Review of Dresner's Profiles in Performance

[Steve Bennett]

Howard Dresner, a fellow ex-Gartner Business Intelligence and Information Management Research Director (but with a far more distinguished research record than mine!) has published his second book at the end of last year. The book is called "Profiles in Performance: Business Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change". His first book "The Performance Management Revolution: Business Results Through Insight and Action" was published back in 2007. This book is similar in intent and size as the recently reviewed "Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results", the new book by Thomas Davenport, Jeanne G. Harris (both of Competing On Analytics fame) and Robert Morison. This is not a bad thing as I like both of these books and while they share a common belief (crudely put: Analytics for performance management is a good thing) both make their own unique and valuable contributions. In Howard's case, he has created a Performance Capability Maturity Model that resonates. This model seems to me to be a much better descriptor than the widely used Information Maturity Model originally created by the now defunct Meta Group. The bulk of The Performance Management Revolution contains four case studies on: Denihan Hospitality Group Cleveland Clinic Northern California Public Broadcasting Meuller Inc. If the book falls short anywhere, it is here. Maybe it is my background, but these are hardly houshold names. They are also all US based and I think that this could reduce the impact the book will have on readers. Why? In my case I didn't have an existing impression of any of these companies. If the examples were, for example, Coke or Unilever, then I would have had other knowledge to draw on as I read the book - and this would have enhanced the stories. It is the PCMM that I will benefit most from. To show how this contributes to our thinking on enterprise performance management, remember the IMM from Meta: The PCMM captures the multifaceted nature of information and performance maturity and the fact that my organisation can be at different levels of maturity at the same time. I reproduce Howard's model here as it is published elsewhere on Google and book sale sites: So Howard's post-Hyperion life was been productive so far. Let's hope that he continues to develop the PCMM. I for one will happily use it in my professional life. Here are the details, and of course you can order it online: Profiles in Performance: Business Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change (Hardcover) by Howard Dresner 174 pages Wiley ISBN: 978-0470408865 US$32.85



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