What Are Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?

A KPI represents the result of a business measure (for example, Product Sales or Operational Costs) evaluated against a target for that measure. You can use KPIs to assess the progress of the objectives and initiatives that form levels of organizational strategy.

You can create KPIs that you need:

• Within a scorecard. This enables you to create the KPIs as you are creating or editing the scorecard.

• Outside a scorecard. This enables you to create the KPIs in advance of creating or editing a scorecard.

For information on KPIs and how to create them, see Chapter 11, "Using KPIs and KPI Watchlists."