Baseline Metrics / Baseline Measures

A baseline metric is a snapshot of the state of a process or operation prior to making improvements. In effect, it is the “before” measures of a process.

It is important to know baseline metrics prior to making any changes. Without a clear understanding of your initial capabilities, you’ll be hard-pressed to determine whether or not your changes actually made any improvement.

Taking baseline measurements also gives the added benefit of scrutiny. In many cases, processes lag behind expectations simply because they don’t get any attention. Once you start looking at how a process is doing, people tend to break their inertia and start making simple improvements.