Organizational activity analysis: a methodology for analyzing and improving technical organizations

The role of a technical manager is changing as the skills for success become more managerial, and the technical function becomes more tightly coupled with organizational goals. The purpose of this paper is to suggest an approach to evaluating technical organizations or units in a quantitative way consistent with the needs of many technical managers who increasingly are being asked to make decisions about reorganization, downsizing, and productivity improvement. Organizational activity analysis examines unit mission-related functioning through the use of an activity database. The methodology provides decision makers with reliable information upon which decisions for operations improvement can be made. A description of the methodology, example applications, and implementation strategies are presented