Monday, May 10, 2010

KPIs important for Project Success and Strategic Goals?

Once again, the trigger to the title of this post is a discussion forum, where Project Managers identify that KPIs are different from Strategic Goals. I agree.
They are..but in the Big Picture of any organization, it is the Vision of the Company that translates as a Strategic Goal and there by further sub divides as Goals of various Customer Centers or Accounts, various divisions of the Organization.... further micro divided into Programs and sub divided into Projects. Each Project Team has a set of goals that are shared or divided amongst the Project teams. Which means that what you and me as individual contributors or team players have as our Key performance indicators, some how is a micro minuscule objective of the larger organizational strategic goals matching with our enlarged vision.

It is like all the building blocks in a game, that make the final outcome a picture perfect finish.... the same applies to the goals and achievements of individuals that translate towards larger organizational objectives. At micro level, the KPIs achieved translate as your appraisal results be it in the terms of bonus, salary hikes, promotions, level changes etc. At macro level, the enlarged KPIs termed as Strategic goals of an Organization result in Profits, New Businesses, Strategic decisions and further expansion or downsizing of business,.. encouraging areas that are profitable and further motivating areas that need improvement.

Individual KPI's matter mostly to the progress of individuals in the project teams of any company. Group KPI's represent profit earning for the business division it is part of. Strategic goals achieved or not achieved depends when all these threads are pulled together.

The biggest difference is, if an individual fails to achieve his or her own objectives for the year, it effects only him to a larger extent and where all there is a dependency it may effect the project performance. This is where a good Project Manager would always have a mitigation plan with resource backup planned adequately to avoid any kind of disturbance to project's success because of few low performing individuals.

But, if the Strategic vision or the Goal of the Organization is failed, it effects each and everyone involved in the organization including employees, customers, and every stakeholder whose business is linked with the organization. This usually happens when there is a pool of low performing individuals impacting the bigger goals without adhering to policies and procedures, contributing to business losses and not anticipating risks and there by pushing the organizations towards low performance and failures.

Thus, each one of us are responsible to the tasks assigned to us, should make full effort to achieve our own Key Performance Indicators set as objectives of the year, there by contributing to the larger pool of success as an Organization.