Review of Dresner’s Profiles in Performance

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 Culture Maturity Model that resonates…

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 Culture 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 (via the MIKE2.0 website):

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