Building an IT Scorecard

NOW THAT WE ARE PERHAPS BEGINNING TO SEE SOME RELIEF FROM OUR
current economic woes, it might be a good time for CIOs to focus on how
they would like to be measured during and after the recovery.Performance
measurement is a complex issue because it both drives and constrains behavior. As
the old performance-system design aphorism goes,“You’ll getwhat you measure,so
measure what you want to get,” and examples of the unanticipated consequences
that can arise from poorly aligned though technically correct measurement systems
abound. Nevertheless, a well-designed measurement platform can motivate both
customers,whether internal or external,and staff to perform better and build more
effective relationships.CIOs who want a say in the future investments their companies
make in business automation will almost certainly be required to show that
these investments will generate effective returns.
Balanced scorecard models are a good way to think about the tricky issues of performance
measurement, because they explicitly call out the different but related
areas where measurements are important and help to decide what measures are
relevant in each area.But what should a “recovery scorecard for IT”look like? The following
whiteboard has been put together by Capgemini’s John Parkinson as an
approach to an IT-focused measurement framework. It has been “tested” at least
conceptually at a number of Capgemini’s largest clients and found to be a good basis
for CIOs who want to adopt a performance measurement platform and build an
effective performance measurement system for their organizations.