Specifying Dimensions and Measures

PMF is primarily designed as a way to measure how organizations are doing against their stated strategy. Strategy means many things in the real world, but when it applies to creating scorecards, it specifically refers to the definition of objectives and the description of how they are linked together.

You can determine how an organization is doing against an objective by setting targets for measures and then grading those measures.

As an administrator, you work closely with scorecard authors to set up the scorecard logic and load measures as defined and approved by the strategy committee in your enterprise.

You can always change anything you set up or load into PMF at a later date. Business processes normally change over time, so you will need to change PMF to reflect external changes.

The sections in this topic describe a methodology to ensure that dimensions and measures support the objectives.

PMF Objectives

When you create objectives, remember to make them SMART:

S = Specific

M = Measurable

A = Achievable

R = Results Oriented

T = Time Based

The following table lists and describes in greater detail the principles to follow when creating objectives in PMF.

Principle	Description
S = Specific	Objective must be specific and cannot be vague. An example of a bad objective would be 'Do Better' whereas a good objective is 'Improve Sales'. However, you need to define what 'Sales' means.
M = Measurable	Objective must be measurable. If your objective is to improve sales and there are multiple sales components, such as Sales-Dollars and Sales-Margins, then this objective can be split into two objectives, such as 'Improve Sales Dollars' and 'Improve Sales Margins'.
A = Achievable	Objective must be controllable. An example of a bad objective is 'Reduce Loading Dock Time' when there is no capture of such time. There must always be data to support the objective. On a personnel performance review, a bad objective would ask the staff to achieve a goal that is not under their control.
R = Results Oriented	Objective must indicate actions to achieve a goal. In the sales example, consider 'Improve Sales Margins for Q2 2006 over Q2 2005'. This clearly states that there are results that are measurable at the end of the two quarters for comparison.
T = Time Based	Objective must be time based. In the sales example, consider 'Improve Sales Margins for Q2 2006 over Q2 2005 by end of Q2'.

By following the SMART principle when working through the statement of an objective, there will be clear objectives. If any of the components are not clearly formalized in the objective, then finding the measures will not be clear.

PMF Measures

Measures (or “metrics") are the hard data component of a scorecard. Each measure should clearly belong to at least one objective and you should be able to answer the following questions for each measure:

How is the measure calculated? Are you already measuring data for this measure?
Is the data for the measure available? Is the data regularly updated?
Where are the data files for the measure located, and do you have access to them?

PMF Dimensions

How to:

Create a New Dimension

PMF supports 16 user-configurable dimensions that can go to 16 levels deep, so you can describe complex multi-dimensional structures. There is only one default dimension in PMF, the Time dimension, and multiple Time dimensions are supported.

The following steps are helpful for analyzing your dimensions:

Ask users to describe how they understand their organization structure. This may relate to their customers, locations, and products.
Speak to more than one business representative to understand the view of the business. It is important to speak with personnel who know the business.
Speak with Information Technology (IT) personnel and Database Administrators (DBAs).
The default Time dimension is built in the data load process by specifying the start and end year values, where the end year is one year ahead of the current year.
You can create and use an Organization dimension to control data security access across the organization. PMF enables you to filter measures data by specifying for users, or groups of users, the level of data access depending on dimensional values.
If you create a Customer dimension (which is recommended), consider the following example for a vendor who deals with many clients. Level 1 is the organization or business name and level 2 is the contact name at the customer site.
Understand how the business is divided geographically.
Consider a high level break-down of region where there are four regions in the USA and two regions in Canada. From the standpoint of collecting data, decide whether you keep the data in six regions, or two countries with regions as the next level.

Levels in dimensions must make sense. In a geographical example in the United States, putting State below City is incorrect.
Consider systems where there are input capable fields for text entries such as states and provinces. These are highly prone to error and it is better to define a set of accepted names for these states and provinces rather than build a list of names from data that could have many inconsistent spellings.
For fields that have a large number of possible values, but the data only uses a subset, consider populating that dimension with the content of the data.
Ensure that the dimensions are available. Either they are in an existing data file or they must be input into a flat file or spreadsheet for loading.

At the end of dimension gathering, an agreement must be reached on the types of dimensions, their levels, and the contents at each level. No loading of dimensions should occur prior to the sign-off of the agreement.

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Procedure: How to Create a New Dimension

The following procedure outlines the steps required when creating a new dimension. For information about editing an existing dimension, see How to Design a Simple Dimension Load.

In the Manage tab click the Dimensions panel button.
Click New.
The New Dimension panel that opens, as shown in the following image.
In the Type field, add a one-character code that is used as an abbreviation for the dimension in some of the panels in PMF.
Type a name for the new dimension in the Name field.
From the Table Type drop-down list, select one of the following options:
- Separate table. Choose this option to select a uniquely identifiable key field that will link the source table, when the dimension is loaded, to the measures you will load later. This option activates the Key Field drop-down list.
- From measures. Choose this option if the table from which the measures will be loaded contains the values for the new dimension.
- Custom coding. Choose this option to select a procedure that provides the customized code for loading the dimension. This option activates the Define Procedure drop-down list.
From the Source Table drop-down list, select a source table or Master File for the dimension. Optionally, specify a key field or define a procedure.
The Delete if not in new check box controls how the loader handles records in the dimension load with corresponding dimension values that are no longer in the dimension series. If you select this check box, records are deleted, archived, and not restored after the load is completed. If you deselect this check box, records are deleted, archived, and restored after the load is completed.
In the Level Name field, type a name for each dimension level you add.
From the Source drop-down list, select Top, Field, or Define.
Note: This field is only available if you have selected either the From measures or Separate table option from the Table Type drop-down list.
Do one of the following:
- If you selected Top from the Source drop-down list, in the Field/Define Code field box, type the name you want to display as the top level dimension value, for example, Company-wide or All. You will most likely want to add a new level above all existing levels before using the Top option.
- If you selected Define from the Source drop-down list, type the code in the Field/Define Code field box. Code can span multiple lines, and this field can only display one line of code at a time.
  To view, and optionally edit, multiple lines of code displayed at the top of the New Dimension panel, click the Edit button. Click the OK button to save any changes, otherwise click the Cancel button.
- If you selected Field from the Source drop-down list, select a field from the Field/Define Code drop-down list.
  Note: If you select a text field longer than 30 characters, the loader displays a message and provides an option to allow a WebFOCUS function to automatically truncate the field, as shown in the following image.
  
  Note: If you select an integer field, the loader displays a message and provides an option to allow a WebFOCUS function to automatically convert the field to text, as shown in the following image.