On the restriction to numeric indicators in Performance Measurement Systems

Many business processes cannot be easily measured due to their non-deterministic or qualitative nature. So, to fit in common performance measurement systems (PMS), artificial and simplifying measures are used that are complicated and costly to create and evaluate. Using a literature review, this paper documents the dominance of PMS that rely on KPIs and a lack of those that also incorporate non-numeric, generic indicators that better address qualitative problems. Considering the need for better transparency and comparability of business processes as well as visibility of process performance, the final necessity of deployment for a refined PMS using additional indirect indicators is derived. It would be able to assess hidden performance problems and to reveal additional improvement possibilities.