AHP and SMART Criteria for KPI Selection in Higher Education

Abstract

Identifying and choosing the most pertinent Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) has a crucial impact on decision making: if the wrong KPIs are measured, or if they are measured in the wrong way, the information may be misleading and the quality of decisions can be significantly affected. Choosing appropriate KPIs requires a deep understanding of the organization. Moreover, a successful selection of appropriate KPIs relies on a number of well-defined criteria. We propose in this paper a new approach to facilitate the structuring, and/or synthesis of a set of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timebased KPIs (SMART KPIs) based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The approach steps are illustrated and validated with a real case study. This case study is related to the candidates’ selection process in a Tunisian higher education institute.