than to support the more logical conclusion that we blend Lean
and Six Sigma.

The project level indicators are to be used in conjunction with the project
standards and management experience as an aid in assessing a project's risk
and complexity level. Once the project risk level is determined the Process,
Methodology, and Documentation guidelines will suggest the rigor and detail
appropriate for that project risk level.

Quality Assurance / Quality Control - Quality assurance (QA) is a set of
activities whose purpose is to demonstrate that an entity meets all quality
requirements. QA activities are carried out in order to inspire the confidence
of both customers and managers, that all quality requirements are being met.

Quality control is a set of activities or techniques whose purpose is to ensure
that all quality requirements are being met. In order to achieve this purpose,
processes are monitored and performance problems are solved.




Activity Level Improvements

Strategy Mapping is the process of diagramming how an organization
creates value by connecting strategic objectives in explicit cause-and-effect
relationship with each other in the four BSC objectives (financial, customer,
processes, learning and growth). Strategy Maps are a strategic part of the
Balanced Scorecard framework to describe strategies for value creation.

Budget Crosswalks, commonly used in finance and budgeting, convert one
set of values to another by applying a specific set of business rules and can
describe the relationship between the budget’s allocated funds and the
programs those funds are expected to impact. Used in the Federal Budget
Process, Budget Crosswalks are defined as a, “term for the allocation of
budget authority and outlay amounts in a budget resolution to congressional
committees according to their jurisdictions and the committees' subdivision of
those amounts among their programs or subcommittees.”

Activity Based Costing (ABC) is an alternative to the traditional way of
accounting. Traditionally it is believed that high volume customers are
profitable customers, a loyal customer is also a profitable one, and profits will
follow a happy customer. Studies on customer profitability have unveiled that
the above is not necessarily true. ABC is a costing model that identifies the
cost pools, or activity centers, in an organization and assigns costs to
products and services (cost drivers) based on the number of events or
transactions involved in the process of providing a product or service. As a
result, Activity Based Costing can support managers to see how to maximize
shareholder value and improve corporate performance.

Activity Based Management (ABM) is a discipline that focuses on the
management of activities as a way to improve customer value and profit. ABM
includes cost driver analysis, activity analysis, and performance
measurement. This technique uses activity based costing information to
identify strategies for removing resource waste from operating activities. Main
tools employed include: strategic analysis, value analysis, cost analysis, life-
cycle costing, and activity based budgeting.

The Most Efficient Organization (MEO) is management’s “bid” to perform a
certain function. If the MEO wins an A-76 competition, it succeeds or takes
over the work of the existing government function.
The President’s Management Agenda urges federal leadership to “compete”
functions that are commercial in nature. To be competitive with private
industry, the team responsible for developing the MEO must design a
streamlined, more efficient work organization than is in place today. The MEO
generally performs the same work as the government function it is meant to


succeed but aims to use fewer resources while maintaining or exceeding the
quality level defined in the PWS.

Financial Management is the [planning, directing, monitoring, organizing,
and controlling of the monetary resources of an organization. The Office of
Federal Financial Management (OFFM) was created within the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) by the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of
1990. OFFM, led by the OMB Controller under the direction of the Deputy
Director for Management, is responsible for the financial management policy
of the Federal Government. OFFM responsibilities include implementing the
financial management improvement priorities of the President, establishing
government-wide financial management policies of executive agencies, and
carrying out the financial management functions of the CFO Act.

The Strategic Prioritization and Planning (SP2) process is an evolution of
Quality Engineering Methods, including Quality Function Deployment and
Design for Six Sigma, and incorporates various dynamic aspects to form a
portable and powerful decision making environment. The process can be
tailored to any desired level of detail to enhance the decision making process
for investment strategies as more information becomes available. The end
product allows for “what if” games to be played through a dynamic and
interactive environment and the results of the process can be the foundation
for detailed strategic road mapping and quantitative technology assessments
and tracking. SP2 is a living process that should guide strategic planning and
be continuously updated as a program evolves.

Portfolio Analysis is a method to improve Government business practices
by analyzing a portfolio of systems as a whole, rather than analyzing
individual acquisition programs. Portfolio analysis is the art and science of
allocating scarce resources to satisfy strategic objectives. In literature, this
form of analysis is described as a dynamic decision process, a resource
allocation process, or a manifestation of a business strategy. In government,
as well as in the private sector, portfolio analysis helps senior management
determine where and how to invest for the future. In short, it is a technique to
determine how to best spend limited dollars. Portfolio analysis steps include
gathering life cycle cost data for the various systems that will be analyzed,
establishing a scoring system using subject matter experts to determine how
effectively current and future systems match capabilities to requirements,
and developing a means to display results by which decision makers can
examine risk-reward analysis and conduct trade-offs.

Business Case Analysis is a method companies use for project selection. It
analyzes how fulfilling the business case for the project will implement the
corporate strategy and sustain the competitive advantage of the company.


Performance management fundamentals

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