Measurement system health metrics

Purpose

Use these measures together to answer: Are decision-critical metrics current and complete enough to support the decisions that depend on them? A dashboard can be freshly updated but missing important segments or periods. It can also be complete but too old for the decision at hand.

Application

Use the pair for a named collection of metrics tied to a recurring decision, review, or operating process. Define the expected update cadence and required observations for each metric rather than applying one universal rule.

What it is

• Metric freshness measures whether active decision-critical metrics were updated within their expected cadence.
• Metric completeness measures whether required dimensions and periods contain valid observations.

Together they provide a readiness check for the measurement system. They are data-operability measures, not substitutes for validity, relevance, or correct interpretation.

Definition and components

Metric freshness

Use this as the calculation definition: Metrics updated on time divided by Active decision-critical metrics. Unit: Percentage. Interpretation: Shows the share of active measures updated within their defined cadence at the review cutoff.

Metric completeness

Use this as the calculation definition: Valid required observations divided by Required observations. Unit: Percentage. Interpretation: Shows the share of required metric-period-segment cells that contain a valid, usable observation.