 In 1935, a golfer by the name of E.F. Staugaard carded the lowest score ever recorded in a golf game. His reported score was 55 on the par-72, 6,419-yard Montebello Park course in Montebello, California. Tiger Woods’s lowest recorded score, by comparison, was a 61. Regardless of whether you are a pro-golfer or technology executive, scores matter.
Scoring in sports is important because it lets players and fans know on a consistent basis where they stand. It is an equally important tool for managing your technology operations, risk and compliance. A score provides (took out someone) instant feedback that is tangible and backed by real data. It also indicates where improvement is needed and what is being done well. A score can enhance (took out your) performance by providing benchmarks for an easy peer to peer comparison. When a scoring methodology is applied to critical technology operations, clear, objective and quantitative decisions can be made. Being able to score your company’s application architecture or infrastructure configuration, for example, against industry standards removes the guesswork from managing operations. The following are just a few of the reasons why scoring your technology operations can be of great benefit. Thoroughness of the Assessment Scoring cannot happen without rules on which to base a score. This forces a company to establish a detailed system of requirements in the form of policies, procedures and day-to-day activities. A well-defined set of rules can be focused on particular aspects of your operations and tailored to specific business needs. Most importantly, its level of specificity can ensure that you get a thorough an evaluation of your technology without missing critical business details. Decisions are Clear and Impartial Scoring simplifies decision making. The volume of technology solutions available today can be overwhelming to any organization. By employing a process of scoring operations that map back to corporate priorities, best practices and governance requirements, decision making can be simplified. Additionally, scores provide the data necessary to facilitate faster decision making and the basis for explaining or defending decisions to others. Benchmarking Against Peers A score allows you to benchmark your performance and determine if you’re operating at your best. These benchmarks can be internal within your company or in comparison to your industry peer group. Benchmarking can then be used to identify gaps in your company’s processes and can help you achieve a competitive advantage. Scores Can Be Customized An organization's priorities change over time and certainly differ from the priorities of their peers. As such, having the ability to weight scores based on what matters most to executives and technology managers is important. Acknowledging that all tasks aren’t equal in importance and being able to customize how important each task is to a company’s overall score is necessary for a score to be relevant to you. If you ask any professional golfer or athlete if scores matter, the answer will undoubtedly be yes. In business, when conducting an assessment of your operations, evaluating the performance of an employee or determining where to invest next, scores help by creating tangible measures that are easy to understand and clearly show where improvement is needed. |
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