Training module
Monitoring & Measurement
Design and run monitoring activities and measurement methods to generate reliable performance data for evaluation and improvement
Are inconsistent or unreliable performance data hindering your decision-making and management system effectiveness?
This training module provides a structured approach to designing monitoring activities and implementing measurement methods, ensuring performance data is consistent, explainable, and maintainable over time.
Overview
What this module is about
Many organizations struggle with performance data that is inconsistent, difficult to compare, or unreliable, leading to suboptimal decisions and ineffective management systems.
This module addresses these challenges by offering a disciplined foundation for monitoring activities, measurement methods, data quality checks, and measurement registers. Participants will learn when ongoing monitoring is needed, how specific measurements should be defined, how robust data quality controls are applied, and how systematic registers keep data generation reproducible. The focus is on practical application, enabling participants to ensure performance data is consistent, explainable, and maintainable, thereby supporting informed decision-making without delving into complex statistical analysis.
Audience
Who it is for
Management system implementers and coordinators
Executives and department heads accountable for management system performance
Those responsible for processes, policies, assets, risks and controls
Auditors seeking insight into management-side practice, not audit technique
Consultants working on management system design, governance or improvement
Decision supportIs this module for you?
It is a good fit if you…
rely on KPIs or reports but question their reliability.
struggle with inconsistent definitions, sources, or calculations.
experience debates about numbers instead of decisions.
need measurement results that are explainable and repeatable.
want monitoring that holds up over time, not ad-hoc reporting.
It may not be the best fit if you…
already operate a stable, trusted, and consistently applied measurement system.
have no mandate or interest in shaping how data is collected or validated.
need KPI design, performance interpretation, or analytics tooling.
are looking for automation or BI solutions rather than measurement foundations.
Agenda
What is taught
9 parts01What monitoring and measurement each cover in a management system
How monitoring and measurement complement each other in management systems: monitoring as ongoing observation of status, trends, and conditions, and measurement as the generation of defined quantitative or qualitative results; and where unclear definitions, unclear methods, and weak ownership undermine results
02Turning existing objectives and KPIs into monitoring and measurement tasks
How to translate KPI statements into defined monitoring and measurement activities with minimum specifications covering data source, collection method, calculation logic, and unit or format
03Defining measurement methods and data quality criteria
How to define measurement frequency, responsibilities, and hand-offs, and set data quality criteria with acceptable tolerance and error ranges
04Designing the measurement workflow
How to design a clear workflow from data collection through calculation, validation, and documentation, and manage versioning of definitions and calculations to keep results reproducible
05Data quality checks that work in practice
How to apply practical plausibility, completeness, and consistency checks, and address common issues such as duplicates, partial coverage, stale data, and human error
06Evidence trail and traceability
How to capture just enough evidence so results can be explained later, and maintain traceability from source through calculation to reported value in a lightweight and usable way
07Manual versus automated measurement
How to decide when spreadsheets are acceptable and how to control them, and what to consider when automating measurement with respect to transparency, calculation logic, and version drift
08Building and maintaining a monitoring and measurement register
How to define essential register fields and a maintainable structure, and establish review cycles, ownership, and routines to keep monitoring activities and measurement methods current
09Case-based workshop
Applying the learned concepts, methods, and approaches in a realistic case setting
Outcomes
Learning outcomes
01
Define suitable measurement methods for different types of performance data and the monitoring activities around them
02
Implement data quality checks to ensure reliability and accuracy of measurement results
03
Establish and maintain registers that keep monitoring and measurement activities consistent and traceable
Distinguish between monitoring activities, measurement methods, and different types of performance data in relation to management system objectives
Develop a systematic approach to data collection and validation for informed decision-making
Identify and address common pitfalls in monitoring and measurement, such as data overload or inconsistent reporting
Materials
The content and the assessment
Written module
The full content in writing, complete in itself. Videos are recorded for parts of it as an alternative way through, and the written module always carries everything.
Exercises
Graded work on the case organisation's own registers: structured answers checked against the encoded case, written answers scored against a rubric traced to it, with a trainer holding the final word on every assessed item.
On completion
The assessed exercises must be passed before the certificate is issued.
Scheduling
No public run of Monitoring & Measurement is scheduled at the moment. Tell us you are interested and we will let you know when the next one opens, or discuss running it in-house.
Module facts
- Module ID
- HAM-AG-C-13
- Discipline
- Cross-discipline
- Part of tracks
- Management System Manager
Case organisation
You work inside a company that already has the problem
Exercises run on one case organisation, carried across modules rather than restarted, so what you build here is what the next module finds.
Northstar Integrated Services AG is a group headquartered in Zurich, providing digital operations platforms and managed services to regulated organisations across Europe. It has not always been that. It began in 2008 as a field-operations firm of about twenty-five people, and what first forced documented decisions and named accountability on it was not growth but a single regulated customer. It now runs an acquired business in Poland and the Czech Republic through a subsidiary that kept its own legal identity, which is where the interesting failures live: group instruments rolled out operationally and never put in force by the governing bodies of the subsidiary itself.
Linked registers
Organisation and people, risks, objectives, policies and documents, findings and reviews, third parties, processes
Not a case study
Nothing is summarised for you; the evidence is where it would really be
It has a history
The organisation has a timeline, and modules enter it at different points, so a structure can be studied before it broke as well as after
It crosses borders
A Swiss parent, an acquired operating business in Poland and the Czech Republic under its own legal entity, and customers in several jurisdictions
Why it matters
Judgement is not trained on tidy examples, and it is not trained on a fresh one each week. Northstar is deliberately untidy, and modules enter it at different points of its history, so you see a governance structure being built, outgrown and rebuilt rather than a finished one. What you decide in one module is what the next one finds.
Delivery & dates
How this module reaches you
Delivered live online, combining conceptual framing, discussion, case work and direct interaction with the trainer. In-house and contextualised delivery is available on request.
No public run is scheduled at the moment. Most modules run on request as well as on the public calendar, so tell us the timing you need.
Want this module scheduled?
We will tell you when the next run is scheduled, or run this module in-house with your own case material.
Not sure it is the right module?
Describe your context in a short message and we will tell you honestly.