Comments, corrections and loud laughter welcome . . .
One Metric To Rule Them All: Prologue
Working Draft
Thomas M. Cagley Jr.
In the Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that nine rings of power were created however a single ring was then fashioned to bind them all. The goal on many metrics programs is to find the “One Ring”; to create a single metrics that will accurately reflect the past, predict the future and track changes. The creation of a single, easily understood metric that can satisfy all of these needs is the holy grail of all metrics programs.
A single, understandable metric would have substantial benefits ranging from the ability to provide an improved communications platform to a tool to support laser focus within the organization. An example of a single metric is the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). The DJIA summarizes a large number of individual measures (individual stock prices) into a single easily explainable index.
A single metric can have many benefits however life is not purely a bed of roses. There are issues with one metric solution that must be addresses when designing and developing the solution. The types of issues range from the complexities of the interactions between the metric and the human users through the basic mathematical complexity of creating a metric with both the historical and predictive power required. In my opinion the most intricate issues swirl around the metrics / human interaction. In general the interaction of people and measurement can generate wildly divergent behaviors. It should be noted that some behaviors we will discuss can be triggered by measurement in general, however the interactions are generally more complex when you compress measurement into a single metric solution. The bottom line question we will seek to evaluate is whether value of a single metric outweighs the cost of resolving the issues that lurk in a single metric view of the world.
