Language & Terminology
Get familiar with terms used inside KPI Fire.
| KPI Fire Term | Definition | Equivalent Term (Frequently Used Synonyms ) |
| Department | A term used to describe a business unit, function, or division. Every Project, Goal, Metric in KPI Fire will be assigned to a Department. | Business Unit, Location, Site, Shared Services, Function, Department |
| Goal | A primary record in KPI Fire. Goals in KPI Fire should be Large Strategic Goals. | Strategy, Objective, Hoshin, OKR, Strategic Pillar, Strategic Theme, Project Portfolio, Business Improvement Initiative |
| Project | A distinct effort or initiative designed to improve our business, or generate savings. Projects have a charter, a team, tasks assigned to team members, and ideally should result in a Financial Project Benefit. | -Improve the loading process for X. -Implement new XX for location BB. -Develop a new process for CC. |
| Idea | An Idea for an improvement. Note: an Idea and a Project are essentially the same thing in KPI Fire. Ideas are a Status of a Project Record. New Ideas are Projects with Status = Idea. When an Idea is Activated, the status = Active and the Idea shows up in Projects Tab. | Improvement Suggestion, New Project idea, Process Improvement proposal, |
| Idea Funnel | A place that shows all ideas that have been submitted. Where you organize Ideas by Effort vs Impact and assign priority to ideas. | Idea Hopper, Project Hopper, Suggestions, Employee Idea program |
| Workflow | A specific template or defaults used to work a project. | Project Template, xls template, Charter Template, Business Case Template. |
| Project Benefit Account | The Accounts that project benefits are organized into. Examples: Cost Savings, Cost Avoidance, Hard Savings, Soft Savings, Business Impact. See projects benefit help |
Cost Savings, Cost Avoidance, Hard Savings, Soft Savings, Business Impact. |
| Metric | Primary record type in KPI Fire used to store numerical (#,$,%) interval data for a key measurement. See Metric Help |
Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, People, Revenue, Satisfaction, Time, etc |
| Targets | Related to Metrics. Target are the values that differentiate the color scale as Red/Yellow/Green of metrics. | Stretch goals, smart goals, KPIs, |
| Tasks & Task Groups | Projects contain task groups and Tasks. Tasks are individual units of work to complete. | Milestone, action item |
| Huddle Board | A configurable screen that can include goals, metrics, projects, and other items and is frequently used in Business Reviews. | Dashboard, Tierboard, Obeya board, Report, |
| Project Charter | A page that summarizes a project. Charter Help |
Business Case, Project Charter, Project Justification Document |
| Notifications | An alert or notice of something done, or to do. | |
| Category | A primary attribute associated with Goals, Metrics, Projects. Often used to indicate Value Stream Steps, or Specific Strategic Themes. | Manufacturing Marketing Finance Product Line 1 Product 2 Growth, Cost, Quality, Safety, Delivery, |
| Tags | Allow for endless customization and personalized use to organize Tasks & projects. Project Tags Help Tags on Tasks Help | |
| Pareto | Pareto charts help identify root causes and sources of defects. In KPI Fire pareto charts are related to metrics. see more about Pareto | |
| Assets | File repository. Files can be uploaded directly, or will show up in assets tab if they are included in workflows. | Documents, Files, Sharepoint Drive, File Storage |
| Status Reports | A way to provide a periodic update on a project or huddleboard using a pre-defined set of questions. Status Report help |
Status Report, Project Updates, Stakeholder Update |
| Certification/ Skills | A way to track the skills and certifications of your users. | Green Belt, Yellow Belt, Black Belt, Certified Change Leader, Process Improvement Specialist |
| xMatrix | A Plan-on-a-page view based on Hoshin Kanri planning method. x-Matrix Help |
x-Matrix, X-Type matrix, Strategic plan |
| Balanced Score Card | A type of huddleboard that follows the Balanced Scorecard Methodology of using Goals with Metrics. | Bsc, Strategic plan |
| Team | A group of users. Teams are created for the purpose of quickly assigning a group of users to a project. Example: Executive Team. Note: Teams are independent of Departments. |
Team, Group, People |
| User | A person who will login to KPI Fire. No Access users may also be created to associate project tasks, or new ideas with specific people in your company for the purposes of record keeping and acknowledgement. | Employees, Staff, Contractors, People |
| License Type | Users can have different permissions based on the license type. see more: License Type Help |
Roles, Job Titles, Record Curtaining, Access Permissions |
| Project Leader | Each project in KPI Fire has one project leader. Typically the project leader is Responsible for the execution of the project. The first team member added to a project will be the project leader. see more: Project Roles Help |
Project Owner, Responsible in RACI |
| Project Sponsor | A key stakeholder with formal authority who provides leadership support, secures resources, and ensures the success of a project. Projects in KPI fire can have one or more sponsors. Sponsor help |
Executive Sponsor, Accountable in RACI |
| Project Member | A person associated with a project, other than the leader or sponsor. | People |
| Project Champion | A project role: Project Roles Help |
Subject Matter Expert, |
| Owner | Goals, Metrics, Projects, and Huddleboard will have A single Owner (user). | Responsible person |
| Editor | Goals, Metrics, Projects, and Huddleboard can have multiple Editors. | A person with edit rights. |
| Viewer | Goals, Metrics, Projects, and Huddleboard can have multiple Viewers assigned. Viewers can Not edit. | A person with read-only access. |
| Access To: | Goal, Metric, Project, Huddleboard records have access control. | Who can view this record? |
Please see additional terms related to Continuous Improvement