The new edition of Harold Kerzner's bestselling book on measuring project management performance With today's complex projects, increased stakeholder involvement, and advances in computer technology, metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) have become increasingly integral to informed decision-making and effective project management. Project Management Metrics, KPIs, and Dashboards, Second Edition helps functional managers gain a thorough grasp of what metrics and KPIs are and how to use them, as well as an understanding of different dashboard types, design issues, and applications. Closely aligned with PMI®'s PMBOK® Guide , this new edition features: This book allows functional managers to bolster their awareness of what good metrics management really entails today—and be armed with the knowledge to measure performance more effectively. (PMI and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.)
Kerzner’s writing makes project management not as terrible as it might be. How’s that for for a ringing endorsement? In all honesty, his style is easy to read and sometimes funny, which is fortunate for those of us who are taking project management classes out of necessity rather than desire. I believe I have one more Kerzner tome left in my next class, so we’ll see how it goes.
Kerzner is well-recognized as a thought leader in the field of Project Management and he shows it in this work. He builds the case for getting to know all your stakeholders, finding out what is important to them for the success of the given project, quantifying that somehow, building KPIs and metrics to drive dashboards to convey the status clearly to them, and then executing on an appropriate cadence for communication on the dashboards. Being flexible to the different stakeholders with targeted and actionable content without getting into a reporting nigh mare to try to keep up with the amount of data needed is the critical balancing act to be reached that should be weighted towards stakeholders with the most power to impact the project to keep things moving when conflict arises. The triple constraints are table stakes today. Managing perceived value of the deliverable by managing the stakeholder’s expectations and execution is the key to success. Kerzner does a good job of discussing the different type of KPIs to help drive to a measurable KPI since if things are measured you can’t truly manage them.
Seeking info on measurement of project activities I found some practical advice. Second half and Chapter 8 is particularly interesting, but first 25% of the book is not.