Metric Analysis Tool

1
Metric Analysis Tool

• Presented by
• Henry Burgess
• Gerald Frawley

2
The Problem Too Much Data

• At present, church officers have access to an
  abundance of data, but no simple way to review
  it. Furthermore, many of the church officials
  are, well, technically challenged.

3
Metrics, Metrics, Metrics

• The data can be classified in two broad
  categories attendance and church donations.
• For Attendance, Nardin Park collects data on the
  total number of Sunday worshipers, Sunday
  visitors, Adult Sunday School participation,
  Youth Sunday School Participation, and Children
  Sunday School Participation.
• For donations, the church collects data on
  donations to Operations, Building, and Special
  Gifts.

4
Sorting through the data

• The Nardin Park United Methodist Metric Analysis
  Tool is intended to assist church officers in the
  examination of these key metrics in a simple,
  non-threatening way.
• The Metric Analysis Tool is also designed to be
  simple to use, requiring no computer aptitude.

5
Challenges

• Original data is stored separately and not
  consistently

• Lack of technical-savvy by users/lack of Excel
  proficiency
• Intimidating quantity of data and missing data

6
Goals

• To quickly unify the data and present it in a way
  that is meaningful to users. 

•  To make vast amount of data more palatable by
  presenting it in a graphical, easy to understand
  format.

7
Bottom Line

• Essentially, the output is designed to show users
  where the church stands for each individual
  metric, as well as present a simple comparative
  analysis of year-to-year data and year-to-date
  data.

8
Conventions

• The Tool collects data at start up from across
  the network

so data is current 

• Old data is purged on exiting the program

9
Conventions (contd)

•  At startup, the user is prompted for a desired
  time period, ranging from January 1, 1998,
  through Dec. 31 2011. Throughout the session,
  users can choose other time periods, which can
  range from weeks to years
• As a frame of reference, the user is presented
  with a few key data points with each chart
  separate from the metricaverage church
  attendance for the previous 52 weeks. 

10
User interface

• Users can change the date criteria throughout the
  session, change the metrics to review, print
  reports, etc.
• Primarily push-button interface 

11
Annual Data

• Rather than relying on charts to model the data,
  year-to-year comparisons are provided in summary
  form. This information compares each completed

year to the prior year and also compares
year-to-date figures from the current year to the
same period in the previous year.
12
Future plans

• Additional feature not implemented, but which
  could still be added is a simple forecasting
  model.
• The metric model charts are fully functional and
  will allow for trend/forecasting analysis through
  user intervention.
• This feature could be automated to allow for
  various trend lines (linear, logarithmic,
  polynomial, etc.) via a simple button and user
  input for years. This may or may not be useful. 

13
Conclusion

• With the Metric Analysis Tool, effectiveness of
  programs and ministries can be evaluated using
  current and past history. Exposure to the data
  itself is a powerful stimulus. Or, as a minister
  remarked on viewing an early prototype, Ah, so
  we need to keep the weekly number above the blue
  line (52 week moving average) to have growth?