How the obsession with quantifying human performance threatens business, medicine, education, government—and the quality of our lives Today, organizations of all kinds are ruled by the belief that the path to success is quantifying human performance, publicizing the results, and dividing up the rewards based on the numbers. But in our zeal to instill the evaluation process with scientific rigor, we've gone from measuring performance to fixating on measuring itself—and this tyranny of metrics now threatens the quality of our organizations and lives. In this brief, accessible, and powerful book, Jerry Muller uncovers the damage metrics are causing and shows how we can begin to fix the problem. Filled with examples from business, medicine, education, government, and other fields, the book explains why paying for measured performance doesn't work, why surgical scorecards may increase deaths, and much more. But Muller also shows that, when used as a complement to judgment based on personal experience, metrics can be beneficial, and he includes an invaluable checklist of when and how to use them. The result is an essential corrective to a harmful trend that increasingly affects us all.

Your government warns that 10% of your neighbors have a deadly contagious virus. The producer of a diagnostic test advertises that 90% of its tests are correct for any population. The test indicates that you have the virus. This book’s author claims your test has a 50% chance of being false, given your test’s result. Who do you believe? This book gives you insights necessary to interpret metrics that make a difference in life’s decisions. This book gives methods and software that are essential to analyze change and error. Change describes a phenomenon across time points. Error compares diagnoses with the truth. Other texts give insufficient attention to these topics. This book’s novel ideas dispel popular misconceptions and replace previous methods. The author uses carefully designed graphics and high school mathematics to communicate easily with college students and advanced scientists. Applications include but are not limited to Remote Sensing, Land Change Science, and Geographic Information Science. “A wide range of tools to aid understanding of land cover and its change has been used but scientific progress has sometimes been limited through misuse and misunderstanding. Professor Pontius seeks to rectify this situation by providing a book to accompany the researcher’s toolbox. Metrics That Make a Difference addresses basic issues of relevance to a broad community in a mathematically friendly way and should greatly enhance the ability to elicit correct information. I wish this book existed while I was a grad student.” – Giles Foody, Professor of Geographical Information Science, The University of Nottingham “Metrics That Make a Difference provides a comprehensive synthesis of over two decades of work during which Dr. Pontius researched, developed, and applied these metrics. The book meticulously and successfully guides the reader through the conceptual basis, computations, and proper interpretation of the many metrics derived for different types of variables. The book is not just a mathematical treatise but includes practical guidance to good data analysis and good science. Data scientists from many fields of endeavor will benefit substantially from Dr. Pontius’ articulate review of traditionally used metrics and his presentation of the innovative and novel metrics he has developed. While reading this book, I had multiple ‘aha’ moments about metrics that I shouldn't be using and metrics that I should be using instead.” – Stephen Stehman, Distinguished Teaching Professor, State University of New York

An accessible and fun guide to the essential tools of econometric research Applied econometrics, known to aficionados as 'metrics, is the original data science. 'Metrics encompasses the statistical methods economists use to untangle cause and effect in human affairs. Through accessible discussion and with a dose of kung fu–themed humor, Mastering 'Metrics presents the essential tools of econometric research and demonstrates why econometrics is exciting and useful. The five most valuable econometric methods, or what the authors call the Furious Five--random assignment, regression, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity designs, and differences in differences--are illustrated through well-crafted real-world examples (vetted for awesomeness by Kung Fu Panda's Jade Palace). Does health insurance make you healthier? Randomized experiments provide answers. Are expensive private colleges and selective public high schools better than more pedestrian institutions? Regression analysis and a regression discontinuity design reveal the surprising truth. When private banks teeter, and depositors take their money and run, should central banks step in to save them? Differences-in-differences analysis of a Depression-era banking crisis offers a response. Could arresting O. J. Simpson have saved his ex-wife's life? Instrumental variables methods instruct law enforcement authorities in how best to respond to domestic abuse. Wielding econometric tools with skill and confidence, Mastering 'Metrics uses data and statistics to illuminate the path from cause to effect. Shows why econometrics is important Explains econometric research through humorous and accessible discussion Outlines empirical methods central to modern econometric practice Works through interesting and relevant real-world examples

How the increasing reliance on metrics to evaluate scholarly publications has produced new forms of academic fraud and misconduct. The traditional academic imperative to “publish or perish” is increasingly coupled with the newer necessity of “impact or perish”—the requirement that a publication have “impact,” as measured by a variety of metrics, including citations, views, and downloads. Gaming the Metrics examines how the increasing reliance on metrics to evaluate scholarly publications has produced radically new forms of academic fraud and misconduct. The contributors show that the metrics-based “audit culture” has changed the ecology of research, fostering the gaming and manipulation of quantitative indicators, which lead to the invention of such novel forms of misconduct as citation rings and variously rigged peer reviews. The chapters, written by both scholars and those in the trenches of academic publication, provide a map of academic fraud and misconduct today. They consider such topics as the shortcomings of metrics, the gaming of impact factors, the emergence of so-called predatory journals, the “salami slicing” of scientific findings, the rigging of global university rankings, and the creation of new watchdogs and forensic practices.

This volume's contributors evaluate the accomplishments, limits, and consequences of using quantitative metrics in global health. Whether analyzing maternal mortality rates, the relationships between political goals and metrics data, or the links between health outcomes and a program's fiscal support, the contributors question the ability of metrics to solve global health problems. They capture a moment when global health scholars and practitioners must evaluate the potential effectiveness and pitfalls of different metrics—even as they remain elusive and problematic. Contributors. Vincanne Adams, Susan Erikson, Molly Hales, Pierre Minn, Adeola Oni-Orisan, Carolyn Smith-Morris, Marlee Tichenor, Lily Walkover, Claire L. Wendland

The Definitive Guide to Quantifying, Classifying, and Measuring Enterprise IT Security Operations Security Metrics is the first comprehensive best-practice guide to defining, creating, and utilizing security metrics in the enterprise. Using sample charts, graphics, case studies, and war stories, Yankee Group Security Expert Andrew Jaquith demonstrates exactly how to establish effective metrics based on your organization’s unique requirements. You’ll discover how to quantify hard-to-measure security activities, compile and analyze all relevant data, identify strengths and weaknesses, set cost-effective priorities for improvement, and craft compelling messages for senior management. Security Metrics successfully bridges management’s quantitative viewpoint with the nuts-and-bolts approach typically taken by security professionals. It brings together expert solutions drawn from Jaquith’s extensive consulting work in the software, aerospace, and financial services industries, including new metrics presented nowhere else. You’ll learn how to: • Replace nonstop crisis response with a systematic approach to security improvement • Understand the differences between “good” and “bad” metrics • Measure coverage and control, vulnerability management, password quality, patch latency, benchmark scoring, and business-adjusted risk • Quantify the effectiveness of security acquisition, implementation, and other program activities • Organize, aggregate, and analyze your data to bring out key insights • Use visualization to understand and communicate security issues more clearly • Capture valuable data from firewalls and antivirus logs, third-party auditor reports, and other resources • Implement balanced scorecards that present compact, holistic views of organizational security effectiveness

NAMED BEST MARKETING BOOK OF 2011 BY THE AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION How organizations can deliver significant performance gains through strategic investment in marketing In the new era of tight marketing budgets, no organization can continue to spend on marketing without knowing what's working and what's wasted. Data-driven marketing improves efficiency and effectiveness of marketing expenditures across the spectrum of marketing activities from branding and awareness, trail and loyalty, to new product launch and Internet marketing. Based on new research from the Kellogg School of Management, this book is a clear and convincing guide to using a more rigorous, data-driven strategic approach to deliver significant performance gains from your marketing. Explains how to use data-driven marketing to deliver return on marketing investment (ROMI) in any organization In-depth discussion of the fifteen key metrics every marketer should know Based on original research from America's leading marketing business school, complemented by experience teaching ROMI to executives at Microsoft, DuPont, Nisan, Philips, Sony and many other firms Uses data from a rigorous survey on strategic marketing performance management of 252 Fortune 1000 firms, capturing $53 billion of annual marketing spending In-depth examples of how to apply the principles in small and large organizations Free downloadable ROMI templates for all examples given in the book With every department under the microscope looking for results, those who properly use data to optimize their marketing are going to come out on top every time.