Provided Practical Performance Measurement Practices for Information Technology Team

Equitable Performance Measurement
Written By Anh Pham

BACKGROUND/OPPORTUNITY

A 10-person team supporting a world-class school of business identified the need to better measure and demonstrate the impact of their performance and how they were contributing to advancing the school’s mission.  

The McCombs Information Solutions Team (MIST) at the University of Texas was challenged to improve their performance after a unit assessment was completed. They approached data2insight to design and facilitate a personalized PuMP learning lab to improve performance measurement and ultimately their team performance.

McCombs has an academic philosophy grounded in understanding how organizations influence the people they serve. Faculty and work-study partnerships create new insights into human behavior through research and analysis. Socially engaged learning sharpens students' business instincts and emotional intelligence. Curriculum, research, programs, and technologies are updated constantly to Identify and capture undiscovered markets. The technology updates are what the application development team focuses on. 

SOLUTION

Data2insight learning labs taught the team how to replace their measurement struggles with practical, engaging, and proven practices.

Veronica Smith facilitated two 3.5-hour on-site learning labs with MIST staff and management. The workshop introduced the practical performance management methodology (PuMP) and helped the participants start to design the best measures to support continuous learning and improvement for their team. It also helped them align these measures with the school’s strategic plan.

We focused on:

  • Making explicit the measurement issues with which this team is wrestling

  • Identifying strategic planning and measurement gaps using the PuMP diagnostic

  • Building buy-in for using PuMP to improve the team’s performance

  • Identifying who will be PuMP champions on the team

  • Providing experience in making strategy measurable

OUTCOME

The team was ready to run with practical and strategic measurement of the KPIs that mattered most.

At the conclusion of the 3-month engagement, the team had the following takeaways. 

  • Community of Learning map

  • Completed PuMP diagnostic and summary of implications for next steps

  • Memo including a summary of team strategies, the conversation of measure design, and recommended next steps

One of the team members signed up to take the PuMP certification so they could lead the team in next steps.

Anh Pham
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