Interesting question as program management is quite different than project management. In the pure role as a project manager, the list of KPIs is mostly limited to cost, schedule, and total headcount.
Program management covers a solution space so product KPIs must be considered in addition to project KPIs. As a rule, KPIs are based on KPAs (attributes). Those are the critical qualities that we seek to achieve from the work performed. The metric just tells us something about the underlying attribute. That can vary greatly based on the nature of the program. In some, it could be throughput, cost, product capability, quality, efficiency, etc.
We often use the term "dashboard", as it is the critical set of information necessary to make decisions regarding our immediate course of action. Since that term can be applied both to controlling a vehicle as it can to a multi-national organization, the KPIs are entirely dependent on the nature of the program. Saving Changes...
Harish RanganathaPgMP coach and Program Manager Consultant| ACEPROBangalore, Kar., India
Programs are designed to deliver benefits. A benefit a positive perception of the stakeholder towards the change created by the system delivered by the program.
So for sure, customer satisfaction or stakeholder confidence level in program manager is one of the KPI for program manager.
Other KPI for the manager is to what degree program KPIs are achieved. (which are derived from the organisation level KPIs Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
It depends on the Program and the sub-programs / Projects associated with it. You can refer to the KPI's in your organiation's historical data from previous programs but you need to tailor them to what suits your current program under consideration because KPI's are not one size fits all. Saving Changes...
I'm interested as well to see what people have to say about KPI's. I find that KPI's are another one of these elusive PM's theories that people seem to knowingly speak about, but are rarely put into practice. I recall attending a conference back in 2013 in Washington, DC, and even one of the Vice Presidents of one of largest military manufacturing companies in the world said they had a hard time with KPI's. Since then, even within our own organization, I've tried to extract from people what KPI's are, and how they are used without any success. As a department, within the federal government, we produce a yearly financial "statement", and a "results report". Our results report, breaks down our "mission" or "raison d'être" into I believe five "programs". The fundamental performance metrics or KPIs are money budgeted against money spent and human resources planned and actual. Very simple, and to the point. No other "KPIs" are mentioned. The results report lists actual accomplishments as they relate to the various programs, but no other metrics are listed if I recall correctly.
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1 reply by Keith Novak
Sep 03, 2019 10:04 PM
Keith Novak
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They can be very challenging at the organizational level. I've seen a number of them over the years, and they change depending on the business environment. On-time performance is always in there, financial performance, along with various quality measures like rework, and efficiency measures including takt time. Ideally it should be a small set of the highest priority items.
Sometimes they can be extremely difficult to measure. Some business systems are very difficult to pull the right data from and you can't get the metric you want without massive effort like manually pulling hundreds of records.
I'm often surprised at how many useless metrics people can come up with. Many years ago I worked on a massive scale digital transformation effort in a BOM system. The developers gave us dozens of metrics, and not one was useful. It was like they had no concept of how their system would be used and managed. Similarly I've seen some management teams that just show some metric every week and I never once saw anyone use the data to change anything. SPI is 1.00000, and the team just reported on how they are late. Smiles and stares from the room.
I'm interested as well to see what people have to say about KPI's. I find that KPI's are another one of these elusive PM's theories that people seem to knowingly speak about, but are rarely put into practice. I recall attending a conference back in 2013 in Washington, DC, and even one of the Vice Presidents of one of largest military manufacturing companies in the world said they had a hard time with KPI's. Since then, even within our own organization, I've tried to extract from people what KPI's are, and how they are used without any success. As a department, within the federal government, we produce a yearly financial "statement", and a "results report". Our results report, breaks down our "mission" or "raison d'être" into I believe five "programs". The fundamental performance metrics or KPIs are money budgeted against money spent and human resources planned and actual. Very simple, and to the point. No other "KPIs" are mentioned. The results report lists actual accomplishments as they relate to the various programs, but no other metrics are listed if I recall correctly.
They can be very challenging at the organizational level. I've seen a number of them over the years, and they change depending on the business environment. On-time performance is always in there, financial performance, along with various quality measures like rework, and efficiency measures including takt time. Ideally it should be a small set of the highest priority items.
Sometimes they can be extremely difficult to measure. Some business systems are very difficult to pull the right data from and you can't get the metric you want without massive effort like manually pulling hundreds of records.
I'm often surprised at how many useless metrics people can come up with. Many years ago I worked on a massive scale digital transformation effort in a BOM system. The developers gave us dozens of metrics, and not one was useful. It was like they had no concept of how their system would be used and managed. Similarly I've seen some management teams that just show some metric every week and I never once saw anyone use the data to change anything. SPI is 1.00000, and the team just reported on how they are late. Smiles and stares from the room. Saving Changes...
Yes, I've heard some good stories about SPI and CPI numbering being reported. Those numbers alone cannot tell the real story as contractors know how to game the numbers. Regarding KPI's, I've also seen a lot of less than desirable ones proposed and used throughout the years. On-time performance for spares shipment/ delivery is one. If there is no real benefit to having the item, then there is no point of having a KPI if the item then sits on the shelf. In our environment, I believe some of the best performance metrics must relate back to the operational availability of our military equipment, especially during the in-service. The air force is well entrenched with "power by the hour" where the contractor is one the hook to provide X quantity of available flight hours for a given period for each aircraft. It's not perfect, but it relates back to a real and tangible benefit. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
In my case all my KPIs are aligned with organizational strategy and goals because projects are the mean to put it in action. But allways taking into account that projects contribute to make it real in the scope of work a project can manage which are scope, time, cost and quality.
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1 reply by Steve Ratkaj
Sep 09, 2019 8:17 AM
Steve Ratkaj
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Sergio - Could you please share with us what specific KPI's your organization is using?
In my case all my KPIs are aligned with organizational strategy and goals because projects are the mean to put it in action. But allways taking into account that projects contribute to make it real in the scope of work a project can manage which are scope, time, cost and quality.
Sergio - Could you please share with us what specific KPI's your organization is using?
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Sep 09, 2019 9:55 AM
Sergio Luis Conte
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Sorry but this information is not public. What I can say is: for each Pepsico Value (you can see them in the corporate page) we have 2 KPIs defined following SMART format and taking care that are KPIs achievable from program/project perspective.
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Sep 09, 2019 8:17 AM
Replying to Steve Ratkaj
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Sergio - Could you please share with us what specific KPI's your organization is using?
Sorry but this information is not public. What I can say is: for each Pepsico Value (you can see them in the corporate page) we have 2 KPIs defined following SMART format and taking care that are KPIs achievable from program/project perspective. Saving Changes...
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