Why validate performance measures?

It is important to validate the performance measures with the stakeholders who are responsible for delivering business value from the solution. The performance measures that the business analyst proposes must make sense to them and their business objectives. It is therefore key for the business analyst to identify the most appropriate stakeholders (often the sponsor) to agree and validate that the proposed performance measures are good, relevant, and useful to the stakeholder group.

Continuing with the loan-application solution example we used in the previous section, let's say that the loan-application process has been enhanced to implement improved speed and usability. 

If the success of this solution is being measured by the total loan amounts disbursed since the solution implementation, you will agree that this measure will not be an accurate reflection of the original customer needs. The original business need was concerned with improved customer experience when using the loan-application process. It will be much more appropriate to implement a measure that measures customer satisfaction once they have completed the loan-application process than measuring an aspect that is not in line with the original business needs.