Numetrics

The effectiveness of a company's engineering organization and overall integrated circuit (IC) product development process has become central to competitive advantage in the semiconductor industry. Rigorously benchmarking and monitoring its health has therefore become vital. The first step in calibrating development capability is creating a measurement framework of key performance indicators (KPIs).

The ten key performance indicators discussed in this paper are powerful measures of IC (hardware) development capability. Covering the three essential dimensions of development performance—output, time and development cost—they quickly give a clear and balanced picture of product development efficacy. Companies can use these KPIs to ensure that their organizations are making the improvements necessary to remain competitive, and to empower managers to motivate their teams with realistic development performance targets.