What are some general project level KPIs you are using to manage your portfolio? What is your overall process to gather, report, and take corrective actions? Saving Changes...
This is really 2 questions but I will address the first.
For KPIs in a developmental program, I often use a combination of business metrics, and system performance metrics. Business metrics include hours spent vs. hours planned, on-time release performance, and quality metrics. CPI and SPI might be used for this, but as I posted elsewhere this morning, I don't find those particularly useful.
On-time release performance can be effectively used when it is taken in light of rework metrics. Early in my career, I noticed how on one team we waited until the last day to release our deliverables even if we were done early. This was to reduce rework if someone else required us to change our product. We didn't have the best on-time performance because late changes were common, but we had a very high first pass quality metric.
System performance metrics often determine how much market share a product can capture. For example if it was an economical car, fuel consumption might relate to sales so the overall profitability would be based partially on how well the product performs, measured against how much it costs to design and produce. That might be combined to form a net present value number, but those types of metrics might be hidden from engineering teams since it can affect corporate stock price. Saving Changes...
What is of importance to your executives and other senior stakeholders? What metrics will provide a balanced view of how your projects are doing without unintentionally encouraging the wrong types of behavior?
I would look at a combination of delivery metrics and outcome metrics. The former would focus on what and how the scope of the project is delivered whereas the latter focuses on achievement of the stakeholders' expectations for the project.
