<John Robb> A major reason companies are cutting back on IT spending
is due to a lack of measurable productivity improvements that can be
linked to investments in technology. </jr>

John's call for measurability is spot on. Tough times and tight
IT budgets call for hard facts.

So, how do we size the problems klogs solve? Most of the
justifications seem to be of the glorious-upside vs. ease-the-most-
severe-pain variety. And opportunity cost is notoriously hard
to measure and trust.

What verifiable, repeatable measures might we use...
- when proposing a new klog/CoP/KM project?
- when demonstrating success?

What baseline measures (pre-klog) will be useful comparisons for
operational measures?

How would you want to compare the effectiveness, payback, and
lifecycle-ROI of competing klogs?

Some common categories:

- system health (e.g., our klog net is healthy | has problems)
- system traffic (use in this category is up 3% over last month)
- user satisfaction (defection rates, adoption rates, feedback)
- customer satisfaction (27% fewer calls were handed off)
- problems solved (Mike kept his job because ...)
- dollars saved (we reduced spending on this line item because ...)
- revenue increased (landed this customer because...)
- risks/errors avoided (our rate of failed IT projects dropped 15%)

Perhaps some brainstorming around metrics can provoke relevant
features and development priorities.

Any reason why such measures can't be built into klogging systems
and services?

- phil

Philip Wolff
evanwolf group
http://dijest.com
pwolff@...
011 510-444-8234