Related Directory Categories
- Anti-Metrication (8)
- Metrical Charms (8)
- Imperial Metric (3)
Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Metrics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Metric.
Metrics are a system of parameters or ways of quantitative and periodic assessment of a process that is to be measured, along with the procedures to carry out such measurement and the procedures for the interpretation of the assessment in the light of previous or comparable assessments. Metrics are usually specialized by the subject area, in which case they are valid only within a certain domain and cannot be directly benchmarked or interpreted outside it.
The following ISM3 table suggests the elements that must be known for a metric to be fully defined. This table is critiziced some times as it omits controls against bias.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Metric | Name of the metric |
| Metric Description | Description of what is measured |
| Measurement Procedure | How is the metric measured |
| Measurement Frequency | How often is the measurement taken |
| Thresholds Estimation | How are the thresholds calculated |
| Current Thresholds | Current range of values considered normal for the metric |
| Target Value | Best possible value of the metric |
| Units | Units of measurement |
(Source of this table: ISM3)
Metrics are used in business model, CMMI, ISM3 and knowledge management. These measurements or metrics can be used to track trends, productivity, resources and much more. Typically, the metrics tracked are key performance indicators. For example, you would use metrics to better understand how a company is performing compared to other companies within its industry.
Metrics are important in IT Service Management including ITIL; the intention is to measure the effectiveness of the various processes at delivering services to customers. Some suggest that data from different organisations can be gathered together, against an agreed set of metrics, to form a benchmark, which would allow organisations to evaluate their performance against industry sectors to establish, objectively, how well they are performing.
There is strong disagreement with these views from other quarters. No agreed standard set of best practice metrics exists; Kaner[1] has raised serious objections about the purported validity of metrics used in software engineering.
- Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox. Usability Metrics -- http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010121.html
 |
This economics or finance-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |