Kicab's response is useful regarding what you can do with KSF's once you
figure out what they are.
The problem usually comes in deciding which of the hundreds of things are
the "Key" factors.
One good way of doing this, though somewhat challenging, is to take the
description for how something is to be accomplished and perform a Failure
Modes and Effects Analysis on it. The FMEA consists of asking a pair of
questions about every verb or function in the description. First; In what
ways could the activity that is described fail? Second; what would be the
impact of the failure. For example, the impact of not putting enough food
on an intercontinental flight is "X" but the impact of not putting enough
fuel on an intercontinental flight is much worse. Then sort the list by
impact and pick the top 5 or 7 or (not more than) 10 and you have your
KSF's -- the things you want to make sure never happen (or always happen).
The process of performing a Risk Analysis is similar.
On Sun, 16 Nov 1997 11:16:01, Kicab Castaneda-Mendez wrote Re: KSF Concept
>
>At 10:41 PM 11/15/97 SLT, you wrote:
>>Dear Users,
>>
>>I am searching for the concept of Key Success Factors, How it can be
>defind, wh
>>o created this concept and so on. If there are any referances on this
>concept,
>>all will be appreciated. Thanks in advanced.
>>
>>M.Al-Awadh
>>Businesa Admi. Dept.
>>King Saud Univ.
>>Saudi Arabia
>>Fax 966 14674216
>>
>I am not sure who "created" the concept of key/critical success factors.
>However, you can see what they mean and how they are used in the context of
>quality management by visiting the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
>criteria (http://www.quality.nist.gov/) and downloading the criteria, the
>core values and concepts, and the explanation of the criteria.
>
>Key/critical success factors are merely those few factors on which the
>company's success depend. The value of identifying them is to then develop
>measures for them and track progress against goals derived from comparative
>information so that reaching the goals is likely to ensure competitive
>success. If these are key success factors, then their measures should
>define to the rest of the organization why and how the organization must
>ensure achievement of the goals.
>
>Another reference that we find invaluable and is readily integrated with
>the Baldrige criteria is Kaplan and Norton's _The Balanced Scorecard_ by
>the Harvard Business Press.
Jack Ring
Innovation Management
32712 N. 70th St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85262-7143
602-488-4615