How to Use Metric Types in Enforcium

Metrics help companies understand what is happening across different areas of the business. In Enforcium, each metric can also have a defined role within the overall measurement system.

This role is specified through Metric Type.

Enforcium provides three Metric Types:

• Input
• Output
• North Star

These categories help organize metrics according to their place and importance within the company’s measurement structure.

A Metric Type describes the role a metric plays in the measurement system.

The category gives additional context to the metric and helps teams understand how it relates to other measurements. A Metric Tree can contain metrics with different types, creating a structured view of how the business is measured.

The three types represent different perspectives on business performance.

Input focuses on what enters a system.

Output focuses on what the system produces.

North Star highlights a primary result that represents an important direction for the company or team.

Together, these categories help create a clearer measurement structure.

An Input metric represents something that enters a process, system, or area of business activity.

Inputs can describe resources, activities, or measurable factors that contribute to a later result. They provide visibility into the conditions or flow that support business operations.

Think of Input as the starting point of a measurement relationship.

When reviewing an Input metric, teams can understand what is entering the system and use that information alongside other related metrics. This can be particularly useful when several measurements contribute to a larger business result.

Input metrics can also sit within the Metric Tree alongside related parent and child metrics. Enforcium allows metrics to be organized through these relationships, creating a connected measurement system.

An Output metric represents a measurable result produced by a process, activity, or system.

It shows what the business gets from the work being performed. Output metrics are therefore useful for evaluating the results generated by a particular area of operations.

Consider a process with several stages. Input metrics can describe what enters the process, while Output metrics can describe what comes out of it.

This relationship gives teams another way to understand operational performance. A metric can also be connected to a process step through Linked metrics, allowing the measurable result associated with a specific part of the work to be visible.

Output metrics can therefore provide useful context when teams review how operational work relates to measurable business results.

A North Star metric represents a key result that a company or team focuses on as a primary measure of performance.

It provides a central point of reference for the measurement system.

The North Star category is useful when one metric has particular importance for understanding the direction or overall result of a business area. Other metrics can then provide additional context around that primary measure.

A North Star metric can also be connected to other metrics within the Metric Tree. This creates a structured view where related measurements can be organized around broader business outcomes.

The category gives the metric a clear role within the wider measurement system and helps teams recognize which result deserves particular attention.

When creating a metric, consider what role the measurement plays in the business.

Choose Input when the metric represents something entering a process or system.

Choose Output when the metric represents a result produced by a process or area of work.

Choose North Star when the metric represents a primary result that the company or team uses as a key point of focus.

The choice should reflect the purpose of the metric within your measurement structure.

You can select the Metric Type when configuring a metric in Metric Tree. The Metric Tree provides the workspace for creating, configuring, and organizing metrics and their relationships.

Metric Type is one part of metric configuration.

When creating a metric, Enforcium also lets you define its data type and value type. Available data types are Regular, Static, and Aggregator. Available value types are Number, Currency, Percent, and Time.

These settings describe different aspects of a metric and can be configured together according to the needs of the measurement system.

For example, a metric can have a Metric Type that describes its business role and a value type that defines how its result is expressed.

Metric Types help give structure to the company’s measurement system.

A metric provides an actual measurement. A KPI can then define a specific goal for that metric over a particular period.

This creates a broader connection between measurement and performance management.

Metric Type → Metric → KPI → Business result

The Metric Tree organizes the measurement structure, while the Live Dashboard supports daily monitoring of current values and changes over time.

With the right Metric Types, teams can understand the role of each measurement and see how individual metrics contribute to a structured view of business performance.