Simon andrews: Initial creation of list of metrics

2011-11-10T16:00:38Z

Initial creation of list of metrics

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==Introduction==

As part of the [[11th_Discussion-7_November_2011 | recent public call]] one of the topics which was raised was how feasible it was to quantitatively assess the output of a core facility. One of the actions from this call was that we would try to put together a list of metrics which could be used to measure how well a core was performing and that this might be useful for both helping to assess your own core, or to compare your core with others to see how you compare.

==Metrics==

===Background Information===

This information doesn't measure the core facility, but would help other people seeing the later metrics to put them in some kind of context.

# Number of members of staff
## Number of general bioinformaticians
## Number of programmers
## Number of database administrators
## Number of statisticians
## Number of computer technicians
## Number of admin/management staff
# Method of support (chargeback / grants / core funded etc)
# Number of staff to support
## Ratio of biologists : bioinformaticians

===Core Metrics===

These metrics could be calculated over any arbitrary period of time. They could be applied to a facility as a whole or to specific individuals or groups of individuals.

# Proportion of work hours attributable to:
## Billable or Assignable work for biologists
## Maintainance of existing facilities or tools
## Development of new facilities or tools
## Developing, Presenting or Receiving training
## Other enrichment activities (reading / writing papers, attending conferences etc)
## Administration
## Other activities
## Unaccounted hours
# Number of jobs completed per day per person
# Average number of active jobs per person
# Average number of pending jobs per person
# Average elapsed time on active jobs
# Average length of time to start working on a job
# Average length of time to complete a job (elapsed time)
# Average length of work on a job (billable or active time)
# Ratio of active time to elapsed time

Working out how best to summarise job lengths might be tricky. In our core I know that there are certain jobs which will drag on for months whilst most jobs are completed within a day, so a simple mean would not be appropriate. Perhaps expressing the results as box-whisker plots (maybe on a log time scale) would give a realistic impression).

Core Facility Metrics - Revision history

Simon andrews: Initial creation of list of metrics