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“Study finds that basically every single person hates performance reviews.” – Noise, Daniel Kahneman

Do we need performance reviews and performance metrics in general? Do we still live in an industrial era and people performing repetitious input-output work with easily measurable outputs?

There is an alternative to performance metrics and reviews – qualitative metrics reflecting on knowledge work characteristics.

• SFIA skill levels as measured by an accredited SFIA consultant
• Proactivity index – reflecting structure of skill from reactivity or proactivity level
• Knowledge worker quality index – constructed from multi-perspective assessment (manager + peers), 3-5 dimensions
• Composite indicator Quality of knowledge worker #CIQKW (or Value of knowledge worker #VKW)

Combination of qualitative metrics provides a cost effective picture of the overall individual’s quality, typically measured every 2 years, or for junior positions updated typically every year.

The purpose of qualitative metrics is different from performance metrics

• development planning
• identification of outstanding worker suitable for promotion or role change
• identification of possible toxicities in teams which can have negative effect on team spirit and collaboration quality

Benefits of qualitative metrics for knowledge workers in IT

• low frequency, less time required, less stress to everyone involved
• future development focus rather than past performance and quantitative metrics
• usability for complex proactive work with uncertain outcomes and long-term efforts

More details and practical templates are included in recently extended training Managing Knowledge Worker Quality

Picture from Excel templates included in this training.

 

Starting January 2023, certification structure of IT Quality Index trainings will be simplified:

• Any training can be taken without undertaking any previous trainings – mandatory requirements removed so participants can partake any training in any order
• No expiration date of any certification – all past certifications remain valid, no need for recertification
• Certification in IT quality will be automatically awarded after sitting
  • IT Quality Foundation, IT Quality Manager and Managing Knowledge Worker Quality or
  • IT Quality Expert, IT Quality Manager and Managing Knowledge Worker Quality
• Earlier introduced Successful Candidate Register is the authorization authority of all IT Quality Index certifikace.

We are NOT planning to introduce subscription fees or anyhow limit validity of IT Quality certificates.

The latest version of IT Quality Index 2022 Edition is aligned with this logic,

 

Traditional management models are based on the paradigm of the industrial era – to produce more products at a lower price and thereby satisfy never-ending customer demand. Work faster, eliminate delays and reduce human labor consumption. These are the main theses that in the course of the nineties made their way into all the main methods of IT management.

However, since about 2000, most of the value that humanity creates has shifted to complex knowledge work – the ability to accumulate information, transform it into knowledge and know-how is one of the main trends of the new era. Another area is the ability of companies and individuals within the company to work together in complex collaborative networks, which are a prerequisite for the design and creation of complex products, services, platforms and entire ecosystems. The work in IT is no longer a reactive solution to the requirements of the “internal customer”, but IT becomes a coordinator and an active force of innovation and improvement of the digital capabilities of companies.

The new course brings a summary of new trends from the fields of information theory with a selection of parts that have practical implications for internal IT management and for redefining, what internal IT actually is and what is its main reason for existence.

The course content creates a conceptual foundation and mental model for a set of interconnected courses collectively referred to as Digital Capabilities Management.

The Information theory for IT practitioners course is intended for the new generation of CIOs and IT leaders, who want to modernize IT management on the ground plan of the realities of the digital era and the knowledge economy.