Improving Business Performance with Ease – Part I
This video is part one in a six-part series that will show you how to establish a customized business performance measurement system that will help your business improve to World Class levels never before dreamed of.
Duration : 0:6:17
Wow! What a Cool Performance Report!
How fast you can get from “We need some measures,” to “Wow, what a cool performance report!”, the better.
We all know that one of the big reasons people will fight tooth and nail to avoid measuring performance is that it’s hard and boring (at least from a newbie’s or cynic’s perspective).
And it’s no help that people see performance measurement taking so damn long to get implemented.
So it’s probably no surprise that my PuMP Performance Measure Facilitators say the best part of their program is when they produce the first properly designed performance report with their teams.
One PuMP Facilitator said it was the point that it all came clear to his team just why they were putting the effort into measuring.
As a performance measure practitioner yourself, one of your own measures ought to be the cycle time to get from “We need some measures,” to “Wow, what a cool performance report!” And track that cycle time for each performance measurement implementation assignment you undertake within your organisation.
So how can you reduce this cycle time from the typical year or more, to mere weeks? Try these ideas on for size:
- focus your team on measuring just one goal or one performance result first time through
- treat it as a pilot test – don’t try to perfect and complete it all, just get a first cut measure established
- give a deadline to each step in the measurement process, and get as good as you can within the deadline rather than waiting for perfection before starting the next step
- make sure your measures team has allocated enough time to work on measures each week
- have the measures team’s manager regularly pop in for updates
The sooner you have your colleagues using measures they value, the faster you’ll ramp up the performance culture and the faster everything else will improve!
YOUR CHALLENGE:
Reflect on how long, on average, it’s been taking your colleagues to get from wanting measures to actually having those measures ready to use, in performance reports. Then set a target to reduce that time by 50% and set about streamlining your measure creation process!
Stacey Barr
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/wow-what-a-cool-performance-report-727882.html
How should we measure performance of new efforts?
Mark Johnson, co-author of “The Innovator’s Guide to Growth,” shares his thoughts on how companies can implement performance metrics in a culture of innovation.
Duration : 0:2:55
5 Goals for the Performance Measure Practitioner
It’s time to take performance measurement and management seriously.
We’ve wasted too many years playing around at the edges of measuring performance in our organisations. Debating over what kind of scorecard framework to use. Investing in dashboard software because of the bells and whistles and flashing traffic lights. Measuring things just because we always have or just because we can or just because someone asked us to.
If we want better results from performance measurement, and there’s no doubt that most of the potential of performance measurement is yet to be tapped, we have to take it seriously. And that means treating it as a process that needs to be formalised, managed and improved.
This is the job of the Performance Measure Practitioner. It’s an emerging role in many organisations now, that have recognised that it will happen well when it’s lead and managed well. And one of the first things a Performance Measure Practitioner should have is a set of clear goals for where they will improve their organisation’s approach to performance measurement.
Given that most organisations are still struggling with the early stages of implementing performance measurement, the following 5 goals are a realistic place to start:
GOAL 1: Improve managers’ and employees’ perception of the value and importance of measuring performance.
GOAL 2: Lift the skill level of managers and employees in selecting meaningful measures and using measures to support their decisions.
GOAL 3: Increase the active involvement of employees in selecting and implementing performance measures.
GOAL 4: Reduce the cycle time of implementing new performance measures, from choosing them to using them.
GOAL 5: Increase the proportion of strategic and operational business objectives that have meaningful measures identified.
Certainly these are not the only worthwhile goals for a Performance Measure Practitioner, but they are a very worthwhile place to begin, if you don’t currently have any serious goals to focus how you’ll lead your organisation to improve how it will measure and master what matters.
YOUR CHALLENGE:
Choose just ONE goal to start 2009 with, to advance your organisation’s use of performance measurement, and decide how you will measure this goal. Share your goal with us at the Measure Up blog!
Stacey Barr
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/5-goals-for-the-performance-measure-practitioner-713061.html
MSc in Managing Organisational Performance
Guy Johnson, performance measurement Manager for Belron International discusses his Cranfield experience.
http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/p630/Programmes-and-Executive-Development/MSc?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=web_link&utm_campaign=somyoutubepage
Duration : 0:6:15
Applying Data Center Performance Measurement to Mitigate Challenges
Organizations increasingly depend on their IT infrastructure to support mission-critical activities. IT personnel are held accountable for managing this infrastructure and data center performance measurement is a vital tool in maintaining high performance and delivery. From assessing and ensuring the availability of critical facilities, monitoring geographically dispersed environments, and improving the overall organizational bottom line, IT personnel require tools that allow them to measure performance and proactively identify and mitigate potential issues. Several industry-related publications and groups have noted the importance of data center metrics, and have named the need to measure data center performance as a key issue for 2006 and 2007. (1)
Recommended Data Center performance measurements and Solutions
Issue #1: Ability to Track and Assess Equipment Availability
For most organizations, the cost of server or network downtime is significant and internal customers expect network and system availability of “Five Nines” or 99.999% (2). On a daily basis, IT managers need to be able to assess availability/reliability of equipment and all external components that support operations, so that they can reduce downtime, identify and mitigate issues, and provide a secure environment for an organization’s mission-critical equipment. IT professionals also need an effective way to review historical trends to identify equipment or systems that need to be redesigned or replaced.
Meeting the Challenge: Environmental monitoring solutions provide real-time feedback about critical systems with continuous, proactive monitoring of all pertinent factors including temperature, amperage draw, humidity, dew point, and physical security. These solutions allow administrators to set thresholds for environmental conditions and send alerts securely via e-mail, text message, or SNMP if said thresholds are exceeded. In addition, environmental monitoring systems provide valuable historical reports, alert information, and logs that allow administrators to identify trends and adapt practices accordingly. This data can help with statistical analysis, modeling, and forecasting.
Centralized Environmental Monitoring Solution
Issue #2: Ability to Assess Availability/Reliability of Critical Facilities
When assigning critical resources, IT professionals need to determine the highest-priority sites and facilities. Several organizations have proposed systems to help administrators classify and rate their facilities. For example, the Uptime Institute applies a four-tier classification system based on factors such as fault tolerance, useable capacity, sustainability, and concurrent maintainability (3). As another approach, the Syska Hennessy Group provides a seven-level criticality classification system that aims to help data center managers evaluate facilities that are vital to the mission of their organizations and provides a framework to help assess potential data center vulnerabilities (4). After determining critical sites, administrators need to be able to implement appropriate management and control systems.
Meeting the Challenge: Enterprise management solutions, such as KVM over IP or service processor aggregation appliances, provide administrators with 24/7 access to servers, serial devices, remote power, and other equipment both locally and remotely. These solutions provide BIOS-level access to mission-critical equipment, reducing system and network downtime by enabling immediate access to failed resources and centralizing data center management. These solutions also provide visibility to daily operations and occurrences through comprehensive audit logging and reporting tools. Enterprise-level management tools provide redundant architecture, including primary failover access at both the hardware and software levels.
Issue #3: Ability to Measure Energy Consumption in the Data Center
Across almost every industry, rising data center power consumption and heat are major issues, particularly as organizations are incorporating blade servers and high-density server racks into their IT infrastructures. Many organizations are studying how power consumption can be reduced in the data center. For example, the EPA is studying ways to make computer servers and data centers more energy efficient, and is considering a possible Energy Star designation for servers and other data center equipment. (5) The Green Grid, a newly formed non-profit consortium of information technology companies, is proposing the use of Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Datacenter Efficiency (DCE) metrics, which would enable IT personnel to estimate the energy efficiency of data centers, compare results against other data centers, and determine if energy efficiency improvements need to be made. As defined by the Green Grid, Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)= Total Facility Power/ IT Equipment Power; Datacenter Efficiency (DCE)= IT Equipment Power/ Total Facility Power. (6)
Meeting the Challenge: Utilizing PUE and DCE information, IT personnel can begin to evaluate their own energy efficiency. Using these metrics, as well as application-specific data, data center managers should start to consider ways of reducing data center power consumption. Standalone data centers can also use the EPA Energy Star building performance rating tool, Portfolio Manager, to rate a facility’s energy performance in comparison to similar facilities (at the whole-building level). Some answers include transitioning to 208V or three-phase power provisioning. Higher voltage power reduces amperage requirements, allows equipment to operate more efficiently, and can reduce the amount of hardware required. IT personnel should conduct a thorough audit of equipment, determine if any servers can be consolidated or discarded, and clean up any clutter under the data center floor, such as cabling, that might be impeding air flow. The use of blanking panels and cable management accessories in the rack can also assist in these efforts.
How Can The Latest Technologies Help You Improve Data Center Performance?
The team at 42U specializes in needs assessment, solution design, and implementation support to ensure that IT professionals maximize their use of current technologies to improve overall business performance. 42U provides complete remote management solutions, including KVM over IP, intelligent power, environmental monitoring, rack cooling, and rackmount solutions. A 42U sales engineer can help you improve your data center performance by helping you select solutions that are most appropriate for your organization’s particular needs and environment.
References:
(1) Stansberry, Matt, “Top Ten Data Center Stories of 2006.”
http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid80_gci1232599,00.html; MacKinnon, Chris, “How Is Your Data Center Performing? A Metric To The Madness.”http://www.42U.com/quicklink.aspx?url=http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/p2826/09p26/09p26.asp&guid=&searchtype=&WordList=&bJumpTo=True; and “Optimizing Datacenter Performance and Building ROI: The TeamQuest Approach”, IDC/TeamQuest, http://www.42U.com/quicklink.aspx?url=http://www.teamquest.com/pdfs/whitepaper/idc-roi.pdf
(2) Brill, Kenneth; Pitt, Turner; and Seader, John. “Tier Classifications Define Site Infrastructure Performance,” Uptime Institute, http://www.42U.com/quicklink.aspx?url=http://www.upsite.com/file_downloads/PDF/Tier_Classification.pdf
(3) Brill, Kenneth; Pitt, Turner; and Seader, John. “Tier Classifications Define Site Infrastructure Performance,” Uptime Institute, http://www.42U.com/quicklink.aspx?url=http://www.upsite.com/file_downloads/PDF/Tier_Classification.pdf
(4) Burkhardt, Jerry and Dennis, Richard. “Assessing criticality levels in the data center”, Data Center Management Advisory Newsletter, http://www.42U.com/quicklink.aspx?url=http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid80_gci1218937,00.html
(5) “Enterprise Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Initiatives” http://www.42U.com/quicklink.aspx?url=http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_servers_datacenters
(6) “Green Grid Metrics: Describing Datacenter Power Efficiency”, http://www.42U.com/quicklink.aspx?url=http://www.thegreengrid.org/downloads/Green_Grid_Metrics_WP.pdf
Lauren Nowenstein
http://www.articlesbase.com/hardware-articles/applying-data-center-performance-measurement-to-mitigate-challenges-132924.html
postmodern phenomenon of performance criteria
in the 1970’s when “performance measurement” meant measuring the work done by a computer, Marvin Zelkowitz noted that optimal performance was being claimed for what was in fact, pessimal performance.
Ken Baynes’ article from 1982 is important for an understanding of our world today.
This is not intended to be a negative criticism of the CELTA course (English language teaching) as it is designed or presented. Given the assessment constraints on teachers, it would be difficult to do better than the way it is being done.
What seems remarkable however, is that the assessment criteria have been accepted, without discussion. Surely extensive, perhaps endless, discussion of the criteria, is needed. Surely also, this discussion can be done in class – not only with CELTA students, but with English language students.
Acceptance of the criteria without discussion is eerily similar to what happened when I was teaching at Yeronga TAFE in 1999. A new syllabus for Computing subjects was given to us, and we had 6 weeks to prepare material for it.
Historically, a syllabus may have emerged from extensive study of past paper exam questions. But the new syllabus at Yeronga looked as it might have been created by snipping thousands of phrases and pasting them together at random to create sentences.
Duration : 0:3:43
Caterpillar- Collaboration Through Communities of Practice
Caterpillar recognizes that it is lucky to have a sharing culture in which people are willing to help each other with no expected reward simply because they feel part of a family. Even with no mention of sharing in performance goals or associated monetary reward, people will collaborate with those they have never met, even across continents.
Duration : 0:3:22
Mystery Shopping and Measurement services from Grass Roots
Through its mystery shopping programmes, Grass Roots delivers an accurate picture of the customer experience, using on-profile people in real situations to report on their interactions.
become a client: http://www.grassrootsmeasurement.com
become a mystery shopper:
https://www.grassrootsmysteryshopping.com
Duration : 0:1:2
how to measure a tires performance.?
measurement of a tires performance
There are many objective ways to measure a tire’s performance. Lateral, steady-state cornering grip (usually measured on a skidpad), braking distances, transitional response (such as an emergency lane-change test), road noise, ride quality, and treadwear can all be measured, but these tests usually require specialized instrumentation under controlled conditions to do so.
In addition, a tire’s performance can be measured subjectively, by way of the driver’s impressions. Such characteristics include steering feel, compliance, how progressively the tires give up grip, etc. Obviously, these types of ratings are heavily influenced by whomever happens to be behind the wheel at the time.
Bear in mind that ride-and-handling engineers often work with tire manufacturers to set up the car to perform optimally with one particular type of tire (Patrick Bedard, or possibly Csaba Csere, of Car and Driver magazine wrote an excellent column some months ago about this, citing the current Ford Mustang’s development as an example). Thus, changing tires on a vehicle can adversely affect the car’s performance, even the tire in question may not be a ‘bad’ tire.