Regulatory process metrics: what to measure, how to measure it, and what the numbers mean

Measure what matters, not what is easy

Lesson 1 gave you the QMS structure: a process inventory, a documentation hierarchy, a governance matrix, and a review calendar. That structure is necessary. But a structure without measurement is a building without windows -- you cannot see what is happening inside. The QMS owner schedules reviews, the author revises SOPs, the trainer documents competency. How do you know any of it is working?

You measure it. And here is where most sites go wrong: they measure what is easy to count rather than what is important to know. I have reviewed metrics programs at dozens of investigator sites, and the pattern is remarkably consistent. The site counts things -- number of SOPs, number of trainings completed, number of IRB submissions per month. The site produces reports with those counts. And nobody makes a single decision based on any of it, because counting activity tells you nothing about quality. A site that submits 40 IRB applications per month is not necessarily performing better than a site that submits 12. A site with 100% training completion may have staff who cannot actually perform the documented procedures.

The problem is not measurement itself. The problem is measuring the wrong things, or measuring the right things at the wrong level, or measuring everything and understanding nothing. This lesson will teach you to design a metrics program that generates insight -- that tells you where the QMS is performing, where it is degrading, and where intervention is needed before a problem becomes a finding.

Measure what matters, not what is easy

Measure what matters, not what is easy

What you will learn

Regulatory process metrics: what to measure, how to measure it, and what the numbers mean

Measure what matters, not what is easy

What you will learn