what are metrics 
metrics are measures of quantitative assessment commonly used for assessing comparing and tracking performance or production generally a group of metrics will typically be used to build a dashboard that management or analysts review on a regular basis to maintain performance assessments opinions and business strategies investopedia candra huffunderstanding metricsmetrics have been used in accounting operations and performance analysis throughout history metrics come in a wide range of varieties with industry standards and proprietary models often governing their use executives use them to analyze corporate finance and operational strategies analysts use them to form opinions and investment recommendations portfolio managers use metrics to guide their investing portfolios furthermore project managers also find them essential in leading and managing strategic projects of all kinds overall metrics refer to a wide variety of data points generated from a multitude of methods best practices across industries have created a common set of comprehensive metrics used in ongoing evaluations however individual cases and scenarios typically guide the choice of metrics used choosing metricsevery business executive analyst portfolio manager and the project manager has a range of data sources available to them for building and structuring their own metric analysis this can potentially make it difficult to choose the best metrics needed for important assessments and evaluations generally managers seek to build a dashboard of what has come to be known as key performance indicators kpis in order to establish a useful metric a manager must first assess its goals from there it is important to find the best outputs that measure the activities related to these goals a final step is also setting goals and targets for kpi metrics that are integrated with business decisions academics and corporate researchers have defined many industry metrics and methods that can help shape the building of kpis and other metric dashboards an entire decision analysis method called applied information economics was developed by douglas hubbard for analyzing metrics in a variety of business applications 1 other popular decision analysis methods include cost benefit analysis forecasting and monte carlo simulation several businesses have also popularized certain methods that have become industry standards in many sectors dupont began using metrics to better their own business and in the process came up with the popular dupont analysis which closely isolates variables involved in the return on equity roe metric ge has also commissioned a set of metrics known as six sigma that are commonly used today with metrics tracked in six key areas critical to quality defects process capability variation stable operations and design for six sigma examples of metricswhile there are a wide range of metrics below are some commonly used tools economic metricsoperational company metricsfrom a comprehensive perspective executives industry analysts and individual investors often look at key operational performance measures of a company all from different perspectives some top level operational metrics include measures derived from the analysis of a company s financial statements key financial statement metrics include sales earnings before interest and tax ebit net income earnings per share margins efficiency ratios liquidity ratios leverage ratios and rates of return each of these metrics provides a different insight into the operational efficiency of a company executives use these operational metrics to make corporate decisions involving costs labor financing and investing executives and analysts also build complex financial models to identify future growth and value prospects integrating both economic and operational metric forecasts there are several metrics that are key to comparing the financial position of companies against their competitors or the market overall two of these key comparable metrics which are based on market value include price to earnings ratio and price to book ratio portfolio managementportfolio managers use metrics to identify investing allocations in a portfolio all types of metrics are also used for analyzing and investing in securities that fit a specific portfolio strategy for example environmental social and governance esg criteria are a set of standards for a company s operations that socially conscious investors use to screen potential investments project management metricsin project management metrics are essential in measuring project progression output targets and overall project success some of the areas where metric analysis is often needed include resources cost time scope quality safety and actions project managers have the responsibility to choose metrics that provide the best analysis and directional insight for a project metrics are followed in order to measure the overall progression production and performance 