Monitoring the work of production web studio

Before you evaluate something, you need to measure it. In the previous materials we built the production of a web studio. Now let's learn how to measure its effectiveness. As soon as we learn to measure, it will be clear what needs to be improved. In our business, anyone, even the smallest effect, can give a significant increase in profits.

By offering website development at low cost and providing high quality, you can be sure that you will not face a shortage of orders. But keep in mind that from a business point of view, such a model is very unstable. If you chase after quantity, you can quickly lose your customers, and by lingering, you can go completely into a minus without getting a chance for development.

I have always been interested in creating a balanced scorecard, focusing on which, one could effectively manage web production, striving for a golden mean. In this small article I will talk about the performance evaluation system, which we have been using in WebCanape for many years.

If you want to try this system on yourself, keep in mind that these figures are most likely suitable for industries that, like us, produce a homogeneous product and have a clear pricing policy. Prices for sites vary depending on the functionality, but the order of pricing is the same.
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Web Studio Performance Indicators

The primary task is to simply get an assessment of the result of the work of production, looking at which, one can say, good or bad, we finished the month. For this we use 6 indicators.

General plan for income (CAP). This indicator indicates the ability of production to generate the necessary cash flow.

It's simple. We set two planned indicators: the minimum and the desired. The minimum is necessary to cover the costs with a small margin, the desired - to make a profit. Both plans increase each month, taking into account the company's annual growth plan.

If the indicator is not met, take urgent measures to improve work efficiency or reduce costs. If the rate is good, think about additional services for your customers without expanding production staff.

The use of working time fund (FRV). This indicator indicates the level of discipline in the workplace and the effectiveness of the organization of labor, which is the foundation for a successful business.

FRV consists of the total number of hours allocated to developers involved in production. To calculate the indicator, let's divide the actual time spent by developers on the total FRV. The indicator is best displayed in percent. The higher the number, the better. The number of working hours per person per month can be found in any production calendar.

For us, the norm is 80%. This means that 80% of the available working time fund is spent on project work. The remaining 20% ​​we leave for training, tea, discussion of solutions for various tasks, meetings.

The use of FRV for commercial projects (FRV $). With this indicator, we estimate the targeted use of the company's production resources.

Defining it, we find out what percentage of the FRV went to commercial projects. For the division of hours (commercial / non-commercial), we use trackers in Redmine, for which it is easy to make cuts of statistics in the future.

To calculate the indicator, we divide the total time for commercial projects by the time worked for all projects and multiply by 100%. In our case, the FRV $ must be at least 80%. The rest of the time we can spend on domestic projects and development.

Compliance with regulations . Through this indicator, it is possible to assess the ability of production to comply with the standards incorporated into the value of the product.

Each contract with a client is a certain number of hours to develop a project. At the end of the month for each completed project, we calculate the amount of elapsed time and compare it with the planned (contractual), estimating how far we have met the standards or exceeded them. Remember the label in the material " Selection of the team web studio and the distribution of roles ?"

To calculate the indicator, we divide the average planned time by the average actual time and multiply by 100%. It is quite normal if this indicator is less than 100%. The main thing is to ensure that it does not become less than 70%, and to strive for a value of 100% or more.

Return on production assets (RPA). In fact, this is the total cost of the hour at which we worked a month.

This indicator should not be less than the planned cost of a standard hour in the studio. If it is smaller, you need to take measures to improve work efficiency or more accurately (in a big way) to estimate the cost of projects at the initial stage.

The indicator is calculated easily. The average time for a project (in hours) is divided by the average cost of the project. The data on the spent hours is taken from Redmine or any other task-manager, and the cost of developing the project is from the contract.

Fulfillment of terms. The final and very important indicator for evaluation is the fulfillment of obligations by deadlines.

To calculate it, we take into account the actual working days spent on the project, and compare them with the planned contractual deadlines. We divide the planned average project term by the average actual term and get the deadline rate. The rule is the same: the indicator should be at least 70% and grow with each month.

If interested, I suggest to get acquainted with the table , which can be used for calculation.

I note that it makes sense to consider these figures not only in the context of the entire production, but also in relation to the projects for each manager. Analysis of the indicators separately for each project manager gives good ground for reflection. This is the most valuable in these calculations.

We analyze the results within a month, for timely diagnosis of problems - we sort out at meetings, look at bottlenecks, use them to select the best developers and managers. Based on the same data, we calculate management premiums.

How to work with indicators?

The first thing to do is to establish the regularity of data collection and analysis. It is not simple. For many employees, these are only numbers, but for you - a way to change for the better, to increase efficiency. Make a ritual out of this, make a job of collecting indicators in the manager’s regulations and don’t pay wages without it.

Get the scores:

• Fulfillment of revenue plan:> 100%
• Use of FRV:> 70%
• Using FRV for commercial projects:> 70%
• Return on assets:> 90%
• Compliance:> 90%
• Deadlines:> 90%

Work with indicators consistently. Behind each of them is a significant amount of changes in production and in the heads of employees. Achieve maximum results without raising the cost of projects. You can always increase the cost, and it is much more pleasant to do it when all other indicators are normal.

Pulling standards can take 6-8 months, this is normal. The necessary numbers can be reached thanks to automation, the development of developers, the rejection of part of the work, the right approach to the choice of customers, higher prices, and finally, others.

Personally, we, comprehending everything on our own mistakes, did not immediately pay serious attention to the deadline. When we realized the importance of this, an idea was born with a TV set that still works properly.

Instead of conclusion

Many will ask the question: “But what about the quality indicator?” Why did he not enter this system? We believe that this concept is relative, and each studio has its own idea about it. To comply with the technical indicators of quality WebCanape, we have developed a technology for the production of websites for small businesses, which includes 120 parameters (plus / minus). This checklist is checked by the testing service and the project manager before giving permission for the layout of the site. The time required for quality control is included in the cost of the product and is taken into account when calculating the above indicators.

Hopefully I told you about our production control system? In the following material I will write about the gradation of employees and the system of motivation.

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WebCanape team