Measures

Measures are used to assess objective achievement and organization activities in general.

The Objectives tab in the Measure Properties Window contains information about the relationship between the measure and the objective. The same information can be found on the Measures tab in the Objective Properties Window.

The Measures tab in the Activity Properties Window contains information about the relationship between the measure and the activity. The same information can be found on the Activities tab in the Measure Properties Window.

Also, if you drag an Objective to the Measures tab of the Activity Properties Window, all measures related to this objective will be automatically added to the tab.

There are several ways to fill out measure values:

• You can enter measure values on the Plan values tab or on the Values tab in the Measure Properties Window. These tabs are available in the Ultimate, Enterprise, Professional or Cockpit editions of Business Studio. Rows are added automatically to these tabs according to the work date and the Period level value of the measure. For the “None” value of the Period level property, use the Add row command in the Context menu of the list.
• You can enter measure values in Business Studio Portal.
• Measure values may be gathered by means of sending notifications by emails to persons in charge of entering values. The data is then imported into the Business Studio database. In this case you do not need to purchase a Business Studio license for employees who just enter measure values. See the details below.

MS Excel files are a means of collecting measure values. These files are automatically sent to employees who are in charge of entering measure values.

Business Studio demo database contains examples of report templates that can be used as emails sent to employees who are in charge of entering measure values.

In the Attachments the dynamically generated file is specified, e.g. Measures – Actual value. The file is generated based on the report. The report is generated in the MS Excel format and is saved as a table (Figure 1).

Figure 1. MS Excel report template used to enter measure values

Each person should receive his/her own report with measures; thus, a person’s GUID is transferred into the filter condition. The “Filter mappings” list is used for it (Properties Window of the attachment file → Actions → Open Object Lists → Filter mappings) (Figure 2).

Figure 2. "Filter mappings" list window

A person’s GUID becomes a value for the "In charge → Persons → guid" property when generating a measure report. Note that only system names of properties can be used for mapping. Employees responsible for entering measure values work with MS Excel files. In case they should enter several values for a measure they add the required number of rows themselves. The measure is selected from the list in the “Measure” column. The start date of the period should be specified in the “Date” column in the MM.DD.YYYY format (e.g. if you enter values for January, then January, 1 should be entered as a Date).

Figure 3. MS Excel file used to enter measure values

Measure values are then imported into the Business Studio database by means of import packages (Main menu → Repositories → All Repositories → Show all items button → Independent objects → Import objects → Import packages). To start the import, click Run Autoimport in the BSC section of the Main Menu.

Objective values can be analyzed:

• In Business Studio:
  • Objective Properties Window.
  • Objective values chart (Objective Properties Window → Values tab → Values chart hyperlink).
  • Strategy map on which this objective is placed.
• In Business Studio Cockpit:
  • My Objectives window (Main menu → BSC → My Objectives).
  • All Objectives window (Main menu → BSC → All Objectives).
  • Objective values chart (Objective Properties Window → Values tab → Values chart hyperlink).
• In Portal:
  • Objectives info:
    • Personal Page → My Objectives.
    • Personal Page → All Objectives.
  • Objective report. Go to Business Architecture, select the objective, select the Portal. Objective report.

Measure values can be analyzed:

• In Business Studio:
  • Measure Properties Window.
  • Values chart (Measure Properties Window → Values tab → Values chart hyperlink).
  • Measure values details (Measure Properties Window → Values tab → View detailshyperlink).
  • Strategy map on which this measure is placed.
• In Business Studio Cockpit:
  • Menu items:
    • Main menu → BSC → My Measures.
    • Main menu → BSC → All Measures.
  • Values chart (Measure Properties Window → Values tab → Values chart hyperlink).
  • Measure values details (Measure Properties Window → Values tab → View details hyperlink).
• In Portal:
  • Measure info:
    • Personal Page → My Measures.
    • Personal Page → All Measures.
  • Measure report. Go to Business Architecture, select the measure, select the Portal. Measure report.

Strategy maps can be analyzed:

• In Business Studio:
  • Strategy map diagram.
• In Portal:
  • Strategy map report. Go to Business Architecture, select the strategy map, select the Portal. Strategy map report.

Measure Indicator may look like this:

	- one of the Alarm limits is missing;
	- no Alarm limits set;
	- Tolerance Interval is missing;
	- only Actual value is set.

Figures 4 and 5 illustrate the rules of Indicator generation.

Figure 4. Indicator for a measure with the "Maximize" value of the Desired trend property

Figure 5. Indicator for a measure with the "Stabilize" value of the Desired trend property

Measure values can be viewed on a diagram when clicking on the Values chart hyperlink (Measure Properties Window → Values tab).

Measure Assessment property values are calculated by formula:

1. For the "Maximize" Desired trend the formula is the following:
   (Actual value - Lower alarm limit)/(Plan value - Lower alarm limit) * 100%
2. For the "Minimize" Desired trend the formula is the following:
   (Upper alarm limit - Actual value) / (Upper alarm limit - Plan value) * 100%
3. For the "Stabilize" Desired trend the formula is the following:
   In case the Actual value is less than the Plan value, the "Maximize" Desired trend formula is used.
   In case the Actual value is more than the Plan value, the "Minimize" Desired trend formula is used.

For example:
The "Profit" measure has the "Maximize" value of the "Desired trend" property.
Plan value is set to 240,000 euros.
Lower alarm limit is set to 136,000 euros.
Actual value: 178,000 euros.
Measure Assessment: (178,000 – 136,000) / (240,000 – 136,000) * 100% = 40%
Calculations are visualized in Figure 6:

Figure 6. Example of measure assessment calculations

Objective Indicator is presented in Figure 7:

Figure 7. Objective Indicator

Objective Assessment is calculated based on assessments of Measure values. Measure Weight coefficients calculated based on "Strength grade" property values are also included in the assessment.

Assessment of an objective with several measures is calculated by formula:

1. For each measure a weight coefficient is defined based on the value of the Strength grade property:
   • "Very weak" - 0,25;
   • "Weak" - 0,5;
   • "Normal" - 1;
   • "Strong" - 2;
   • "Very strong" - 4.
     A measure’s weight is calculated by formula:
     
     The sum of all weight coefficients included in the calculation is equal to 1.
2. Formula for the Objective Assessment is the following:
   

For example:
The "Increase profitability" objective has the "Profit" measure. Assessment of the measure is 40%. Thus, Objective Assessment is also equal to 40% (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Objective Assessment

Objective assessments can be viewed on a diagram when clicking on the Values chart hyperlink (Objective Property Window → Values tab).