And it is this quality, or health, of the number that first
separates a KPI from a measure.
While not technically required, almost all KPIs have an indicator as to the health
of the current number. This is typically done by assigning not just a value to the KPI,
but also a target. In this case, the value is the current, or actual, value of $10M. If
the target was $8M, most people would find this to be a very good number. If, on the
other hand, the target was $15M, this particular KPI would probably look rather bad.
When displaying the Sales KPI on a scorecard, the scorecard might show only
the value or both the value and the target. In addition, the scorecard will usually
show an indicator of the health of that particular KPI. These indicators vary from
traffic lights with Green, Yellow, and Red indicators, to faces that smile or frown, to
thermometers, and so forth. Several different indicators can be seen in Figure 4-1.
Realize that it is the indicator, not the numbers, that make scorecards easy to grasp
quickly, and it is therefore important to use clear, easily understandable indicators.
Figure 4-1 An example of different indicators that can be used for KPIs. The goal is to
create an image which clearly conveys the health of a KPI immediately.
64 B u s i n e s s I n t e l l i g e n c e w i t h M i c r o s o f t O f f i c e P e r f o r m a n c e P o i n t S e r v e r 2 0 0 7
NOTE
In the United States, and possibly in other countries, indicators are not supposed to be based solely
on color.
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