Understand the
Sometimes Negative Effects of Performance Measurement Systems
About the Book
Based on an award-winning doctoral thesis at Carnegie Mellon University, Measuring
and Managing Performance in Organizations presents a captivating analysis
of the perils of performance measurement systems. In the book's foreword, Peopleware
authors Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister rave, "We believe this is a book that
needs to be on the desk of just about anyone who manages anything."
Because
people often react with unanticipated sophistication when they are being measured,
measurement-based management systems can become dysfunctional, interfering with
achievement of intended results. Fortunately, as the author shows, measurement
dysfunction follows a pattern that can be identified and avoided.
The author's
findings are bolstered by interviews with eight recognized experts in the use
of measurement to manage computer software development: David N. Card,
of Software Productivity Solutions; Tom DeMarco, of the Atlantic Systems
Guild; Capers Jones, of Software Productivity Research; John Musa,
of AT&T Bell Laboratories; Daniel J. Paulish, of Siemens Corporate
Research; Lawrence H. Putnam, of Quantitative Software Management; E.
O. Tilford, Sr., of Fissure; plus the anonymous Expert X.
A practical
model for analyzing measurement projects solidifies the text—don't start
without it!
From the Foreword
". . . admirable . . . We
believe this is a book that needs to be on the desk of just about anyone who manages
anything."
"Some books on measurement so strongly advocate its
use that they look almost exclusively at success stories. They profess to tell
you how to get it right but they supply little or no detail about the consequences
or likelihood of getting it wrong. Partly this is because stories of management
failures are harder to find than accounts of successes, for obvious reasons: People
like to claim credit for successes and forget failures. But you can learn a lot
from failure. So I've worked to find examples of failure and devoted a significant
portion of this book to examining the examples in search of a common pattern.
. . . Understanding the pattern of failure can help us avoid it."
—RDA
Reviews
"This book is a must for anyone who ever has to measure anything
in a development organization. "
"A book of deep ahas for me has been
Robert D. Austin's 1996 book Measuring and Managing
Performance in Organizations. I've read it half
a dozen times. . . .
"By the time it is done, the author has devastated
the notion of Management by Objectives and all of
its fellow easy-as-pie management methods. If you're
measuring anything, you need this book."
—Tom DeMarco Across
the Board, November/December 2001
"Reading and understanding Measuring and
Managing Performance in Organizations will provide
you with a background to recognize measurement system
dynamics so you can design better measurement systems.
Be warned that this is not a "Measurement Mambo"
type book. It is not a five-step program. There's
no assurance of "Follow these five easy steps
and your measurement program is guaranteed to succeed."
Instead, Austin gives an in-depth look at what makes
or breaks measurement systems. The information is
presented in an intuitive way; if you understand
algebra and simple logic, you will understand what
Austin is presenting. . . .
"Austin's Measuring and Managing Performance
in Organizations points out that using a delegation
management style can motivate employess without
using management systems. . . .
"This book will give you a solid basis to
understand the complexity and avoid the pitfalls
of measuring effort in organizations."
—Don
Gray STQE, September/October 2001
"Austin draws on management theory, psychology,
and economics to explain why problems often occur
in our measurement systems. He explains what characteristics
make a system amenable to healthy measurement, and
which characteristics will make it difficult to
measure without causing harm. . . .
"Buy Measuring, and use it to balance
the points the overly enthusiastic fans of measurement
will make in your next project meeting."
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