Project and Program Metrics

Metrics are measures that are collected to assess performance. In the context of project and program management, metrics are identified, collected, tracked, and monitored to ensure project and program performance throughout the delivery life cycle and in ensuring the project and program are on track to deliver the requited outcomes and benefits.

Various types of metrics help determine the health of projects and programs. They are:

Technical soundness – These metrics reflect on the health and technical state of the product or service being built. For example, number of lines of code, number of technical interfaces between systems, number of servers, etc. can reflect the technical aspects of a system.
Schedule – These metrics have to do with the schedule of the project such as number of activities, milestones, completion dates, etc.
Cost and budget – These refer to metrics such as Estimate At Complete (EAC), Cost Performance Index (CPI), Actual Costs, etc.
Quality – This may include metrics related to defects
Customer satisfaction – Metrics such as a number of customer complaints, and data from satisfaction surveys, etc. can help determine customer satisfaction related metrics.
Process performance – Various metrics can help assess the quality of the processes being used to deliver products and services. For example, quality metrics such as resulting defects can be an indicator of process quality.
Productivity – Examples here include resource utilization, hours billed, resource loading, etc.