Acknowledgments

The purpose of an acknowledgment, as I understand it, is to let those people who helped make this achievement possible know that I didn’t forget their contributions. This chore makes this easily the most stressful part of writing a book.

I don’t want to forget any of my friends or colleagues who helped me by reviewing, critiquing, or suggesting edits to the work as it was in progress, especially: Don Padgett, Danita Leese, Leah Lang, Keith (Mac) McIntosh, Marin Stanek, and my brother Irving. Thanks for the short-notice reads. Thanks for the kind words. And thanks for being there.

Of course, Russ Cheesman has to be thanked for his work as my technical reviewer. Although Russ and I disagreed as often as we agreed about metrics and their use, when asked for a recommendation, I immediately thought of Russ for the job. His honest and passionate position, his large knowledge base, and his expertise made him an easy choice. Thanks, Russ, for your hard work, your many suggestions, and your honest appraisals.

I want to give a special thanks to Michael Langthorne. Not only were you my most dependable reviewer, but your early and consistent encouragement to take this journey, on my own, was instrumental to me starting and finishing this work. I appreciate your help, guidance, and gentle but steady shoves very much. Thanks. I truly could not have done this without you.

I also want to thank Jeff Olson, Kimberly Burton, and Annie Beck. Although you made up the Apress editorial team, and were “just doing your jobs,” I can’t say I saw you that way. I greatly appreciate your help. You were honest, consistent, and fair. You were focused on producing the best product possible for Apress while showing sincere concern for my position as an author. Someday, if the chance ever arrives, I’m buying the first round.

Last, but as the saying goes, not least, I want to thank my family. Especially my wife, Kristine. This time around, you successfully feigned interest in my progress, if not in the work itself. I appreciate the effort and I love you dearly. Alyssa, thanks for your help with the fairy tales and allowing me to use your art work for the book. I look forward to seeing your name on more jacket covers. I love you.

And a final, special thank you to you, whoever you are, reading this book. You are special—you must be because no one reads the acknowledgements unless they think they’ll find their name listed. So you must be one of the rare people who read books from cover to cover. That means you may also be the type of reader who will use the material within these pages. You may also be the type of person who will share your thoughts, likes, and dislikes. So, here’s to hoping I hear from you and thanks in advance for any feedback you choose to share. I hope this book helps you navigate the sometimes dangerous waters of developing metrics.

Note 1: This book is an abridged version of my book, Metrics: How To Improve Key Business Results (Apress, 2011). We thought a shorter version of the book might help those who have a more focused need on just getting a metrics program started. This version is intended to provide the minimum needed to be successful in creating meaningful metrics.

Since this abridged version of Metrics: How To Improve Key Business Results is a child of the original, the acknowledgments are the same except I’d like to offer another thanks to the Apress team for believing enough in my mission of simplifying metrics that they championed this version.

Note 2:  While I have worked hard to provide you, the reader, with real examples (real situations, interactions, experiences, measures, and data), I had to temper that effort with protecting the privacy and data owned by others. To this end, I have, where necessary, blended and combined individuals into composites. I have also done the same with data. As you will read, I fully believe that data is “owned” by the provider(s) of that data, so I have protected the identities and data of those whose experiences I used for much of this book.