Defining the right metrics

Creating cloud metrics that are meaningful to your organization may not be meaningful at all to another organization. Like the metrics governance framework, the metrics themselves are contextual and specific in scope to every organization. So, rather than suggesting specific metrics, I’ll provide a framework you can use to define metrics for your business. With this framework, you can pose five questions, in no particular order, to justify the existence and use of a metric. You can refer to these questions as a kind of litmus test.

Five considerations for metrics development

The first question you want to ask is if this metric is substantive. In other words, does the use and reporting of this metric lead to action? This question essentially justifies the metric’s significance in bringing business value. You want to ensure that the metric makes a difference to your organization.

A common metric that’s used by many organizations...