Defining, measuring, and improving KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) is essential to demonstrate the effectiveness of the return on investment of any project or activity. However, many companies neglect this by not putting in place the right tools or applying the right methodology to build KPIs. This is a big challenge, especially with the multiplication of data sources that can make implementing KPIs tedious.
Nevertheless, mastering the art of building KPIs is within everyone’s reach. And to prove it, let’s explore our 7 essential steps for giving meaning and value to your KPIs using Jira and eazyBI.
But what is eazyBI?
eazyBI is the leading reporting tool on the Atlassian Marketplace. It is a perfect complement to the native reports offered by the Australian editor in Jira since eazyBI has the ability to retrieve data from third-party tools (such as Salesforce, Pardot, etc.) and import them into Jira to complete its native reports. The tool is similar to other data visualization tools on the market, such as Tableau, PowerBI, or QlikView. It perfectly integrates with Jira as well as with the main Marketplace apps.
In this article, we will show you an example of a configuration of Jira and eazyBI to exploit data coming from two external sources: the CRM tool Salesforce and the planning tool Tempo Planner. From the perspective of a company’s management team wishing to monitor its sales department’s performance, we will see how you can forecast the sales team’s gross margin.
1. Define your indicators
Before we jump into the technical implementation, let’s describe what an indicator is. In his great book Managing for Happiness, entrepreneur Jurgen Apello proposes 12 rules to ensure the relevance of your indicator:
- measure for a purpose
- shrink the unknown
- seek to improve
- delight all stakeholders
- distrust all numbers
- set imprecise targets
- own your metrics
- don’t connect metrics to rewards
- promote values and transparency
- visualize and humanize
- measure early and often
- try something else
Behind these rules, it is important to remember that the definition of an indicator is crucial if we want it to be useful and understood by users. For that purpose, we will see later that documentation of a KPI is essential.
In our practical case, we propose that you set up an indicator enabling the Operations Director of a consultancy company to have visibility of the estimated margin that will be generated by the consultancy services days already planned. The presentation of the data will be straightforward, as shown below: