Introduction
Enjoying a good readership and having a high number of citations are two of the most common goals of any researcher when writing a PhD dissertation. Have you ever thought about how to achieve these goals? If not, then know that the answer to this lies in the development of key performance indicators for your PhD dissertation. Yes, you have heard it right – the KPIs. Just like a business measures its growth based on the set KPIs, you can measure the success of your dissertation. However, stop here for a while. The KPIs are only useful when you develop the right ones for your dissertation.
Keeping this in view, today’s article is all about how you can prepare key performance indicators for your PhD dissertation. There will be a description of the top steps you can take in this regard. However, before that happens, let’s define the term key performance indicator or KPI and highlight its importance.
What does it mean by KPI?
A KPI stands for key performance indicator, which is a quantifiable measure of the performance of something over time for a specific object. As today’s article is about a PhD dissertation, so you can relate this definition to the performance of the dissertation. The performance of the dissertation? Yes, it means how successful your dissertation is after its writing and publishing.
KPI is important to ensure that your dissertation performs well and that you have achieved what you want. Below are some reasons that highlight the importance of key performance indicators in your PhD dissertation.
- KPIs keep you aligned with your research project and do not let you get off track
- KPIs give you a realistic look at the performance of your dissertation
- KPIs help you make adjustments if needed in your dissertation
If you are facing any difficulties in making your dissertation KPIs, you can get PhD dissertation help.
How to develop effective KIPs for your dissertation?
After reading the information above, you have learned the meaning of key performance indicators and their importance. Still, you do not know how to craft effective KPIs for your PhD dissertation. So, let’s not make you wait further. A brief description of the major steps involved in the preparation of KPIs is as follows:
Start with the strategy
Start crafting your KPIs with a strategy in mind. Without a concrete stake in your mind, it is incredibly easy to predict that you will end up with a daunting list of indicators. You could feel that you should measure all those indicators, but believe me, the majority of those indicators will be useless and irrelevant to your PhD dissertation. The strategy, therefore, acts as the starting point for developing effective key performance indicators. So, create a simple one-page strategy outlining your objectives to start off the process.
Define the questions you need answers to the next step is about defining the questions you need answers to. After linking the KPIs with the strategy, the KPIs become more obvious and clearer. When you define the questions also, they further narrow down. The reason is that the questions give the KPIs context. If you plan to execute a simple strategy to increase the readership of your dissertation, you could simply ask: “Discussing what in my dissertation can potentially increase my dissertation’s readership?” Once you are clear in questions, know that half of the work is done.
Identify the data needs and evaluate the data
So, you are clear with the questions you need to ask after the previous step. The next step asks you to define the data needed to prepare the key performance indicators. While performing this step, forget about the ground reality for a moment. Gather data and knowledge that you want to have in the ideal world. After the collection of the needed data, next comes the data evaluation step. Previously, you have worked on the ideal data; now, come back to reality. Ask yourself which data is close to reality and can be helpful in developing a KPI that can measure the readership of your PhD dissertation.
Determine the right measurement methodology
Until now, you have a strategy, defined questions, and the supporting data needed to prepare the key performance indicators. Still, you are missing the most important thing. The most important thing is the measurement methodology. Using which methodology will you measure that your dissertation has achieved the set readership goals? When choosing the methodology, know that most of the data have a shelf life, after which it is useless to report that data. For example, your dissertation is on the best summer dressings for kids. You have gathered the data for the summer, and if you report that data in the winter, it is useless. The reason is that the shelf-life of your data has surpassed. In winter, people are looking for winter data, not summer clothing ideas. So, choose the right methodology that can answer your question within the shelf-life of the data.
Prepare the KPIs and communicate them
The second last step is the preparation of the KPIs and communicating them with your supervisor. Ensure that you follow all the procedures mentioned above to develop KPIs. It is necessary because getting off the track and missing one step can take you in the wrong direction. So, prepare your PhD dissertation KPIs accordingly. Also, once prepared, do not forget to share them with your supervisor. He should know about your performance evaluation criteria.
Review the KPIs
If the set KPI is not helping you achieve the desired goals and objectives, consider reviewing it for better performance. Take all the steps mentioned above again into consideration and start the process from the beginning. Constantly keep reviewing the KPIs for the better performance of your PhD dissertation in the academic world.
Conclusion
If prepared and used properly, key performance indicators are a vital tool for your PhD dissertation. You can increase the success of your research work with their help. So, I have mentioned the top 6 steps to prepare the KPIs for your PhD dissertation. If you want to learn more ways or framework-based methods, go to the internet now.
