Download the Performance Management Fundamentals Guide

Lifecycle Performance 

Lifecycle Lifecycle Performance Performance Professionals 

Professionals 

Management 


Professionals 

Fundamentals Guide 

© 2007 Lifecycle-performance-pros.com All rights reserved


Professionals 

Table of Contents 

About this eBook ................................................................................................ 1 

Distribution Copyrights ....................................................................................... 1 

Introduction ......................................................................................................... 2 

What is Performance? ........................................................................................ 2 

What is Performance Management? .................................................................. 2 

What is Lifecycle Performance Management? ................................................ 4 

The Lifecycle Performance Management Model ................................................ 5 

Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis .................................. 7 

The Lifecycle Performance Framework .............................................................. 8 

Lifecycle Performance Management Best Practices ........................................ 10 

The Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis ......................... 22 

The Best Practices Roadmap ........................................................................... 24 

The Lifecycle Performance Roadmap .............................................................. 25 

Government Performance Framework ............................................................. 32 

Decision Support Systems ............................................................................... 45 

Lifecycle Performance Methodologies .............................................................. 47 

Defining Phase ................................................................................................. 48 

Planning Phase ................................................................................................ 49 

Executing Phase ............................................................................................... 50 

Monitoring Phase .............................................................................................. 51 

Reporting Phase ............................................................................................... 52 

Performance Management Templates ............................................................. 53 

Performance Management Glossary ................................................................ 63 

Tables and Figures 

Figure 1 - The Lifecycle Performance Management Model ......................................... 6 

Figure 2 - Lifecycle Performance Framework .............................................................. 8 

Figure 3 - Performance Index Scoring Table .............................................................. 23 

Figure 4 - Best Practices Roadmap ............................................................................. 24 

Figure 5 - Lifecycle Performance Roadmap ............................................................... 25 

Figure 6 - Lifecycle Performance Methodologies ...................................................... 47 

© 2007 Lifecycle-performance-pros.com All rights reserved

About this eBook 


Professionals 

Hi and thank you for downloading my Lifecycle Performance Management 

Fundamentals Guide. This eBook will help you approach performance 

management more successfully by introducing the Lifecycle Performance 

Management Model and describing the best practices and key activities that 

make high performing organizations successful. By reading it you will learn 

the high-level processes necessary to ensure a smooth, successful 

performance initiative. 

You will also find out the essential plans, processes, technology and metrics 

to successfully manage your organization’s performance, whether it is 

employee/team performance, process improvement, systems performance, 

project performance, financial performance or the entire enterprise. This 

guide will walk you through the chapters of the 120 Day Plan: Step by Step 

Guide to Implementing a World Class Performance Solution and provide 

a look into the Lifecycle Performance Roadmap and some of my proven, 

performance management methodologies. 

For the complete Lifecycle Performance Management Kit, including the 

Lifecycle Performance Framework and Roadmap, the 300 page step by step 

implementation guide, 37 performance management templates and plans, the 

120 Day Performance Plan in Microsoft Project, 600 performance metrics and 

KPIs, 30 illustrated step by step performance management processes, and 

the Business Intelligence tools guide; all of which complement the high level 

processes outlined in this eBook, click here 

Also, check out my comprehensive and very informative Organizational 

Performance and Best Practices Analysis. It utilizes a performance index 

scoring system, a feasibility analysis, and an impact value analysis to identify 

cost savings opportunities and provide a custom, step-by-step roadmap for 

your organization to implement immediate performance improvements. It is a 

must have for organizations that are serious about understanding what makes 

them tick. 

Distribution Copyrights 

This eBook has been provided to you free of charge, on the condition that it’s 

not copied, modified, published, sold, re-branded, hired out or otherwise 

distributed for commercial purposes. Please feel free to distribute the URL 

to anybody who may be interested in downloading their own copy. 

© 2009 Lifecycle-performance-pros.com All rights reserved 1

Introduction 


Professionals 

What is Performance? 

Organizational performance, in basic terms, is the actual output or results of 

an organization as measured against its intended outputs or goals and 

objectives. The key words here are “actual” and “intended”. When 

performance is at or above the intended goals, accomplishments are 

returned. When performance is below the intended goals, fewer 

accomplishments and more failures are the result. The more an organization 

can set near and long term goals, the more accurate performance can be 

measured. 

What is Performance Management? 

Performance management is the foundation of any organization that has a 

vision and knows where they want to be in the near and long term future. As 

today’s rapidly evolving business environment challenges organizations to 

adapt to constant change, the need for organizations to be sure that their 

projects and activities are aligned with overall strategic goals and business 

objectives is critical. Performance management is the gauge that lets you 

know whether or not you are reaching strategic goals and which areas within 

your service delivery could use improvement. Performance management 

also justifies whether or not your organization is getting its return on 

investments. Most important, performance management establishes a culture 

of high performance where the entire organization is synergistic towards 

reaching organizational objectives. 

By definition, performance management is the systematic process by which 

an organization involves its employees and all stakeholders in the 

development and implementation of a plan to improve organizational 

effectiveness and reach organizational objectives. In 1883 Lord Kelvin, a 

leading physicist of the early 19 th century wrote: 

“I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking 

about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; 

but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in 

numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; 

it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in 

your thoughts advanced to the state of Science, whatever the 

matter may be.” 



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In a nutshell, we implement performance management so that we can 

quantify in numbers how effective we are at what we do. Below is a list of 

additional advantages of implementing/re-establishing performance 

management in your organization. 

• Gains visibility into project execution and effectiveness 

• Analysis of process strengths and weaknesses 

• Metrics provide inputs for future estimations and planning 

• Metrics identify the areas for improvements 

• Metrics can be used to eliminate problem areas and root causes 

• Establishes a continuous improvement culture across the company 

• Helps management and employees make well-informed and decisions 

• Measures at the enterprise, divisional, systems, program, project and 

employee levels 

Why are some performance management initiatives more effective than 

others? Some performance management plans simply lack one or more 

considerations or processes that could ensure success. This guide will allow 

you to look at your organization’s current performance management 

processes and identify processes that can improve service delivery. 

This guide explains in simple terms the processes for a successful 

implementation. It was designed to cover all of the decisions and 

dependencies that a performance management initiative encounters. 

Whether you are looking to improve your current business intelligence 

systems or develop your performance management capabilities from scratch, 

the Lifecycle Performance Management Kit will walk you through a successful 

implementation from start to finish. 

You can buy the best business intelligence tools on the market and you can 

measure performance based on all the best practice metrics for your industry, 

but if you don’t have a well organized, proven performance management plan 

with detailed steps on how to implement the plan, you will only have numbers 

with little meaning and a culture of misdirected service delivery. 

Your organization may not be ready to implement all of these processes, as 

the Lifecycle Performance Management Kit introduces some processes that 

are for organizations with highly advanced performance programs and well 

developed strategic plans. However, the kit was developed to guide any 

organization through the Lifecycle Performance Management Process 

regardless of their current performance level. 



Professionals 

What is Lifecycle Performance Management? 

Lifecycle Performance Management is the systematic implementation of an 

enterprise-wide performance strategy involving all business units, systems 

and personnel. It is a sequence of management processes, when combined, 

achieves a complete approach to managing performance from start to finish. 

Lifecycle Performance Management focuses on all areas that determine the 

success of an enterprise, including: 

• Employees 

• Departments / Divisions 

• Processes 

• Finance 

• Programs (e.g. implementing organizational policies) 

• Products / Services 

• Projects 

• Business Units / Teams 

Lifecycle Performance Management involves integrating key documents into 

a performance plan, aligning performance to organizational goals, applying 

best practices, identifying the right metrics, developing a plan to act on the 

results, and constantly improving the knowledge and performance of your 

people, processes and technology. 

Lifecycle Performance Management is centered on the Lifecycle Performance 

Management Model (illustrated on the next page). The Lifecycle 

Performance Management Model is broken down into four areas: 

• Integrating supporting organizational management documents 

• Aligning performance through management functions 

• Implementing performance management best practices, and 

• Executing key performance management activities 



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The Lifecycle Performance Management Model 



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Figure 1 - The Lifecycle Performance Management Model 

Utilizing these best practices and processes outlined in this guide will enable 

you to: 

• Develop performance measures that drive decision making 

• Assure that your projects and activities are aligned with overall 

strategic goals 

• Transform your employees into high performers and ensure team 

effectiveness 

• Identify your mission critical processes and improve those that limit 

your organization's performance 

• Leverage business intelligence tools 

• Manage change through knowledge and insight. 

• Get the best performance out of your systems and reach your business 

objectives 



Professionals 

Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis 

For less than the cost of one day of training for one employee, I can help your 

entire organization tap into it's hidden resources and improve performance, 

increase productivity and save money! 

Here's How It Works 

The Organizational Performance and Best Practice Analysis consists of 15 

general questions about your business and your performance goals and 

needs, and 36 multiple choice and check all that apply questions which tell 

me everything I need to know about how you can transform your 

organization's performance. That's it! That's all you have to do. 

The Organizational Performance and Best Practice Analysis then develops: 

• an evaluation of 280 key performance management processes 

• a performance index analysis identifying your performance 

strengths, areas for improvement, cost savings opportunities and ways 

you can leverage your existing resources 

• a feasibility analysis identifying which best practices will drive your 

unique organization the most, based on mission alignment, 

organizational effectiveness, cost impact and ease of 

implementation. 

• an impact value analysis which identifies which processes will have 

the greatest impact on your organization based on your current 

environment and specified needs, 

• and a custom performance roadmap that illustrates which 

processes, and the order you can implement them, to maximize 

performance in the shortest amount of time. 

The performance analysis is completely interactive and flexible. As your 

organization applies the best practice processes outlined in your Best 

Practice Roadmap and the recommendations section of the analysis, or if 

your organization simply changes it's performance needs and values, the 

analysis will automatically readjust and tell you which processes will continue 

to make the greatest impact based on your organizational changes. 



Professionals 

The Lifecycle Performance Framework 

The key activities in the Lifecycle Performance Management Model are based 

on the Lifecycle Performance Framework. The Lifecycle Performance 

Framework is a group of performance-related processes and methodologies, 

sequenced and integrated to effectively raise organizational awareness of 

performance management and simplify the execution of performance 

management best practices throughout the performance lifecycle. The 

Lifecycle Performance Framework consists of five phases: Defining, 

Planning, Executing, Monitoring, and Reporting. 

Lifecycle Performance Framework 

Figure 2 - Lifecycle Performance Framework 

The Defining Phase is the phase where preliminary management processes 

are performed. These preliminary processes are those outside of traditional 

performance management, but which are critical to the success of your 

performance management initiative. They include mission/objective 

identification, strategic planning, performance scope development and 



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performance team development. These are the executive processes that 

don’t necessarily include participation from all levels within the organization. 

The focus of the Planning Phase is to start the buzz and get your 

organization prepared for the cultural changes that will take place during your 

successful performance initiative. This is the phase where you gain 

employee acceptance into the performance initiative and put employees into 

a high performance mindset. It also includes baselining current performance 

and setting future goals, breaking down functional silos, identifying key 

processes that drive business success, and ensuring a successful 

performance management implementation through training. 

The Executing Phase involves implementing the planned activities outlined 

in the defining and planning phases. This is where we develop metrics, align 

performance to organizational objectives, identify cross-functional processes, 

and integrate data. During the execution phase the performance 

management team must maintain a climate of open communication with 

business unit liaisons and executive management, as this is where executive 

goals are transformed into action. 

The Monitoring Phase where we track performance in all areas of the 

organization. This phase involves ensuring that key indicators and thresholds 

are in acceptable ranges and enforcing quality characteristics. This is where 

we develop our quality management plan, identify data quality metrics, 

examine information supply chains and improve processes. 

The last phase is the Reporting Phase. The Reporting Phase is the nuts 

and bolts of the performance management initiative. This is where the 

Performance Management Team analyzes its finding and communicates 

system, organizational and individual performance to the stakeholders. The 

reporting phase is the final phase in the Lifecycle Performance Framework, 

but in many cases it’s the first phase of decision- making processes. This 

guide covers the performance reporting process, business intelligence tools, 

performance improvement strategies, SLAs, dashboards and scorecards, and 

customer satisfaction. 

The Lifecycle Performance Management Kit provides all of the processes, 

techniques and frameworks to implement a successful enterprise-wide 

performance solution. 

The Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis will identify your 

strengths, weaknesses, and cost savings opportunities, and will plan out the 

exact steps to reaching your performance goals. 



Professionals 

Lifecycle Performance Management Best Practices 

The Lifecycle Performance Management Model is centered on 36 best 

practices. These best practices support the key processes that must be 

addressed in order to ensure a successful performance initiative. In Lifecycle 

Performance Management, these best practices are measured throughout all 

divisions within the organization. 

Defining Planning Executing Monitoring Reporting 

1. Organizational 

Goals and Mission 


2. Performance 

Scope 



Team 

Development 

4. Vendor 

Performance 


5. Vendor 

Standardization 

6. Organizational 

Stability 

7. IT Cost 


8. Performance- 

Based Budgeting 

9. Employee 

Acceptance 




Planning 

11. Time 


(Planning vs 

Implementing) 

12. Leadership 

Development 

13. Employee 

Training 

14. Staff 

Motivation 

15. Automated 

Asset 


16. Systems 

Scalability 

17. Capacity 

Planning 

18. Enterprise 

Policy 


19. IS Training 

20. Employee 



21. Information 

Services 



22. Process 


23. Data 

Integration 



Metrics 



Alignment 


26. Crossfunctional 

Process 


27. Systems 


28. Change 


29. Procurement 


30. Quality 



Data 


32. Business 

Intelligence 


Lifecycle Performance Management Best Practices 

The definitions and best practice processes are as follows: 

33. Project 



34. Scorecard/ 

Dashboard 

Development 

35. Customer 

Satisfaction 


36. Service Level 

Tracking 




Professionals 

DEFINING PHASE BEST PRACTICES 

1. Organizational Mission and Goals Management – Organizational 

Mission and Goals Management is the practice of ensuring that 

organizational mission and goals are well documented and communicated 

throughout the organization. Identified by executives and executed by 

management and staff, Organizational Mission and Goals Management is 

a process that includes participation at all levels and requires continuous 

validation throughout the maturation and growth of the organization. 

Organizational Mission and Goals Management includes identifying 

objectives throughout all business units, personnel, processes and systems 

and monitoring the progress of meeting those objectives. The objective is 

to control costs by having people, processes and systems within the 

organization working toward supporting the mission and goals of the 

organization. 

2. Performance Scope Management – The practice of defining the 

outcomes, documenting assumptions, and defining the scope of your 

performance initiative. Performance Scope Management can be 

approached in several ways such as defining deliverables, functionality 

and data, technical structure, and enterprise/organizational structure. 

Performance Scope Management involves setting the high level 

processes for which the performance management team will approach 

divisions, support teams and individuals in order to align performance to 

business objectives. Performance Scope Management ensures that 

expectations are met by clarifying roles, processes and expectations. 

3. Performance Team Development – Performance Team Development is 

a critical process in Lifecycle Performance Management. It involves 

ensuring that the performance team is well aware of the issues facing the 

organization from the customer, employee, senior management and key 

stakeholders perspectives. Performance Team Development includes 

ensuring that there is support and commitment from the CEO, a direct 

reporting line to executive management, access to systems, data, 

organizational charts and processes, and liaisons form each of the 

business units to bridge the gap in communication and operational 

knowledge. 

4. Vendor Performance Management – A low risk vendor conforms to the 

GartnerGroup vendor suitability models. The vendor/service provider 

model assesses the viability of vendors against a set of characteristics 

that have been proven a low risk, high quality purchase. An organization 



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that utilizes low risk, as well as high quality vendors and providers, will be 

less likely to encounter quality, reliability, or supply issues. This practice 

compares vendors and service providers on their financial viability, 

organizational stability, quality control, stringent testing for compatibility, 

independent market support for technology differentiation, and 

responsiveness to field service issues. 

We believe that vendors that have best in class capabilities will reduce the 

risk and associated costs compared to vendors that may offer lower priced 

products without sound testing, field support, or management practices. 

5. Vendor Standardization – Vendor standardization limits the number of 

vendors that an organization purchases from. For given assets, an 

organization selects a limited set of vendors from which products or 

services can be purchased. Vendor Standardization usually consists of a 

primary and secondary vendor. By standardizing on fewer vendors, an 

organization can gain purchasing leverage and reduce incompatibility 

issues, support issues, vendor liaison requirements, testing of new 

technology, and administrative costs of vendor management. While it may 

limit the available selection of technology and features somewhat, it 

enables larger discounts with volume purchasing. Vendor standardization 

is part of a comprehensive asset management process that includes 

establishment of procurement procedures and policies, and compliance 

monitoring and management. 

6. Organizational Stability – Stability of an organization is critical to keeping 

the staff members and teams consistent and focused. It enables the 

maturation of processes, procedures, and talent. Constant reorganization, 

management changes, and political infighting takes a toll on moral, 

turnover, costs, risk and progress. 

7. IT Cost Management – IT Cost Management is the financial management 

of your network that measures the total cost of IT services on a regular 

basis, compares the costs to industry benchmarks, and makes decisions 

on changes that include financial, not just technical, objectives. The 

process, policies, and tools are continuously and regularly applied to track 

progress and optimize spending. With IT Cost Management frameworks, 

such as TCO Lifecycle Management, proper technology refresh cycles can 

be established and investments can be verified as having positive financial 

impact and returns prior to implementation. 

8. Performance Based Budgeting – A results focused planning and 

budgeting framework which focuses on three elements: the strategy (how 

to achieve outcome), outputs (activities to achieve final outcome), and the 

result (final outcome). Performance-based budgets use missions, goals 

and objectives to justify funding. Through the allocation of resources, 

performance-based budging achieves specific objectives based on 



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program goals and measured results. As a result, it is possible to 

understand which activities are cost-effective in terms of achieving the 

desired result. 









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PLANNING PHASE BEST PRACTICES 

9. Employee Acceptance Management – Employee Acceptance 

Management is the process of gaining employee buy-in by emphasizing 

performance expectations from the top level down. Employee Acceptance 

Management involves transforming employees into a high performance 

mindset, communicating employee expectations and enabling them to 

understand the impact that their specific role has on the success of the 

organization. 

10. Performance Management Planning – Performance Management 

Planning is the practice of defining the performance strategy and 

prioritizing activities according to that strategy—to ensure operational 

alignment with organizational goals. Performance Management Planning 

involves planning, budgeting, forecasting and allocating resources to 

support strategy and achieve optimal execution. The Performance 

Management Plan includes consolidating, monitoring, and reporting on 

performance outcomes for management, regulatory, and statutory 

purposes. The ultimate goal of Performance Management Planning is the 

ability to plan and budget in real-time with dynamic plans that provide realtime 

feedback to everyone who is part of the process. 

11. Time Management (Planning versus Implementing) – Planning is an 

essential item on the critical path of every project. Our studies have shown 

that cutting corners on planning can triple the cost and time to implement 

enterprise level projects. Planning requires adequate information about the 

current and target states and accurate estimates of the time and financial 

investments required to perform all the steps necessary for change. 

Planning also involves putting together a team of committed and motivated 

individuals with defined team roles, outlining all tasks, assigning 

responsibilities, and proactively managing and mitigating risks. The 

planning process should include the development of a vision/scope 

document so that each team member understands the project vision, goals, 

objectives, schedule, and risks. The planning team should allow adequate 

time for team members to understand, investigate, document, and 

communicate prior to design and implementation. 

12. Leadership Development – Leadership Development is the strategic 

investment in, and utilization of the human capital within the organization. 

The practice of Leadership Development focuses on the development of 

leadership as a process. With the rapid rate of change in our global 

economy, leadership has taken on the critical role of adaptation and 

innovation in the workplace. As companies restructure their business 

processes and employees, they need solid leadership training to 

communicate effectively, influence others, maximize creativity, and analyze 



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your business. How leadership is demonstrated within an organization will 

determine how successful that organization will be and how successful 

those who follow will become. 

13. Employee Training – Employee training is one of the most powerful cost 

reduction drivers. Our research shows that the under-trained employee 

consumes two to six times the amount of technical support (including peer 

support) than an adequately trained user. Employee training should be 

performed on systems and applications, being careful to match the 

training that is delivered in relation to the employee’s job. Training should 

include a mix of instructor-led classroom training, computer-based 

training, and just-in-time training to help increase user productivity and 

reduce support costs. 

14. Staff Motivation – A motivated staff is one that will operate as a team and 

will pitch in when needed to solve any problem or challenge at hand. They 

will often exceed expectations and provide critical back up for each other. 

A motivated staff works harder to meet the goals set by the organization. 

15. Automated Asset Management – Electronically supported life-cycle 

driven asset process. Automated asset management consists of 

electronically supported procurement, automated inventory, and 

centralized data repository that are available to financial, administrative, 

technical planners, system administrators, and the service desk. 

Managed data within the asset management system consists of contract 

terms, hardware inventory, software inventory, accounting, maintenance 

records, change history, support history, and other technical and financial 

information. 

16. Systems Scalability – Systems Scalability is a technology infrastructure 

that can logically and physically increase in performance and capacity with 

continuity to meet reasonable growth and change over time. A scalable 

architecture contains a strategic migration plan for continuous growth and 

progress. Commitment to scalable architectures enables the rollout of 

homogeneous hardware and application platforms across users and 

departments with different processing requirements, while providing 

technical staff with a common platform to support. 

17. Capacity Planning – Capacity planning is a process by which the capacity 

of the network and assets is measured, compared against requirements, 

and adjusted as appropriate. The process of capacity planning involves 

mapping new initiatives to existing infrastructure, understanding the cost 

dynamics of network bandwidth and storage, memory, and other system 

resources. 



Professionals 

18. Enterprise Policy Management – Enterprise policy management is a 

managed user environment in which a network or desktop administrator 

can control, with rules-based logic, which applications, settings, network 

resources, databases, and other IT assets a user can use. This 

environment is defined by user ID and is not necessarily machine specific. 

It is typically implemented by user profiles maintained at the server and 

synchronized with the client device that a user is logged onto. 

Enterprise policy management precludes the user from making changes to 

the system; such as introducing unauthorized software or changing 

settings that may cause conflict with other system resources. As well, a 

managed environment controls the ease of use of the desktop, providing a 

common set of applications and access for groups of users or individuals. 

In this manner, the user is presented only with the tools they have been 

trained on and need for the job, and assures that changes are managed. 

This process, integrated with a system management and change 

management policy, can reduce service desk calls and unplanned 

downtime, as well as create a more predictable platform for system 

upgrades. 

19. IS Training – IS professional training is critical in preparing the IS staff that 

are delivering support and service to users to confidently plan and 

implement initiatives and solutions, and resolve user issues quickly and 

effectively. IS professional training should be obtained for all staff 

members on the systems, tools, and applications that are utilized in their 

daily jobs. Training should include instructor-led training classes, 

certification courses, seminars, and computer-based training. 









Professionals 

EXECUTING PHASE BEST PRACTICES 

20. Employee Performance Management – Employee Performance 

Management is the systematic process by which an organization involves 

its employees, as individuals and members of a group, in improving 

organizational effectiveness in the accomplishment of agency mission and 

goals. The Employee Performance Management process includes 

planning work and setting expectations, continually monitoring 

performance, developing the capacity to perform, periodically rating 

performance in a summary fashion, and rewarding good performance. 

Functions within employee performance management are recruit and hire 

management, compensation management, incentive management, goals 

management, learning management, competency management and 

performance measurement. 

21. Information Services Performance Management – Information Services 

Performance Management is the practice of measuring and monitoring 

information systems and services and aligning them to organizational 

goals and objectives. Information Services Performance Management 

involves supporting employees and customers, aligning business unit 

objectives to system capabilities and performance, communicating IT 

planning and performance data in a way that is useful to business unit 

management, and adapting to growing complexities and constant change. 

22. Process Management – Process Management is a series of actions 

taken to identify, analyze and improve existing processes within an 

organization to meet new goals and objectives. Process Management 

involves identifying key business processes and aligning the results of 

these processes with the strategic goals. Lifecycle Process Management 

consists of baselining the current environment, identifying critical success 

factors, redesigning inefficient or ineffective processes, automating 

processes, identifying process metrics, and training employees on cross 

functional process. 

23. Data Integration Management – Data Integration Management is the 

practice of gaining business value from information assets through the 

effective use of data management technologies and best practices. Key 

components of Data Integration Management include data integration, 

data quality, database management systems, data warehousing and 

enterprise information management. Data Integration Management 

enables an organization to secure a single, accurate, corporate view of 

key information. 

24. Performance Metrics Management – Performance Metrics Management 

is the process of identifying quantifiable, results-driven metrics that enable 



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informed decision making and encourages improved service delivery. 

Performance Metrics Management involves understanding the business 

and complexities of the organization, focusing on the desired outcomes, 

involving all participants for consensus and buy-in, ensuring that formulas 

and logic are valid, and storing performance results in a centralized 

location for easy access. 

25. Performance Alignment Management – Performance Alignment 

Management facilitates the translation of business and functional priorities 

into strategy. Performance alignment consists of aligning corporate 

strategy to four areas: division/departmental, workforce, financial and 

resources. Ultimately, Performance Alignment Management develops a 

performance strategy that feeds strategic alignment, reflects 

organizational priorities, and leads to successful execution of 

organizational goals and objectives. 

26. Cross-functional Process Management – Cross-functional Process 

Management is the process of breaking down functional siloed thinking 

and building the organization around core processes rather than specific 

functional areas. Cross-functional Process Management focuses on those 

major processes which require support from multiple functional support 

groups. Ultimately, a well managed cross functional process enables 

performance tracking throughout each of the functional “hand offs” and 

weak points within a major process are identified and corrected. 

27. Systems Management – Systems management is an automated event 

management system that proactively and reactively notifies system 

operators of failures, capacity issues, traffic issues, virus attacks and other 

transient events. The tools allow monitoring of system status, 

performance indicators, thresholds, notification of users, and dispatch of 

trouble tickets. Systems Management provides optimal system 

performance, quicker resolution of problems, and minimizes failures. 

Automated solutions are used in support of distributed computing 

operations processes and policies for performance and failure detection 

and correction, as well as optimization. 

28. Change Management – Change management is the procedure, policies, 

and tools established to monitor organizational assets to assure that 

unauthorized changes are not being implemented. It also affirms that a 

database of changes is available so that changes can be easily 

recognized during troubleshooting activities 

29. Procurement Management – Procurement Management is a set of 

policies and procedures to manage the procurement process. 

Procurement Management does not necessarily designate that all 

procurement personnel are centralized in a single location; rather it 



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involves the development of a common set of procurement policies and 

operating procedures, pooling of information about requests, vendor 

contracts, asset data, industry information, and qualified procurement skills 

to ensure the pieces required to get a cost effective deal are properly 

considered. As well, centralized procurement assures that standardization 

rules are in compliance. 









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MONITORING PHASE BEST PRACTICES 

30. Quality Management – Quality Management is the process for ensuring 

that all the activities necessary to design, develop and implement a 

product or service are effective and efficient with respect to the system 

and its performance. Quality Management includes several processes 

that enable organizations to ensure quality. Among them are quality 

planning, quality assurance, quality control, quality audits and quality 

surveillance. The objective of quality management is to define quality 

system policies, objectives, and requirements, and to explain how these 

policies will be defined. 

31. Performance Data Management - Performance Data Management is the 

practice of helping organizations understand the stages of data as it 

transforms to meaningful information and is distributed throughout the 

organization. The Lifecycle Performance Reporting Process consists of 5 

phases: data gathering, data extraction, data integration, reporting and 

distribution. Some key tasks within the performance reporting process 

include gaining buy-in on data gathering methods, determining scope and 

purpose of what to gather, and utilizing existing data streams and 

maximizing current report capabilities, and identifying proper tools to 

invest in to ensure meaningful data. 

32. Business Intelligence Management – Business Intelligence 

Management is the identification, implementation, and strategic 

application of technologies that are used to gather, provide access to, and 

analyze data and information about company operations and 

performance. It includes creating a process for gaining a more 

comprehensive knowledge of the factors affecting your business, and 

helping your company make better informed business decisions. 

Business Intelligence Management involves carefully identifying which 

tools fit best with your type of business, your systems architecture, your 

staff technical capabilities, and data complexities. Among the many types 

of BI tools include: reporting tools, metadata tools, data warehouse tools, 

database/hardware tools, ETL tools, and OLAP tools. 









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REPORTING PHASE BEST PRACTICES 

33. Project Performance Management – Project Performance Management 

is the discipline of organizing and managing resources to ensure that the 

project is completed within the defined scope. Project performance 

reporting is the process of collecting project baseline data and distributing 

performance information to stakeholders. Implementing projects 

performance measurement ensures that your reporting clarifies how 

resources are being used to obtain the objectives of the project. 

34. Scorecard / Dashboard Development – Scorecard / Dashboard 

Development is the process of planning, identifying and implementing an 

easy access view of how well the organization is reaching strategic goals. 

Scorecard / Dashboard Development is the process of displaying whether 

the activities of a company are meeting its objectives in terms of vision 

and strategy through a series of graphs, charts, gauges, and other visual 

indicators that illustrate performance in real time. Scorecard / Dashboard 

Development includes identifying actionable indicators, lead indicators, 

alerts and thresholds and enabling stakeholders to access data easily. 

35. Customer Satisfaction Management – Customer Satisfaction 

Management is the process of ensuring that customer’s expectations are 

met or exceeded over the lifetime of the product or service. Customer 

Satisfaction Management involves understanding specifically what, in 

customer’s eyes, an organization is doing well and where that organization 

needs to improve in order to better support them. Ultimately, Customer 

Satisfaction Management leads to identifying opportunities for products 

and service innovation and serves as a basis for performance appraisal 

and reward systems. 

36. Service Level Tracking and Management – Service levels are 

predefined by a service level agreement (SLA) between the user 

community and the IS department and between IS and external service 

providers. Ideally this is a seamless contract that will establish specific 

services that IS will deliver to the end-user community with regards to 

various uptime, performance, and problem resolution criteria. The metrics 

contained in a SLA need to be specific, measurable, track able, and 

meaningful. 

The Lifecycle Performance Management Kit and Organizational Performance 

and Best Practices Analysis provides all of the processes, techniques and 

frameworks to implement a successful enterprise-wide performance solution. 



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The Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis 

In most cases, some divisions within an organization manage aspects of 

performance management better than other divisions. As illustrated in the 

example table below, some performance management best practices come 

more natural to certain divisions, depending on the service provided. 

Accounting / Finance 

HR 

Marketing / Sales 

Operations (Production, Customer Service) 

Procurement 

Research and Development 

Information Technology 

Communications/Public Relations 

Administration 

• Cost management 

• Employee relations, staff motivation 

• Customer management, 

• Performance metrics, customer satisfaction 

• Vendor management, asset management 

• Performance Scope management, Change management 

• Business intelligence, information systems 

• Customer satisfaction management 

• Mission and objectives management, policy 

The premise of the Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis 

is to measure all the critical performance management processes necessary 

to be a high performing organization. 

The Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis is a service 

provided by Lifecycle Performance Professionals which analyzes an 

organization's utilization of the 35 performance management best practices 

and identifies their performance strengths, areas for immediate 

improvements, and cost savings opportunities. By illustrating where strong 

performance management best practices exist within an organization, 

Lifecycle Performance Management leverages those strengths and 

processes to other areas within the organization which require them. 

Best Practice Scoring Systems 

Lifecycle Performance Professional’s Best Practice Scoring Systems simplify 

performance management planning. Our Performance Index, Feasibility 

Analysis, and Impact Value scoring systems remove the grueling analysis and 

simplifies decision making. 

The Performance Index is a scoring system for measuring your performance 

management practices and identifying strengths and weaknesses, and 



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opportunities for cost savings. The Performance Index provides a quantitative 

method for illustrating the cumulative effect of performance improvements as 

you move closer to reaching your target performance levels. 

Figure 3 - Performance Index Scoring Table 

The Feasibility Score provides a quantitative value for identifying best 

practices that are most aligned to your unique performance management 

goals. The criteria for measuring the value of each best practice within the 

organization are Mission Alignment, Organizational Effectiveness, Cost 

Impact and Ease of Implementation. 

The Impact Value is a scoring system for identifying best practices which will 

provide the greatest impact on your organization once implemented. Impact 

Value takes into consideration both your organizational objectives and what 

you want to get out of your performance initiatives. 



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The Best Practices Roadmap 

The Organizational Performance and Best Practices Analysis provides a 

custom Best Practices Roadmap which illustrates performance management 

strengths and weaknesses, and provides a logical path for businesses to 

follow in order to achieve high performance levels in the shortest amount of 

time. The custom roadmap identifies quick wins and the most feasible best 

practices and processes which yield the greatest impact. 

Figure 4 - Best Practices Roadmap 

The Best Practices Roadmap maps performance management best 

practices to performance categories (people, processes and technology) and 

the Lifecycle Performance Framework phases. The Best Practices Roadmap 

provides a logical path for implementing best practice processes. For 

example, many of the best practices that fall within the Defining phase must 

be implemented before best practices in the later phases can be fully utilized. 



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Take Organizational Mission and Goals Management. If the processes within 

this best practice are not implemented, other best practices will not be as 

effective and the performance management initiative will surely fail. 

.By understanding which best practices your organization utilizes well and 

which divisions and teams have strong processes in place, you can 

strategically leverage those processes to assist divisions that do not have 

these practices in place. 

The Lifecycle Performance Roadmap 

The Lifecycle Performance Roadmap contains 90 processes sectioned into 3 

performance areas consisting of 10 management functions and spanning 

across the 5 performance lifecycle phases. The Lifecycle Performance 

Roadmap illustrates how performance management relates to various major 

management support functions within your organization. The processes 

provide a high level approach to managing performance across your various 

management functions and helps ensure that your people, processes and 

technology are working together to achieve your organization’s missions and 

goals. The roadmap shows how performance management adds value to 

and is directly represented in each of these major management functions and 

aligns them to the Lifecycle Performance Framework phases. 

Figure 5 - Lifecycle Performance Roadmap 



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This section briefly explains how performance management plays a part in 

each of the major organizational management functions. 

Strategic Planning 

Strategic planning is the process of determining a company's long-term goals 

and then identifying the best approach for achieving them. Strategic planning 

plays a vital role in the performance of your organization. In order for 

strategic goals to be achieved, strategic planning must be aligned to 

performance measurements. These performance measurements allow 

executive management to gauge the effectiveness of the organizational 

strategic plan and determine how the budget and projects will be setup in the 

future. How do you ensure that your strategic plan aligns the proper 

performance goals to organizational objectives? The 120 Day Plan: Step by 

Step Guide discusses this in detail, and the Lifecycle Performance 

Management Kit provides the process and templates to ensure your 

strategic plan is geared towards performance improvement. 

Organizational Development 

Often used interchangeably with organizational effectiveness, organizational 

development is the process through which an organization develops the 

internal capacity to be the most efficient towards its mission work and to 

sustain itself over the long term. This definition highlights the explicit 

connection between organizational development work and the achievement of 

organizational mission. Performance management directly relates to 

organizational development, since OD is primarily focused on improving the 

performance of organizations and the people within them. Whatever your 

organizational challenges, the starting point is to get a clear, objective view of 

your organization's performance abilities, such as strengths and limitations. 

Identifying proper performance attributes is essential, because sound 

management decisions can only be made when performance attributes are 

identified and measured accurately. 

In order to reach anticipated organizational targets, you must be able to tie 

the performance and motivation of individuals to the overall strategic 

objectives. The Lifecycle Performance Framework processes illustrate how 

performance management, organizational development and strategic 

planning share interrelated processes to accomplish organizational goals. 

The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step Guide includes a detailed section on 

aligning personnel and team performance to strategic objectives. The 

Lifecycle Performance Management Kit includes templates for managing 

organizational change and measuring organizational impact. 

Change Management 



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Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with change within 

every perspective of an organization, from systems to personnel to projects to 

functions. Change management is a comprehensive, often difficult 

management function to properly implement. 

There’s the saying “Organizations don't adapt to change; their people do.” 

With that outlook, it is easy to understand how performance management 

plays a critical part in managing change. Implementing change within an 

organization often requires a change in how employees execute things. You 

can implement the most advanced change management tools money can 

buy, but if your people don’t buy into or fully support the initiatives, their 

performance will suffer and ultimately the organization will be ineffective, or 

less efficient than before. So how do you ensure that your organization is 

prepared for change? The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step Guide includes a 

detailed section on the getting employees ready for change and the Lifecycle 

Performance Management Kit provides change management templates to 

get started. 

Project Management 

Project management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources 

(e.g. people) in such a way that the project is completed within defined scope, 

quality, time and cost constraints. A project is a temporary and one-time 

endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service, which brings 

about beneficial change or added value. Performance measurement is an 

area within the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of 

Knowledge (PMBOK). It is the link between performance management and 

project management, where cost, schedule and scope performance are 

measured and monitored throughout each phase of the Project Lifecycle. 

Project performance reporting is the process of collecting project baseline 

data and distributing performance information to stakeholders throughout the 

project. How do you make sure that your reporting clarifies how resources 

are being used to obtain the objectives of the project? The 120 Day Plan: 

Step by Step Guide includes a detailed section on the project management 

performance measurement processes within the PMBOK. 

Customer Satisfaction 

Customer satisfaction is the measurement or determination that a product or 

service meets a customer's expectations, based on predetermined quality and 

service requirements. It is said that customer satisfaction equals perception 

of performance divided by expectation of performance. There is a direct 

relationship between performance and customer satisfaction, where the better 

you perform to customer expectations, the more satisfied customers will be. 



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Customer satisfaction is your organization’s level of performance through 

your customers, employees, and/or stakeholders perspective. In fact, many 

times customer satisfaction feedback, if requested properly, can provide 

information and insight for achieving breakthrough increases in organizational 

performance and effectiveness. 

When measuring customer satisfaction, organizations should review their 

objectives and ensure that the customer service strategy is linked to those 

objectives. But how can you ensure that your organizational objectives are 

linked to your customer service strategy? The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step 

Guide includes a detailed section on the performance measurement 

processes of customer satisfaction and the Lifecycle Performance 

Management Kit includes sample customer satisfaction surveys. 

Workforce Performance Management 

Workforce performance management is the strategic alignment of an 

organization’s human capital with its business activities. It is a methodical 

process of analyzing the current workforce, determining future workforce 

needs, identifying the gap between the present and future, and implementing 

solutions so the organization can accomplish its mission, goals, and 

objectives. 

People are the most important aspect to any organization. Therefore, the 

performance of the people within an organization will greatly impact the 

overall performance of the organization. While most employees understand 

what they need to do, workforce performance management tells them how 

well they must do it. The greatest benefit to workforce performance 

management is the process of aligning employee performance to 

organizational objectives and goals. But how can a manager truly evaluate 

individuals on their alignment with corporate goals and their contributions to 

business results? The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step Guide includes a 

section detailing the importance of aligning employee performance to 

organizational goals and the steps to accomplish this. 

Functions within workforce performance management are Recruit and Hire 

Management, Compensation Management, Incentive Management, Goals 

Management, Learning Management, Competency Management, and 

Performance Measurement. Each of these workforce management functions 

are described in more detail in The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step Guide. The 

Lifecycle Performance Management Kit includes templates to help manage 

workforce performance. 

IT Performance Management 



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IT performance management assists organizations with the increasing 

demands of maximizing value creation from technology investments, reducing 

risk from IT, decreasing architectural complexity, and optimizing overall 

technology expenditures. Behind people, technology is the next critical factor 

in maximizing efficiency and organizational performance. Many organizations 

from small to large are using IT strategically to support profitable growth. IT 

performance management includes maximizing technology to improve service 

delivery in every area of the organization. IT performance management 

utilizes such technology as unified management reporting and dashboard 

tools to enhance performance and drives business processes. How do you 

find the right technology to enhance your business intelligence? Choosing 

the right business intelligence tools and aligning IT/IS systems to business 

objectives is discussed in detail in The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step Guide, 

and the Lifecycle Performance Management Kit includes vendor 

summaries and templates for performing your own vendor assessments with 

weighted criteria. 

Knowledge Management 

Knowledge management refers to the guidelines, policies, and practices that 

an organization uses to create and transfer information to support the 

performance of the people in the organization. These can include various 

documents and copyrights, and intangible processes, models and methods 

that their people use to get work done. 

The impact of knowledge management on key business results is seen 

through its potential for improving the performance of business processes. 

Take call centers for example. They may handle hundreds, even thousands 

of calls a day. It would be too much too ask for call center representatives to 

be able to resolve the majority of these calls without a knowledge 

management system in place. With a knowledge management system, the 

call center representatives have more information and resources to access 

and can thus resolve more customer requests. Performance benefits can be 

seen in such areas as first call resolution, time to resolve, and customer 

satisfaction. 

Knowledge management drives performance by linking knowledge to critical 

functions which impact business and putting the supports in place to ensure 

knowledge is leveraged across people and circumstances. 

Quality Management 

Quality management is a method for ensuring that all the activities necessary 

to design, develop and implement a product or service are effective and 

efficient with respect to the system and its performance. Quality management 

includes several processes that enable organizations to ensure quality. 



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Among them are quality planning, quality assurance, quality control, quality 

audits and quality surveillance. 

Quality planning is defined as a set of activities whose purpose is to define 

quality system policies, objectives, and requirements, and to explain how 

these policies will be applied, how these objectives will be achieved, and how 

these requirements will be met. It is always future oriented. 

Quality assurance (QA) is defined as a set of activities whose purpose is to 

demonstrate that an entity meets all quality requirements. QA activities are 

carried out in order to inspire the confidence of both customers and 

managers, confidence that all quality requirements are being met. 

Quality control is defined as a set of activities or techniques whose purpose is 

to ensure that all quality requirements are being met. In order to achieve this 

purpose, processes are monitored and performance problems are solved. 

Quality audits examine the elements of a quality management system in order 

to evaluate how well these elements comply with quality system 

requirements. 

Quality surveillance is a set of activities whose purpose is to monitor an entity 

and review its records to prove that quality requirements are being met. 

Performance measurement is a necessary instrument for quality management 

because in order to measure quality, you must first apply performance 

expectations and standards. In the PMBOK, the performance measurement 

process group falls under the quality management knowledge area. Quality 

management is discussed in greater detail in The 120 Day Plan: Step by 

Step Guide and the Lifecycle Performance Management Kit includes 

templates for creating quality assurance and quality control plans. 

Process Improvement 

Process improvement is a series of actions taken to identify, analyze and 

improve existing processes within an organization to meet new goals and 

objectives. There are many process improvement methodologies that differ in 

approach, but the one thing they all have in common is the outcome of better 

performance. In fact, by definition performance improvement is the concept 

of measuring the output of processes or procedures, then modifying the 

processes or procedures in order to increase the output, increase efficiency, 

or increase the effectiveness of the processes or procedures. 

Often times, the most critical processes that impact business success are 

those that require support from multiple functional groups. Identifying and 



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managing cross-functional processes and removing the functional silos that 

inhibit business culture are discussed in great detail in The 120 Day Plan: 

Step by Step Guide. The Lifecycle Performance Management Kit 

includes a process profile template and a process evaluation scorecard to 

help you manage those processes. 



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Government Performance Framework 

Many government agencies struggle to develop performance programs that 

meet the agency’s strategic objectives and annual goals. An effective 

Performance Management system must be in place to ensure that an 

agency’s administrative and support functions (budget, financial 

management, human resources, information technology, procurement, etc.) 

directly and explicitly serve the needs of program managers in meeting the 

agency’s strategic and annual goals. 

Before you can effectively manage the performance of a government agency, 

you must first understand the laws and regulations, frameworks and 

methodologies, and process improvement techniques that are in use today. 

In the Government Performance Framework, I have listed some of the 

regulations and methodologies I've encountered in my own experience 

managing government performance. 

Government Performance Management Framework 



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Controls (Laws, Regulations, Imperatives) 

• The 1993 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) holds 

federal agencies accountable for using resources wisely and achieving 

program results. GPRA requires agencies to develop plans for what they 

intend to accomplish, measure how well they are doing, make appropriate 

decisions based on the information they have gathered, and 

communicate information about their performance to Congress and to the 

public. GPRA requires agencies to develop a five-year Strategic Plan, 

which includes a mission statement and sets out long-term goals and 

objectives; Annual Performance Plans, which provide annual 

performance commitments toward achieving the goals and objectives 

presented in the Strategic Plan; and Annual Performance and 

Accountability Reports, which evaluate an agency's progress toward 

achieving performance commitments. 

• Government Management Reform Act (GMRA) of requires the head of 

each agency to submit an audited financial statement to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) annually. The Government 

Management Reform Act calls for agency financial statements that reflect 

the results of agency operations and a government-wide financial 

statement that includes results of government-wide operations. The 

purposes of Government Management Reform Act (GMRA) are to 

provide a more effective, efficient and responsive government through a 

series of management reforms primarily for federal human resources and 

financial management. 

• Clinger-Cohen Act (CCA) of 1996 provides that the government 

information technology shop be operated exactly as an efficient and 

profitable business would be operated. Acquisition, planning and 

management of technology must be treated as a "capital investment." 

While the law is complex, all consumers of hardware and software in the 

agency should be aware of the Chief Information Officer's leadership in 

implementing this statute. 

• The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 (CFO Act) establishes Chief 

Financial Officer responsibilities for systematic measurement of 

performance. The CFO Act requires federal agencies to prepare financial 

statements and have them audited. Under the act, an Office of Federal 

Financial Management was established in the Office of Management and 

Budget and an eight-part program was started to move toward better 

financial management. 



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• The President’s Management Agenda (PMA) outlines programs to 

radically improve performance by making government agencies more 

citizen-centered, results-oriented and market-based. It focuses on five 

major issues that all federal organizations must address — budget and 

performance integration, strategic human capital, competitive sourcing, 

improved financial performance and expanded electronic government. 

• The Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) was developed to 

assess and improve program performance so that the Federal 

government can achieve better results. A PART review helps identify a 

program’s strengths and weaknesses to inform funding and management 

decisions aimed at making the program more effective. The PART 

therefore looks at all factors that affect and reflect program performance 

including program purpose and design; performance measurement, 

evaluations, and strategic planning; program management; and program 

results. Because the PART includes a consistent series of analytical 

questions, it allows programs to show improvements over time, and 

allows comparisons between similar programs. 

• OMB Circular A-11 covers the development of the President’s budget 

and tells you how to prepare and submit materials required for OMB and 

Presidential review of agency requests and for formulation of the budget. 

• The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is known as "the 

investigative arm of Congress" and "the congressional watchdog." GAO 

supports the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and 

helps improve the performance and accountability of the federal 

government for the benefit of the American people. 

• Federal Financial Management Improvement Act (FFMIA) - The 

purpose of the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 

(FFMIA) is to advance Federal financial management by ensuring that 

Federal financial management systems provide accurate, reliable, and 

timely financial management information to the government’s managers. 

The intent and the requirements of this Act go well beyond the directives 

of the CFO Act and the Government Management Reform Act of 1994 

(GMRA) to publish audited financial reports. Compliance with the FFMIA 

will provide the basis for the continuing use of reliable financial 

management information by program managers, and by the President, 

the Congress and the public. 

• The Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996 

(ITMRA) is intended to improve the ways that agencies acquire, use, and 

dispose of information technology (IT) and, thereby, to improve the 

productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of Federal programs. The Act 

requires consideration of IT goals in strategic planning and IT 

contributions to agency goals and performance. 



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techniques and frameworks to implement a successful government 





Performance Measures 

The Lifecycle Performance Framework is a group of performance-related 

processes and methodologies, sequenced throughout five phases, and 

designed to raise organizational awareness of performance management 

best practices. 

ISO 9000 is a family of standards published by the International Organization 

for Standardization (“ISO”). The objective of ISO 9001 is to provide a set of 

requirements that, if they are effectively implemented, will provide you with 

confidence that your supplier can consistently provide goods and services 

that meet your needs and expectations and comply with applicable 

regulations. 

Capability Maturity Model ® Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement 

approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective 

processes. It can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a 

division, or an entire organization. CMMI helps integrate traditionally separate 

organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, 

provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for 

appraising current processes. 

The Performance Reference Model (PRM) is a standardized framework to 

measure the performance of major IT initiatives and their contribution to 

program performance. The PRM structure is designed to clearly articulate the 

cause and effect relationship between inputs, outputs, and outcomes. This 

“line of sight” is critical for IT project managers, program managers, and key 

decision-makers to understand how and to what extent technology is enabling 

progress towards outputs and outcomes. 

Enterprise Architecture (EA) builds a holistic view of the organization's 

strategy, processes, information, and information technology assets. 

Enterprise Architect ensures that the business and IT are in alignment. EA 

links the business mission, strategy, and processes of an organization to its 

IT strategy, and documents this using multiple architectural models or views 



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that show how the current and future needs of an organization will be met in 

an efficient, sustainable, agile, and adaptable manner. 

Enterprise Architecture operates across organizational and computing "silos" 

to drive common approaches and expose information assets and processes 

across the enterprise. The goal is to deliver an architecture that supports the 

most efficient and secure IT environment meeting a company's business 

needs. 

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a set of management practices 

throughout the organization, geared to ensure the organization consistently 

meets or exceeds customer requirements. TQM places strong focus on 

process measurement and controls as means of continuous improvement. In 

a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in improving 

processes, products, services and the culture in which they work. 

The methods for implementing this approach come from the teachings of 

such quality leaders as Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V. 

Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran. A core concept in 

implementing TQM is Deming’s 14 points, a set of management practices to 

help companies increase their quality and productivity. 

Change Management is a systematic approach to dealing with change within 

every perspective of an organization, from systems to personnel to projects to 

functions. Change management is a comprehensive, often difficult 

management function to properly implement. 

There’s the saying “Organizations don't adapt to change; their people do.” 

With that outlook, it is easy to understand how performance management 

plays a critical part in managing change. Implementing change within an 

organization often requires a change in how employees execute things. You 

can implement the most advanced change management tools money can 

buy, but if your people don’t buy into or fully support the initiatives, their 

performance will suffer and ultimately the organization will be ineffective, or 

worse, less efficient than before. 

Every system, personnel, and procedural change within an organization 

should be implemented with the goal of achieving organizational mission and 

goals. The actual improvement should be compared to the predicted 

improvement to assess the effectiveness of the change. This guide 

discusses managing your organization during its many changes throughout 

the performance lifecycle. 






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Performance Measures 

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic planning and management 

system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and 

nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and 

strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, 

and monitor organization performance against strategic goals. It was 

originated by Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David 

Norton as a performance measurement framework that added strategic nonfinancial 

performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give 

managers and executives a more 'balanced' view of organizational 

performance. 

A Logic Model is a tool used to visually describe the linkages between 

program goals, activities, and expected outcomes. They describe how a 

program should work, present the planned activities for the program, describe 

how activities will be documented, and focus on anticipated outcomes. It is 

important to remember that logic models present a theory about the expected 

program outcome. They do not demonstrate whether the program caused the 

observed outcome. Logic Models display the sequence of actions that 

describe what the program is and will do, and how investments link to results. 

Logic Maps often include five core components: 

1. INPUTS: resources, contributions, investments that go into the 

program 

2. OUTPUTS: activities, services, events and products that reach people 

who participate or who are targeted 

3. OUTCOMES: results or changes for individuals, groups, communities, 

organizations, communities, or systems 

4. Assumptions: the beliefs we have about the program, the people 

involved, and the context and the way we think the program will work 

5. External Factors: the environment in which the program exists 

includes a variety of external factors that interact with and influence the 

program action. 



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Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable measurements that 

reflect the critical success factors of an organization. Based on beforehand 

agreed measures, they reveal a high-level snapshot of the organization. To 

achieve a particular target level of Key Performance Indicators for a company, 

every department has to work in synergy towards it. For this purpose, all the 

units of an organization need to define their respective KPIs, which should in 

turn work towards accomplishing the overall KPIs of the organization. 

Critical Few is the concept that focusing on the critical few objectives (CFOs) 

that add the most organizational value and channels energy to consistently 

deliver results that meet organizational objectives will, in turn, yield positive 

results. Establishing critical few objectives helps organizations manage time 

effectively as well as sets priorities based upon those “Critical few” 

responsibilities and activities needed to achieve its goals 

Inputs, Processes, Outputs, Outcomes 

A project involves the transformation of inputs into an output or product. 

Project inputs are the various needs and resources that projects can draw 

upon as it sets out to accomplish its work. Processes plan and control the 

performance or execution of a project. Processes deliver OUTPUTS. In 

other words, what pops out of the end of a process is an output. Outputs are 

only produced (or should only be produced) because there is a customer of 

the process who wants them. Outputs can usually be seen, felt, or moved 

about. An OUTCOME is a level of performance, or achievement. It may be 

associated with the process, or the output. Outcomes imply quantification of 

performance. 

Scorecards and Dashboards have become the popular method for 

communicating and displaying complex data in visual, more simplistic views. 

Often the two terms get used interchangeably. While both scorecards and 

dashboards display organizational performance in a visual output, there are 

important distinctions between the two. 

Scorecards often illustrate performance data over a period of time. They 

represent a broader organizational strategy and are designed to show 

progress toward objectives and goals; kind of like a report card. 

Dashboards are simply a series of graphs, charts, gauges and other visual 

indicators that illustrate performance in real time. While dashboards don’t 

always have to be in real time, they often represent up-to-the-minute 

information depending on the situation. For example, a sales team manager 

may not need to see real time information and daily information may be just 

fine. On the other hand, a call center manager may need up to the second 

knowledge of a critical system going down. 



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Diagnostic Indicators are performance events determined to be the signs of 

an overlying problem. In the performance field, diagnostic indicators give 

analysts clues for what problems may be arising within an organization. 

Diagnostic indicators are the clues that identify performance management 

problems. 

Exception Reporting is the selection and highlighting of objects that are in 

some way different or critical. Results that fall outside a set of predetermined 

threshold values (exceptions) are highlighted in color. This enables you to 

identify immediately any results that deviate from the expected results. 

Exception reporting allows you to determine the objects that are critical for 

further analysis. Exception reporting can be extremely complex, but in it’s 

simplest project management form, an exception report mainly highlights the 

differences between the planned results and the actual results and is 

prepared when such differences are substantial. 

Decision Support Tools are software, frameworks and other tools that can 

be used as part of a structured decision-making process. A few decision 

support tools include statistical analysis, sampling plan development, data 

acquisition, ranking systems, data management, compliance/emergency 

response, modeling, visualization, risk assessment, remedial process 

selection, cost estimation and long term monitoring and system optimization. 

Benchmarking is the process of comparing the cost, cycle time, productivity, 

or quality of a specific process or method to another that is widely considered 

to be an industry standard or best practice. The result is often a business 

case for making changes in order to make improvements. Benchmarking is 

most used to measure performance using a specific indicator (cost per unit of 

measure, productivity per unit of measure, cycle time of x per unit of measure 

or defects per unit of measure) resulting in a metric of performance that is 

then compared to others. 

A service-level agreement (SLA) is a negotiated agreement between two 

parties where one is the customer and the other is the service provider. This 

can be a legally binding formal or informal 'contract'. The SLA records a 

common understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantees 

and warranties. Each area of service scope should have the 'level of service' 

defined. The SLA may specify the levels of availability, serviceability, 

performance, operation, or other attributes of the service such as billing. The 

'level of service' can also be specified as 'target' and 'minimum', which allows 

customers to informed what to expect (the minimum), whilst providing a 

measurable (average) target value that shows the level of organization 



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performance. In some contracts penalties may be agreed in the case of non 

compliance of the SLA (but see 'internal' customers below).It is important to 

note that the 'agreement' relates to the services the customer receives, and 

not how the service provider delivers that service. 







Process Level Improvements 

Business process reengineering (BPR) is the analysis and redesign of 

workflow within and between enterprises. BPR reached its heyday in the early 

1990's when Michael Hammer and James Champy published their bestselling 

book, "Reengineering the Corporation". The authors promoted the idea 

that sometimes radical redesign and reorganization of an enterprise (wiping 

the slate clean) was necessary to lower costs and increase quality of service 

and that information technology was the key enabler for that radical change. 

Hammer and Champy felt that the design of workflow in most large 

corporations was based on assumptions about technology, people, and 

organizational goals that were no longer valid. They suggested seven 

principles of reengineering to streamline the work process and thereby 

achieve significant levels of improvement in quality, time management, and 

cost: 

1. Organize around outcomes, not tasks. 

2. Identify all the processes in an organization and prioritize them in order 

of redesign urgency. 

3. Integrate information processing work into the real work that produces 

the information. 

4. Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were 

centralized. 

5. Link parallel activities in the workflow instead of just integrating their 

results. 

6. Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build control 

into the process. 

7. Capture information once and at the source. 



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Lean Six Sigma a business improvement methodology that maximizes 

shareholder value by achieving the fastest rate of improvement in customer 

satisfaction, cost, quality, process speed, and invested capital. The fusion of 

Lean and Six Sigma improvement methods is required because: 

• Lean cannot bring a process under statistical control 

• Six Sigma alone cannot dramatically improve process speed or reduce 

invested capital 

• Both enable the reduction of the cost of complexity 

Ironically, Six Sigma and Lean have often been regarded as rival initiatives. 

Lean enthusiasts note that Six Sigma pays little attention to anything related 

to speed and flow, while Six Sigma supporters point out that Lean fails to 

address key concepts like customer needs and variation. Both sides are right. 

Yet these arguments are more often used to advocate choosing one over the 

other, rather than to support the more logical conclusion that we blend Lean 

and Six Sigma. 

The project level indicators are to be used in conjunction with the project 

standards and management experience as an aid in assessing a project's risk 

and complexity level. Once the project risk level is determined the Process, 

Methodology, and Documentation guidelines will suggest the rigor and detail 

appropriate for that project risk level. 

Quality Assurance / Quality Control - Quality assurance (QA) is a set of 

activities whose purpose is to demonstrate that an entity meets all quality 

requirements. QA activities are carried out in order to inspire the confidence 

of both customers and managers, that all quality requirements are being met. 

Quality control is a set of activities or techniques whose purpose is to ensure 

that all quality requirements are being met. In order to achieve this purpose, 

processes are monitored and performance problems are solved. 









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Activity Level Improvements 

Strategy Mapping is the process of diagramming how an organization 

creates value by connecting strategic objectives in explicit cause-and-effect 

relationship with each other in the four BSC objectives (financial, customer, 

processes, learning and growth). Strategy Maps are a strategic part of the 

Balanced Scorecard framework to describe strategies for value creation. 

Budget Crosswalks, commonly used in finance and budgeting, convert one 

set of values to another by applying a specific set of business rules and can 

describe the relationship between the budget’s allocated funds and the 

programs those funds are expected to impact. Used in the Federal Budget 

Process, Budget Crosswalks are defined as a, “term for the allocation of 

budget authority and outlay amounts in a budget resolution to congressional 

committees according to their jurisdictions and the committees' subdivision of 

those amounts among their programs or subcommittees.” 

Activity Based Costing (ABC) is an alternative to the traditional way of 

accounting. Traditionally it is believed that high volume customers are 

profitable customers, a loyal customer is also a profitable one, and profits will 

follow a happy customer. Studies on customer profitability have unveiled that 

the above is not necessarily true. ABC is a costing model that identifies the 

cost pools, or activity centers, in an organization and assigns costs to 

products and services (cost drivers) based on the number of events or 

transactions involved in the process of providing a product or service. As a 

result, Activity Based Costing can support managers to see how to maximize 

shareholder value and improve corporate performance. 

Activity Based Management (ABM) is a discipline that focuses on the 

management of activities as a way to improve customer value and profit. ABM 

includes cost driver analysis, activity analysis, and performance 

measurement. This technique uses activity based costing information to 

identify strategies for removing resource waste from operating activities. Main 

tools employed include: strategic analysis, value analysis, cost analysis, lifecycle 

costing, and activity based budgeting. 

The Most Efficient Organization (MEO) is management’s “bid” to perform a 

certain function. If the MEO wins an A-76 competition, it succeeds or takes 

over the work of the existing government function. 

The President’s Management Agenda urges federal leadership to “compete” 

functions that are commercial in nature. To be competitive with private 

industry, the team responsible for developing the MEO must design a 

streamlined, more efficient work organization than is in place today. The MEO 

generally performs the same work as the government function it is meant to 



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succeed but aims to use fewer resources while maintaining or exceeding the 

quality level defined in the PWS. 

Financial Management is the [planning, directing, monitoring, organizing, 

and controlling of the monetary resources of an organization. The Office of 

Federal Financial Management (OFFM) was created within the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) by the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 

1990. OFFM, led by the OMB Controller under the direction of the Deputy 

Director for Management, is responsible for the financial management policy 

of the Federal Government. OFFM responsibilities include implementing the 

financial management improvement priorities of the President, establishing 

government-wide financial management policies of executive agencies, and 

carrying out the financial management functions of the CFO Act. 

The Strategic Prioritization and Planning (SP2) process is an evolution of 

Quality Engineering Methods, including Quality Function Deployment and 

Design for Six Sigma, and incorporates various dynamic aspects to form a 

portable and powerful decision making environment. The process can be 

tailored to any desired level of detail to enhance the decision making process 

for investment strategies as more information becomes available. The end 

product allows for “what if” games to be played through a dynamic and 

interactive environment and the results of the process can be the foundation 

for detailed strategic road mapping and quantitative technology assessments 

and tracking. SP2 is a living process that should guide strategic planning and 

be continuously updated as a program evolves. 

Portfolio Analysis is a method to improve Government business practices 

by analyzing a portfolio of systems as a whole, rather than analyzing 

individual acquisition programs. Portfolio analysis is the art and science of 

allocating scarce resources to satisfy strategic objectives. In literature, this 

form of analysis is described as a dynamic decision process, a resource 

allocation process, or a manifestation of a business strategy. In government, 

as well as in the private sector, portfolio analysis helps senior management 

determine where and how to invest for the future. In short, it is a technique to 

determine how to best spend limited dollars. Portfolio analysis steps include 

gathering life cycle cost data for the various systems that will be analyzed, 

establishing a scoring system using subject matter experts to determine how 

effectively current and future systems match capabilities to requirements, 

and developing a means to display results by which decision makers can 

examine risk-reward analysis and conduct trade-offs. 

Business Case Analysis is a method companies use for project selection. It 

analyzes how fulfilling the business case for the project will implement the 

corporate strategy and sustain the competitive advantage of the company. 



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The business case can further be developed into the business plan with the 

addition of more details. Your can convert the business case to action steps 

and major milestones in order to develop a plan that will guide your venture 

through the entire project lifecycle, including that of the project outcome. 

Performance-Based Budgeting is a results focused planning and budgeting 

framework which focuses on three elements: the strategy (how to achieve 

outcome), outputs (activities to achieve final outcome), and the result (final 

outcome). Performance budgets use missions, goals and objectives to justify 

funding. Through the allocation of resources, performance-based budging 

achieves specific objectives based on program goals and measured results. 

As a result, it is possible to understand which activities are cost-effective in 

terms of achieving the desired result. 









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Decision Support Systems 

Decision Support Systems include software, frameworks and other tools that 

can be used as part of a structured decision-making process. Types of 

decision support systems include information control models, paradigm 

models, decision models, simulation models, visualization models and 

process models. 

My Organizational Performance Analysis measures your organization’s 

utilization of various decision making processes and decision support 

systems and tools. 

The Performance Management Kit provides all of the tools, templates and 

methodologies to implement performance management processes in-house, 

leveraging your current resources, and saving you thousands in consulting 

fees and expensive tools. 

See Decision Support Systems and Tools Framework on the next page. 



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Learn details about each of these decision support systems here 

http://lifecycle-performancepros.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=10& 

Itemid=52 



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Lifecycle Performance Methodologies 

The Lifecycle Performance Methodologies (some shown in the image below) 

are discussed in detail throughout The 120 Day Plan: Step by Step Guide 

and in the Methodologies Guide. Each of the 43 methodologies is a step by 

step process to managing performance throughout the five phases of 

Lifecycle Performance Management. 

Figure 6 - Lifecycle Performance Methodologies 

The Lifecycle Performance Management Kit is sectioned into the five 

Lifecycle Performance Management phases. As you will quickly find out, your 

organization probably has some or many of these processes already in place. 

The goals should be to identify which process your organization is in need of 

the most and follow the Lifecycle Performance Management Model to help 

you implement them. The Performance Management Kit includes several 

templates and methodologies within each of the phases to help your 

organization document it’s planning and processes and successfully execute 

these performance management best practices. 


Defining Phase 


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The topics discussed in the defining phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 

Step Guide include: 

• Identifying/re-examining organizational mission and business 

objectives 

• Defining Business Objectives 

• Developing a strategic plan that will lay the foundation of your 

performance plan 

• An exercise for linking corporate strategy to executive, managerial, and 

individual goals 

• Determining the scope of your performance initiative 

• Developing a winning performance management team 

The templates included in the defining phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 


• Business Objectives Alignment 

• Organizational Impact Assessment 

• Risk Assessment 

• Roles and Responsibilities Checklist 

• Strategic Alignment Template 

• SWOT Analysis Template 

• Vision and Performance Scope Definition Template 

The processes included in the defining phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 


• Lifecycle Performance Management Model 

• Lifecycle Performance Framework 

• Lifecycle Performance Roadmap 

• Lifecycle Performance Methodologies 

• Strategic Planning Lifecycle 

• Strategic Performance Management Planning Process 


Planning Phase 


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The topics discussed in the planning phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 


• Breaking down “functional” thinking within your organization 

• Identifying key processes that drive the success of your business 

• Base lining your current level of performance and setting future 

performance goals 

• Developing a performance metrics repository and storing 

organizational performance data 

• Ensuring a successful performance management implementation 

through training 

The templates included in the planning phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 


• Communication Plan 

• Gaining Employee Acceptance Checklist 

• Metrics Repository Template 

• Performance Management Plan 

• Planning Session Template 

• Process Evaluation Scorecard 

• Process Profile Template 

• Report Repository Template 

The processes included in the planning phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 


• 

• Siloed vs Cross Functional Management 

• Process Performance Lifecycle 

• OLAP Database - Star Schemas 

• Sample Metrics Repositories 


Executing Phase 


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The topics discussed in the executing phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 


• Developing simple, unique measurements that go beyond industry 

standards 

• The anatomy of a performance measurement 

• Aligning performance to corporate strategy 

• Aligning business units to organizational objectives 

• Aligning workforce performance to organizational objectives 

• Aligning financial performance to organizational goals 

• Aligning IT/IS performance to organizational objectives 

• Avoiding common pitfalls in aligning performance to organizational 

strategy 

• Identifying the cross-functional processes that affect product / service 

delivery 

• Integrating data collection into existing workflows 

The templates included in the executing phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 


• Data Management Tool Evaluation Template 

• Data Warehouse Tool Evaluation Template 

• LPP Methodologies Implementation Template 

• Performance Methodology Implementation Template 

• Vendor Assessment Weighted Criteria Assessment 

The processes included in the executing phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step 

by Step Guide include: 

• Performance Lifecycle 

• Workforce Performance Lifecycle 

• IT/IS Performance Management Lifecycle 


Monitoring Phase 


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The topics discussed in the monitoring phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 


• Developing a Quality Management Plan for accurately measuring 

performance 

• Identifying Data Quality Metrics 

• Measuring the overall contribution of your Information Supply Chains to 

business objectives 

• Continuously improving processes and performance based on data 

collection and reporting 

• Ensuring a successful Project Management Program through 

Performance Measurement 

The templates included in the monitoring phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step 


• Change Management Template 

• Organizational Change Management Template 

• Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan Checklist 

• Quality Control Checklist 

• Quality Management Plan 

The processes included in the monitoring phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step 


• Lifecycle Data Quality Management Process 

• Information Supply Chains 

• Lifecycle Performance Improvement Process 


Reporting Phase 


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The topics discussed in the reporting phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 


• The Performance Reporting Process 

• Choosing the right Business Intelligence Tools for your data 

needs/architecture 

• Developing a strategy for identifying performance improvement 

opportunities 

• Establishing and implementing service level agreements 

• 7 key steps in establishing a Service Level Agreement 

• Service Level Agreement checklist 

• Choosing key performance indicators for report automation and 

dashboard reporting 

• Ten characteristics of a good KPI 

• Scorecards versus Dashboards 

• Planning your dashboard/scorecard implementation 

• 3 steps to creating a performance dashboard/scorecard in Microsoft 

Excel 

• Measuring and reporting customer satisfaction 

• Bringing it all together for a successful performance initiative 

The templates included in the reporting phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 


• Dashboard Template 

• Data Warehouse Data Model 

• Employee Appraisal Form Template 

• Employee Performance Indicators Template 

• Lessons Learned Template 

• Performance Management Report Log 

• Training Needs Analysis Template 

The processes included in the reporting phase of The 120 Day Plan: Step by 


• Performance Reporting Process 

• ETL, OLAP and Data Warehouse Models 

• SLA Process 

• KPI Metric Flow 

• Dashboard Implementation Process 

• Excel Dashboards 

• Lifecycle Customer Satisfaction 



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Performance Management Templates 

This guide has illustrated the topics that are discussed throughout The 120 

Day Plan: Step by Step Guide. This section outlines the templates that are 

included in The Lifecycle Performance Management Kit and brief 

descriptions of each. 

The performance management templates bring structure and organization to 

any performance management initiative. These templates are designed to 

save you time on developing and formatting performance deliverables and 

money researching what information is most valuable to capture. Created to 

support the Lifecycle Performance Framework, these templates will help 

make your performance initiative go smoothly. This section provides a 

description of each template included in The Lifecycle Performance 

Management Kit. 

Defining Phase Templates 

Business Objectives and Alignment - The Business Objectives and 

Alignment Matrix is a description of the business justification for implementing 

a performance initiative. This includes the high-level objectives that the 

initiative is intended to satisfy and the anticipated business benefit of those 

objectives. Objectives include both enhanced execution of business 

processes and performance throughout your organization. The objectives are 

described in terms of the capability expected from the initiative, the business 

benefit, and the estimated value of that benefit in terms of increased revenue, 

reduced cost, or some key intangible, such as improved customer relations. 

These objectives guide the business and system scope of the performance 

initiative. 

Organizational Impact Assessment – The organizational Impact 

Assessment Template provides a description of the magnitude of changes to 

roles, responsibilities, skills, and reporting structures should they take place. 

It is organized by performance activity or interrelated groups of performance 

activities. The assessment estimates the number of affected staff positions, 

and identifies the training, staffing, and cultural implications of the changes as 

well. If alternatives are identified, the relative impacts of each alternative are 

specified. 

Risk Assessment Template – The Risk Assessment Template will help your 

organization determine the quantitative and/or qualitative value of risks 

related to recognized threats. The risk assessment template contains a 

probability/impact matrix and a risk log that captures risk impact, trigger 

events, probability of occurrence, and mitigation and response strategies. 



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This tool calculates the two components of risk, the magnitude of the potential 

loss, and the probability that the loss will occur. This is a valuable template 

for organizations/teams taking a proactive approach to managing risks 

throughout the performance initiative. 

Roles and Responsibilities Template – The Roles and Responsibilities 

Template identifies the roles and responsibilities of the individuals within the 

performance management initiative. It includes the common performance 

management team member titles and their typical roles, so that you only need 

to insert the actual team members and additional responsibilities customized 

to your service delivery. A useful template for organizations engaging in a 

performance initiative for identifying who is the most qualified to tackle 

necessary responsibilities for a successful implementation. 

Strategic Alignment Template – The Strategic Alignment Template is a 

scorecard that takes a look at your strategic objectives and strategic 

measures and how they relate to the four perspectives of the Balanced 

Scorecard: Customer Service, Financial, Internal Processes, and Learning 

and Growth. This template will help your organization organize your strategic 

objectives and document goals and performance. The Strategic Alignment 

Template provides example objectives and measures for each of the 

performance perspectives. 

SWOT Analysis Template – The SWOT Analysis Template is a strategic 

planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, 

and Threats involved in your projects or performance initiative. This template 

will help you identify the internal and external factors that are favorable and 

unfavorable to achieving your objectives. This template will help you identify 

negative factors in order to turn them into positive factors. To simplify the 

process, included are criteria examples to help you identify those factors. 

Vision and Performance Scope Definition Template –The Vision and 

Scope Definition Template is a deliverable style template that simplifies the 

process of defining the scope of the performance initiative. Understanding 

the scope of your performance initiative is vital to managing performance and 

the success of your performance initiative. This template helps organizations 

document exactly what they will be delivering and what the boundaries of the 

performance initiative are. 

Planning Session Template – The Planning Session Template allows you to 

manage the planning sessions outlined in the defining and planning stages of 

the Lifecycle Performance Framework. This template includes meeting 

agendas, agenda item descriptions, discussion leaders and meeting 

objectives. 



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Performance Methodology Implementation Template – The Performance 

Methodology Implementation Template is designed to help you plan and 

implement the processes identified in the Step by Step Guide to Implementing 

a World Class Performance Solution. The template simplifies the processes 

by letting you list the steps outlined in the guide, and document the actions, 

responsibilities, anticipated results, business objectives supported, and 

dependencies. 

Change Management Checklist – The Change Management Checklist is 

designed for Performance Managers and Performance Team Members to 

help determine the impact of potential change requests within the 

performance initiative. The checklist examines the changes that alter the 

scope of the initiative and require analysis in order to understand the impact 

on the Performance Management Plan and the stakeholders. 

Organizational Change Management Template – Some performance 

management changes are huge and impact your people, processes and 

organizational culture. These changes can include anything from how the 

initiative will affect systems, employees and processes, individual and team 

roles and responsibilities to communication procedures, key performance 

indicators and the shift of employee expectations and workforce performance. 

The Organizational Change Management Template allows you to see how 

your change proposal will affect the performance initiative, staff and the 

organization as a whole. 

Planning Phase Templates 

Communication Plan – The Communication Plan Template is a deliverable 

style document that provides a framework to ensure successful execution of 

the performance initiative. This Communication Plan Template will help your 

organization document the methods used to gather and store information. 

The plan includes a Communication Matrix which contains a distribution 

structure detailing whom the information will flow to and what methods will be 

used to distribute it. The Communication Plan Template will help you 

describe the information to be distributed including specific document names 

and standard formats to be used. The template will help you manage 

production schedules and specify the communication processes and 

structures among team members. 

Gaining Employee Acceptance Checklist – The Gaining Employee 

Acceptance Checklist can be used to assist you in ensuring the proper 

elements are in place to maximize employee acceptance of your performance 

initiative. This template is linked to the first step of the Lifecycle Performance 

Framework planning phase. The checklist involves a set of questions 

regarding the employee’s views of the initiative, which the performance 



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management team must know in order to ensure a smooth transition with 

minimal pushback. 

Metrics Repository Templates – Developing a metrics repository is one of 

the first steps in managing performance. The Metrics Repository Template 

includes three metric repository templates that illustrate the performance 

measures and methods to track them. These templates will help your 

organization define and classify metrics, validate the parameters and 

calculations, specify when and how the metrics will be measured, and 

document baseline performance and performance variances. 

Report Repository Template – Reporting is the most visible output in the 

performance management process. As your performance initiative gains 

momentum and stakeholder’s begin to understand the value and necessity of 

analyzing performance, the demand for reports from all areas of your 

organization will increase. The Report Repository Template provides a 

comprehensive list of all routine reports generated by your organizational 

departments. This list will be used as a basis for determining reporting 

requirements in your performance initiative. This report comes with 

instructions on how to populate the template. 

Performance Methodology Implementation Template– The Performance 






dependencies. 

Performance Management Pre-Implementation Template – The preimplementation 

questionnaire template increases the success of your 

performance implementation and the overall understanding of the impact the 

initiative will have on your organization through a series of questions 

designed to ensure that all stakeholders have buy-in and confidence in the 

success of the initiative. This questionnaire requested feedback from these 

stakeholders and captures potential roadblocks. 

Performance Management Plan - The Performance Management Plan 

Template is a deliverable style document that provides a framework for your 

performance management approach and performance tracking. The plan 

includes a performance management activities matrix which reflects by 

functional role the assigned responsibilities for key performance management 

activities. Also included are a performance objectives section and a section for 

documenting performance standards and management processes. 



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Logic Model Template – The Logic Model Template is a decision support 

tool used to visually describe the linkages between program goals, activities, 

and expected outcomes. It describes how a program should work, presents 

the planned activities for the program, describes how activities will be 

documented, and focuses on anticipated outcomes. The Logic Model 

Template includes five main components: inputs, outputs, outcomes, 

assumptions and external factors. 

Performance Matrix Template – The Performance Matrix Template is 

designed to increase an organization’s effectiveness and productivity by 

helping leaders plan and manage performance. The performance matrix 

utilizes a Nine-Point Performance / Importance Scale to help you make 

clearer, more informed decisions and provides the criteria and processes for 

developing and populating your performance matrix. 

Planning Session Template – The Planning Session Template allows you to 

manage the planning sessions outlined in the defining and planning stages of 

the Lifecycle Performance Framework. This template includes meeting 

agendas, agenda item descriptions, discussion leaders and meeting 

objectives. 

Process Evaluation Scorecard – The process evaluation scorecard is a 

checklist that helps you determine the value of a process implemented for 

performance improvement in terms of positive impact, cost savings, 

knowledge management and training. The process evaluation scorecard can 

serve as a survey for employees to gain feedback on the perception and buyin 

of the process initiative. 

Process Profile Template – The Process Profile Template is a useful tool 

designed to help organizations get a complete understanding of their 

processes. The template enables detailed documentation of processes 

including expected outcomes, impacts, requirements, ownership, security 

considerations and more. 

SMART Metrics Template – The SMART method is a valuable technique to 

use when identifying performance metrics. SMART metrics are those that are 

Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Timely). The SMART 

Metrics Template will help your organization ensure that the metrics they 

consider encompass these characteristics. 









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Executing Phase Templates 







dependencies. 

Vendor Assessment Weighted Criteria Template – The Vendor 

Assessment Weighted Criteria Template will help you formulate criteria/ 

standards for vendor evaluation and evaluate vendors' qualifications and 

capabilities effectively. To simplify the process of identifying criteria for 

valuable analysis, this template includes sample rating criteria. 

All you have to do is identify the vendors and rank the criteria by order of 

importance and you’re ready to go. 

Data Management Tool Evaluation – The Data Management Tool 

Evaluation is a detailed analysis of several data management tools and 

provides ratings in areas such as technical support, data extraction, data 

cleansing, data exporting, company stability, metadata functionality, training, 

performance, and much more. An excellent analysis for when your 

organization is ready to purchase and implement a data management 

solution. 







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Monitoring Phase Templates 
















Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) Checklist – The Quality 

Assurance Surveillance Plan Checklist provides guidelines for planning your 

quality assurance surveillance plan. It identifies steps and questions that will 

help you manage the process and verify the quality of the performance 

initiative. The QASP Checklist is formatted and all you must do is fill in the 

questions in italics. 

Quality Control Checklist – The Quality Control Checklist provides 

guidelines for planning your vendor relationship. It identifies who is 

responsible for specific deliverables that you will manage in the performance 



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management plan and what is expected of the vendors responsible for 

delivering the service. 

Quality Management Plan – The Quality Management Plan Template is a 

deliverable that documents how an organization will plan, implement, and 

assess the effectiveness of its quality assurance and quality control 

operations. Specifically, it describes how an organization structures its quality 

system, the quality policies and procedures, areas of application, and roles, 

responsibilities, and authorities. To simplify the process for you, the template 

includes a list of common performance management roles and responsibilities 

and directions on how to populate each of the sections. 







dependencies. 

Reporting Phase Templates 

Dashboard Template – The dashboard template is an excellent tool for when 

your organization is ready to display your performance results in graphical 

form. This template includes data values and charts for customer 

satisfaction, expense to revenue ratio, net profit after tax, sales/production, 

operational efficiency, return on capital employed and many more. The 

template is ready for you to input the appropriate data into the data tables and 

copy the charts to your reports and deliverables. 

Data Warehouse Data Model – The Data Warehouse Data Model provides a 

clear, understandable, and consensus-driven logical data model for your data 

warehouse implementation. This data model is useful to both the business 

units as a tool to understand the design of the operational data store and to 

the technical implementation team as a tool to generate the physical 

database structures. This deliverable includes project objectives, scope, 

deliverables, approach, constraints and assumptions associated with data 

warehouse modeling. 

Employee Appraisal Form Template – This template allows a mixture of 

key skills comprising up to six elements. The Employee Appraisal Form 

Template is a questionnaire built from the role's key skill areas, and enables 

you to break down these roles into elements, and measure each via carefully 



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worded questions, which the respondents answer and thereby grade the 

performance, i.e., give feedback, in respect of the person in question. 

Employee Performance Indicators Template – The Employee Performance 

Indicators Template is designed to help plan performance discussions with 

employees. It can be used to ensure that the your employees understand 

where their strengths and weaknesses are in terms of the organizational and 

performance objectives and what they must do in order to exceed 

performance expectations. 

Lessons Learned Template – The Lessons Learned Template enables your 

organization to document what went well in the performance initiative and 

what could have been better. The template lists common subject areas 

throughout the project and is also customizable so that you may change any 

of the scheduled review items to best match the variables that are important 

to your project management efforts. 

Performance Management Report Log – As your performance initiative 

gains momentum and stakeholder’s begin to understand the value and 

necessity of analyzing performance, the demand for reports from all areas of 

your organization will increase. The Performance Management Report Log 

will help you document these reports. While the Report Repository contains 

the actual reports, the Report Log documents the details of the reports, such 

as the owner(s) of the report, type, frequency, etc. 

Training Needs Analysis Template – The Training Needs Analysis 

Template is designed to show collective and individual training needs and 

priorities. Complete with a set of predefined common element descriptions, 

the template only requires you to input scores. Or, you can customize the 

elements to meet your specific business objectives. 

Report Repository Template – Reporting is the most visible output in the 

performance management process. As your performance initiative gains 

momentum and stakeholder’s begin to understand the value and necessity of 

analyzing performance, the demand for reports from all areas of your 

organization will increase. The Report Repository Template provides a 

comprehensive list of all routine reports generated by your organizational 

departments. This list will be used as a basis for determining reporting 

requirements in your performance initiative. This report comes with 

instructions on how to populate the template. 








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dependencies. 


















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Performance Management Glossary 

One of the first steps to facilitating performance management success is to 

ensure that your organization has a common language for talking about 

performance. Below is a guide to key performance management terminology 

and concepts to help get everyone on the same page. 

Alerts: Notifications to email or to a home page, updating users to changes to 

items that they have subscribed. Examples might include notifications about 

performance changes or commentary. 

Alignment: The act or state of being properly positioned, especially in 

relation to one another; see also operational alignment. 

Balanced Scorecard: One of the more prevalent methodologies in use 

today, the Balanced Scorecard framework has three main tenets: 1) 

emphasis on outcomes and objectives to be achieved, rather than measures; 

2) separation of objectives into disparate, supporting points of view such as 

Customer, Financial, Process, and Employee; and 3) consideration of nonfinancial 

assets such as processes and intellectual property so that leading 

and qualitative measures are also included. 

Benchmarking: The comparison of similar processes across organizations 

and industries to measure progress, identify best practices, and set 

improvement targets. Results may serve as potential targets for key 

performance indicators. 

BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals): Often used to describe an 

organization’s high-level, long-term aspirations, or vision. 

Business performance management: A brand of performance management 

that includes finance — covering compliance issues, competition, risk and 

profitability — and human resources performance management — 

encompassing employee performance appraisals and incentive 

compensation. Other types of performance management include operational 

performance management and IT performance management. 

Cascading: The process of developing aligned goals throughout an 

organization, connecting strategy to operations to tactics, allowing each 

employee to demonstrate a contribution to overall organizational objectives. 

Methods of cascading include identical (objectives and measures are 

identical), contributory (translated, but congruent, objectives and measures), 

unique (unique objectives and measures; do not link directly to parent) and 

shared (jointly-shared unique objective or measure). 



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Cause and effect: The way perspectives, objectives, and/or measures 

interact in a series of cause-and-effect relationships demonstrate the impact 

of achieving an outcome. For example, organizations may hypothesize that 

the right employee training (Employee, Learning and Growth Perspective) will 

lead to increased innovation (Internal Process Perspective), which will in turn 

lead to greater customer satisfaction (Customer Perspective) and drive 

increased revenue (Financial Perspective). 

Comments: Used to provide further information about a performance 

management object including questions, issues or background. 

Composite Measure: A measure based on a number of performance 

measures, weighted to reflect relative importance. Composite measures 

provide summary level information to higher management. 

Customer-facing operations: Encompasses those facets of the organization 

that interface directly with customers; typically an organization’s sales, service 

and marketing functions. Customer-facing operations are also referred to as 

the demand chain. 

Customer Perspective: One of the four standard perspectives used with the 

Balanced Scorecard. Measures are developed based on the answer to two 

fundamental questions - who are our target customers and what is our value 

proposition in serving them? The role of the Customer perspective is often 

elevated in public sector and not for profit applications of the Balanced 

Scorecard. 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - CRM entails all aspects of 

interaction a company has with its customer. It includes methodologies, 

software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an organization manage 

customer relationships in an organized way. The Customer Perspective of the 

Balanced Scorecard may contain references to a CRM program. 

Dashboard: A visualization of important information, often tailored to a 

specific role or point of view, consolidated and arranged on a single screen so 

the information can be monitored at a glance. For most deployments, this 

information contains actual results represented as metrics. 

Economic Value Added (EVA): A financial performance measure aiming to 

determine whether a company or activity has truly created shareholder value; 

in other words, EVA aims to distinguish real profit from paper profit. EVA is 

determined by calculating a business’s after-tax cash flow minus the cost of 

the capital it deployed to generate that cash flow. 

Effectiveness Enhancement System: An approach to performance 

management developed by Bacal & Associates. Its strength is that it 



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recognizes that BOTH manager and employee need to define how 

performance is to be planned and evaluated. The employee becomes the 

"customer" of the process. And this puts the employee and manager on the 

same side. 

Employee Learning and Growth Perspective: One of the four standard 

perspectives used with the Balanced Scorecard. Measures in this perspective 

are often considered "enablers" of measures appearing in the other three 

perspectives. Employee skills, availability of information, and organizational 

climate are often measured in this perspective. 

Financial Perspective: One of the four standard perspectives used with the 

Balanced Scorecard. Financial measures inform an organization whether 

strategy execution, which is detailed through measures in the other three 

perspectives, is leading to improved bottom line results. In public sector and 

not for profit applications of the Balanced Scorecard measures in the 

Financial perspective are often viewed as constraints within which the 

organization must operate. 

Forecast: Forecast usually refers to a projected value for a metric. 

Organizations will often create a forecast that is different than their target for a 

given metric. There are multiple types of forecasting methods for creating 

forecasts based on past data and usage of them varies widely across 

organizations. 

Goal: See objective below. 

Goal plan: Used primarily in the public and not-for-profit sector, a goal plan is 

a performance plan outlining an organization’s goals and/or objectives. Also 

see Strategy plan below. 

Goal diagram: Generically used to describe the one-page visualization that 

shows the different goals of the organization and how they are related. 

Examples of goal diagrams include strategy plans, strategy maps and 

process diagrams. 

Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA): Enacted in 1993, the 

Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) requires federally-funded 

agencies to develop and implement an accountability system based on 

performance measurement, including setting goals and objectives and 

measuring progress toward achieving them. Emphasizes 

accomplishments/outcomes and performance-based budgeting versus 

expenditures and zero-based budgeting. 

Human capital: A metaphor for the transition in organizational value creation 

from physical assets to the capabilities of employees ― knowledge, skills, 



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and relationships, for example. Closely related to terms such as intellectual 

capital and intangible assets. Some experts suggest that as much as 75 

percent of an organization’s value is attributable to human capital. 

Index KPIs: Index KPIs are an index of multiple KPIs. Often times these KPIs 

might actually be measured in completely different units and an index KPI 

normalizes the underlying KPIs to provide a single score. Sometimes used in 

the public sector, an example might be a Health Index, which is composed of 

multiple health related KPIs. 

The information supply chain (ISC): The full set of elements, technologybased, 

process-specific and organizational in nature, which is necessary to 

collect information from discrete processes, transform this information from 

data into knowledge, and deliver the right data to the right stakeholders in the 

right way and at the right time. 

Initiatives: The lifeblood of an organization’s operations, initiatives organize 

people and resources and dictate which activities are required to accomplish 

a specific goal by a particular date; initiatives provide the how while goals 

provide the what. As differentiated from projects, initiatives directly support an 

organization’s strategic goals; projects may or may not have strategic impact. 

Examples: Supporting the objective “Ensure 100% in-stock merchandise” 

might be initiatives such as “Upgrade of inventory management software to 

include demand chain and “Migration to store-specific assortment plans from 

uniform assortments.” Initiative management solutions help ensure that 

activities are aligned with goals, increase coordination of resources, and allow 

prioritization based on importance, not just urgency. 

Inputs: Commonly used within the Logic Model to describe the resources an 

organization invests in a program, such as time, people (staff, volunteers), 

money, materials, equipment, partnerships, research base, and technology, 

among other things. 

Initiatives - The specific programs, activities, projects or actions an 

organization will undertake in an effort to meet performance targets. 

Internal Process Perspective - One of the four standard perspectives used 

with the Balanced Scorecard. Measures in this perspective are used to 

monitor the effectiveness of key processes the organization must excel at in 

order to continue adding value for customers, and ultimately, shareholders. 

IT performance management: A brand of performance management that 

assists organizations with the increasing demands of maximizing value 

creation from technology investments; reducing risk from IT; decreasing 

architectural complexity; and optimizing overall technology expenditures. 



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Other types of performance management include operational performance 

management and business performance management. 

Key outcome indicator (KOI): Often used in the public sector to describe 

key performance indicators, those metrics most critical to gauging progress 

toward objectives. KOIs are metrics that are: tied to an objective; have at 

least one defined time-sensitive target value; and have explicit thresholds 

which grade the gap between the actual value and the target. 

Key performance indicator (KPI): Distinguished from other metrics, key 

performance indicators (KPIs) are those metrics most critical to gauging 

progress toward objectives. KPIs are metrics that are: tied to an objective; 

have at least one defined time-sensitive target value; and have explicit 

thresholds which grade the gap between the actual value and the target. 

KPI/KOI Scorecard: A specific application of a scorecard, a KPI/KOI 

scorecard is used to measure progress toward a given set of KPIs or KOIs. 

Lagging indicator: Backward-looking performance indicators that represent 

the results of previous actions. Characterizing historical performance, lagging 

indicators frequently focus on results at the end of a time period; e.g., thirdquarter 

sales. A balanced scorecard should contain a mix of lagging and 

leading indicators. 

Leading indicator: Forward-looking in nature, leading indicators are the 

drivers of future performance. Improved performance in a leading indicator is 

assumed to drive better performance in a lagging indicator. For example, 

spending more time with valued customers (a leading indicator) is 

hypothesized to drive improvements in customer satisfaction (a lagging 

indicator). 

“Letter grade” rating system: A threshold rating system in which letter 

grades of A/B/C/D/F are used to describe and/or depict performance (usually 

based on the gap between the target and actual) in easily understandable 

terms. 

Lifecycle Performance Management: Lifecycle Performance Management 

is the systematic implementation of an enterprise-wide performance strategy 

involving all business units, systems and personnel. It is a sequence of 

management processes, when combined, achieves a complete approach to 

managing performance from start to finish. Lifecycle Performance 

Management focuses on all areas that determine the success of an 

enterprise, including: Employees, Departments / Divisions, Processes, 

Programs (e.g. implementing organizational policies), Products / Services, 

Projects, Business Units / Teams. 



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Logic Model: Having gained prominence in the ’90s largely in response to 

the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), the Logic Model is 

now a widely accepted management tool in the public and nonprofit sectors 

as well as the international arena. The model is a roadmap or picture of a 

program that shows the logical relationships among resources or inputs (what 

an organization invests); activities or outputs (what an organization gets 

done); and outcome-impacts (what results or benefits happen as a 

consequence). 

Malcolm Baldridge: Established by the U.S. Congress in 1987, the Malcolm 

Baldridge performance framework is a rating tool that assesses management 

systems and helps identify major areas for improvement in seven categories 

of performance criteria: Leadership; Strategic Planning; Customer and Market 

Focus; Measurement, Analysis, Knowledge Management; Human Resource 

Focus; Process Management; and Business Results. 

Measure (also called metric): Public sector term to describe a standard used 

to communicate progress on a particular aspect of a program. Measures 

typically are quantitative in nature, conveyed in numbers, dollars, 

percentages, etc. (e.g., $ of revenue, headcount number, % increase, survey 

rating average, etc.) though they may be describing either quantitative (e.g., 

sales made) or qualitative (e.g., employee motivation) information. 

Metric (also called measure): Term used in commercial organizations to 

describe a standard used to communicate progress on a particular aspect of 

the business. Measures typically are quantitative in nature, conveyed in 

numbers, dollars, percentages, etc. (e.g., $ of revenue, headcount number, % 

increase, survey rating average, etc.) though they may be describing either 

quantitative (e.g., sales made) or qualitative (e.g., employee motivation) 

information. 

Mission: Concise statement that describes, in motivating and memorable 

terms, the current top-level strategic goal of the organization. A mission 

provides both an internal rallying cry and external validity. Usually financial-, 

process-, or customer service-oriented, with a mid-term (three to five years) 

horizon, an effective mission is inspiring as well as easily understood and 

communicated. 

Objective or outcome scorecard: A specific application of a scorecard, 

objective scorecards monitor progress toward a given set of objectives or 

outcomes using a threshold-based rating scale. Typically, objective status is 

determined by normalizing one or many key performance indicators and 

comparing it to a given rating scale. 

Objective (also called goal): A concise statement describing specific, critical, 

actionable and measurable things an organization must do in order to 



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effectively execute its strategy and achieve its mission and vision. Objectives 

often begin with action verbs such as increase, reduce, improve, achieve, etc. 

Whereas the vision and mission statements provide an organizing and 

mobilizing “rallying cry,” objectives translate the vision and mission into 

measurable and actionable operational terms. Examples: “Be a one-stop 

shop for all my interactions with the company” (Customer); “Maximize 

customer lifetime value” (Financial); “Integrate disparate customer processes” 

(Process); and “Foster a culture that rewards customer intimacy” 

(Capabilities). 

Ongoing Performance Communication: Communication between manager 

and employee all throughout the year to ensure that problems are identified 

early, and so there are NO SUPRPRISES during the performance appraisal. 

Operational alignment: The means to and/or state of alignment of an 

organization’s day-to-day activities with its strategic goals or objectives, 

operational alignment helps ensure that an organization’s daily activities are 

advancing its longer-term goals and mission. 

Operational performance management: A brand of performance 

management that addresses the growing pressure to increase revenue while 

managing costs, while meeting ever-evolving and expanding customer 

demands. Other types of performance management include business 

performance management and IT performance management. 

Operational Reviews: Usually used to describe the regularly scheduled 

internal status meetings of an organization. Going by different names based 

on the organization, manufacturing companies typically call them Operational 

Excellence (OPX) meetings, other organizations sometimes just refer to them 

as Performance reviews. 

Outcome: Commonly used within the Logic Model, outcomes (also called 

outcome-impacts) describe the benefits that result as a consequence of an 

organization’s investments and activities. A central concept within logic 

models, outcomes occur along a path from shorter-term achievements to 

medium-term and longer-term achievements. 

They may be positive, negative, neutral, intended, or unintended. Examples 

of outcomes include changes in knowledge, skill development, behavior, 

capacities, decision-making, and policy development. 

Output: Commonly applied within the Logic Model, outputs describe what an 

organization gets done; e.g., “what we do” or “what we offer” and may include 

workshops, delivery of services, conferences, community surveys, facilitation, 

in-home counseling, etc. Outputs lead to outcomes. 



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PART: See Program Assessment Rating Tool below. 

Pathway: Descriptive statement and visualization that describes/depicts the 

progressive stages in realizing an organization’s long-term vision, and 

provides an understanding of the phases in which particular objectives play 

primary contributory roles. Examples: “Launch in NYC”; “Scale in Northeast”; 

“Expand across U.S.” 

Performance-based budgeting: A performance budget is an integrated 

annual performance plan and budget that shows the relationship between 

program funding levels and expected results. It indicates that a goal or a set 

of goals should be achieved at a given level of spending. 

Performance Appraisal: The regular (usual annual) process where an 

employees performance for the year is assessed by manager and/or 

employee. It is only one part of the performance management approach. 

Usually means the same as "performance review". 

Performance Gap: The “difference” between actual and target, the trend of 

the performance or target gap shows an organization’s momentum. 

Performance Management: The larger process of defining how people, 

processes and systems should be performing, ongoing communication during 

the year, linking of performance to organization needs, and the evaluating of 

appraising of performance. 

Performance Review: Usually refers to a meeting to review and evaluate 

performance, involving supervisor and employee. Often done once a year, but 

to be effective performance reviews, or at least informal meetings to discuss 

performance should be undertaken at least every few months. 

Perspective (also called point of view): Representing the various 

stakeholders, both internal and external, critical to achieving an organization’s 

mission. Together, the perspectives provide a holistic, or balanced, 

framework for telling the “story of the strategy” in cause-and-effect terms. 

While the traditional Balanced Scorecard includes the four perspectives of 

Financial, Customer, Internal Process, and Employee Learning and Growth, 

an organization may choose to modify and/or add to these to adequately 

translate and describe their unique strategy. 

PMA: See President’s Management Agenda below. 

Point of view: See perspective above. 



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President’s Management Agenda (PMA): The President’s Management 

Agenda, announced in the summer of 2001, is an aggressive strategy for 

improving the management of the federal government. It focuses on five 

areas of management weakness across the government where the greatest 

improvements and progress can be made. 

Process Diagram: Process diagrams typically are used to represent specific 

processes that are undertaken in an organization and the key steps involved 

in the process. An example might be a high-level diagram that highlights the 

customer experience. 

Program Assessment Rating Tool: Developed by the Office of 

Management and Budget within the Office of the President of the United 

States, the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) was developed to 

assess and improve program performance so that the federal government 

can achieve better results. A PART review helps identify a program’s 

strengths and weaknesses to inform funding and management decisions 

aimed at making the program more effective. The PART therefore looks at all 

factors that affect and reflect program performance including program 

purpose and design; performance measurement, evaluations, and strategic 

planning; program management; and program results. 

Qualitative: Subjective, as opposed to quantitative (measured). A common 

source of qualitative metrics are surveys of customers, stakeholders or 

employees. 

Quantitative: Measured, as opposed to qualitative (subjective). Quantitative 

measures often come from transactional systems. 

Readiness scorecard: A specific application of a scorecard, a readiness 

scorecard can be used to evaluate an organization’s state of 

readiness/acceptance of a given strategy. 

Reports: Typically show the details of performance for a metric or multiple 

metrics. Reports are often used to drill down to the root cause of performance 

issues. 

Scorecard: A scorecard is a visual display of the most important information 

needed to achieve one or more objectives, consolidated and arranged on a 

single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance. Unlike 

dashboards that display actual values of metrics, scorecards typically display 

the gap between actual and target values for a smaller number of key 

performance indicators. 

Six Sigma: A quality management and process improvement methodology 

particularly well suited to process intensive industries like manufacturing. Six 



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Sigma measures a given process by its average performance and the 

standard deviation (or variation) of this performance, aiming to reduce the 

occurrence of defects in a given process to a level of “Six Sigma” outside the 

norm; no more than 3.4 times per million. 

Standards of Performance: Mutually agreed upon criteria used to describe 

how WELL an employee must perform, written to reduce subjective judgment. 

Strategy: Strategy is the way an organization seeks to achieve its vision and 

mission. It is a forward-looking statement about an organization’s planned use 

of resources and deployment capabilities. Strategy becomes real when it is 

associated with: 1) a concrete set of goals and objectives; and 2) a method 

involving people, resources and processes. 

Strategic Management System - Describes the use of the Balanced 

Scorecard in aligning an organization's short-term actions with strategy. The 

Strategic Management System is often accomplished by cascading the 

Balanced Scorecard to all levels of the organization, aligning budgets and 

business plans to strategy, and using the Scorecard as a feedback and 

learning mechanism. 

Strategic Resource Allocation - The process of aligning budgets with 

strategy by using the Balanced Scorecard to make resource allocation 

decisions. Using this method, budgets are based on the initiatives necessary 

to achieve Balanced Scorecard targets. 

Strategy map: A specific version of a strategy plan that adheres to the 

Balanced Scorecard methodology. Strategy maps depict objectives in multiple 

perspectives with corresponding cause and effect linkages. 

Strategy plan: A visual representation of an organization’s strategy and the 

objectives that must be met to effectively reach its mission. A strategy plan 

can be used to communicate, motivate and align the organization to ensure 

successful execution. 

Supply Chain - The supply chain represents the flow of materials, 

information, and finances as they move in a process from supplier to 

manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Many organizations are 

looking to supply chain optimization as a means of gaining significant 

competitive advantages. The Internal Process Perspective of the Balanced 

Scorecard often contains performance measures pertaining to supply chain 

performance. 

Target: A target is the defining standard of success, to be achieved over a 

specified time period, for the key performance indicators associated with a 



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particular strategic objective. Providing context to make results meaningful, 

targets represent the organization’s “stretch goals.” 

Theme: Descriptive statement representing a major component of a strategy, 

as articulated at the highest level in the Vision. Most strategies can be 

represented in three to five themes. Themes are most often drawn from an 

organization’s internal processes or the customer value proposition, but may 

also be drawn from key financial goals. The key is that themes represent 

vertically linked groupings of objectives across several scorecard 

perspectives (at a minimum, Customer and Internal). Themes are often stated 

as catchy phrases or “buzz” words that are easy for the organization to 

remember and internalize. Example: “Top Innovator,” “Customer Intimate,” 

“Operationally Excellent” “Processes/Tools,” “Thinking,” “Content,” “Pipeline” 

(I/T Organization). 

Threshold: A means of describing and/or depicting the performance gap in 

easily understandable terms. Examples of threshold methods include “lettergrade” 

(A/B/C/D/F) and “traffic-light” (green/yellow/red). 

Values: Representing an organization’s deeply-held and enduring beliefs, an 

organization’s values openly declare how it expects everyone to behave and 

are often embedded in its vision. 

Value proposition or discipline: Describes how an organization intends to 

differentiate itself in the marketplace and what particular value it will deliver to 

customers. Many organizations choose one of three “value disciplines” ― 

operational excellence, product leadership, or customer intimacy ― 

articulated by Treacy and Wiersema in “The Discipline of Market Leaders.” 

Vision: A concise statement defining an organization’s long-term direction, 

the vision is a summary statement of what the organization ultimately intends 

to become five, 10 or even 15 years into the future. It is the organization’s 

long-term “dream,” what it constantly strives to achieve. A powerful vision 

provides everyone in the organization with a shared mental framework that 

helps give form to the often abstract future that lies ahead. Effective visions 

provide a word picture of what the organization intends ultimately to become - 

which may be five, ten, or fifteen years in the future. This statement should 

not be abstract - it should contain as concrete a picture of the desired state as 

possible, and also provide the basis for formulating strategies and objectives. 

“Wobble” test: A litmus test used to determine whether a given objective is 

truly necessary to achieving organizational mission; if an objective can be 

dropped from the strategy plan and the organization can still reach your 

mission, then the objective is not necessary and should be excluded.

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