A scorecard is a fixed set of metrics presented together on a recurring basis, usually with thresholds applied and direction shown. It is the standard vehicle for executive security reporting and the format most likely to be built badly.
A small set. Six to ten. Beyond that the audience skims rather than reads, and skimming a scorecard defeats its purpose.
Stability of composition. The same metrics, period after period. A scorecard whose contents change each quarter cannot show a trend, which is the only thing a scorecard is for.
Thresholds that were set in advance and are visible. See threshold.
Direction against a target rather than a bare value. Where the organization sits relative to what it agreed to fund is the question the audience has.
Several periods of history, not one snapshot.
An owner name against each line.
Colour without numbers. A grid of amber cells communicates a mood, not a position, and it cannot be argued with, which is a defect rather than a feature.
Changing composition, usually driven by whichever metrics happen to look good.
Metrics with no threshold, which the audience cannot interpret and therefore ignores.
Aggregating everything into one score. The score moves, everyone asks which component moved, and the compression has bought nothing. See composite metric.
History that is not comparable, because the definitions changed underneath and nobody marked it.
Show a scorecard to an executive and ask what decision it supports.
If the answer is that it provides visibility, it is a status report wearing a scorecard’s clothes. A working scorecard implies specific action from specific people when specific lines move.
Because definitions are versioned and computed the same way each period, a Metric Maestro scorecard carries genuine multi-period history rather than a series of separately assembled snapshots.
Each line can be opened to the records behind it, so a question in the meeting has an answer in the meeting. And because the numbers already exist rather than being gathered for the occasion, the reporting cycle stops consuming the two weeks before it.
From the blog