The Benefits of Tracking Organizational Outcomes for Long-Term Systems Operations/Maintenance Tasks

Abstract

This study investigates whether periodically tracked organizational performance metrics help long-term systems operations/maintenance projects stay on schedule. Regression analyses were conducted to test for the impact of the number of tracked organizational performance metrics on timeline stability and timeline adherence respectively, while controlling for project size, structure, and cost. As expected, both effects were manifested as inverted-U shaped curves, where each of the two dependent variables progressively improved with an increase in the number of tracked metrics up to a point, beyond which it progressively deteriorated. The conclusion is that periodically tracking organizational performance metrics has a beneficial impact upon the process of long-term systems operations/maintenance. Given the singular inflection points in both curves, a tricky challenge for project managers is to determine the right kinds and number of benefits to track in order to extract optimal gains. Implications for practice and research are discussed.