Establish Measurement Objectives

Measurement objectives document the purposes for which measurement and analysis are done, and specify the kinds of actions that may be taken based on the results of data analyses.

The sources for measurement objectives may be management, technical, project, product, or process implementation needs.

Sources of information needs and objectives may include the following:

• Project plans (PJ schedule, WBS)
• Monitoring of project performance (to know project is delayed or not)
• Interviews with managers and others who have information needs (to know whether issue raised in project)
• Established management objectives (project metrics which set in planning phase)
• Strategic plans (implementation is in the right strategy or not)
• Formal requirements or contractual obligations
• Recurring or other troublesome management or technical problems
• Experiences of other projects or organizational entities
• External industry benchmarks
• Process improvement plans

The measurement objectives may be constrained by existing processes, available resources, or other measurement considerations. Judgements may need to be made about whether the value of the results will be commensurate with the resources devoted to doing the work.

Example measurement objectives include the following: Reduce time to delivery; Reduce total life-cycle cost; Deliver specified functionality completely; Improve prior levels of quality etc.

Typical Work Product in this specific practice is Measurement objectives.

To implement this specific practices, simply follow practices below:

1. Document information needs and objectives (which will be measure).
2. Prioritize information needs and objectives (which has higher priority in measurement).
3. Document, review, and update measurement objectives.
4. Provide feedback for refining and clarifying information needs and objectives as necessary.
5. Maintain traceability of the measurement objectives to the identified information needs and objectives.

There must always be a good answer to the question, “Why are we measuring this?”.
Of course, the measurement objectives may also change to reflect evolving information needs and objectives.