Water Performance Assessment Basics: Indicators Characteristic
Indicators are indications, signals, or markers that display how near a program is to its targeted route and results.
They assess one component of a program and illustrate how close it is to achieving those outcomes. Indicators are criteria that are attainable and measurable for evaluating the development of a project.
They should be specified prior to the beginning of the project, and they should enable us to monitor or assess whether or not a project produces the results that it promised to produce. Indices serve as the connecting mechanism between theory and practice in the process of project planning.
An indicator is a tool that can assist you in determining whether or not the work that you are doing is having an effect. Indicators often provide a description of visible changes or occurrences that are associated with the intervention taken by the project.
They offer proof that something has taken place, whether it be the delivery of an output, the occurrence of an immediate consequence, or the observation of a change that has occurred over a longer period of time.
An indicator could be any variable, quantifiable or not. However, it has one peculiarity: it has to "achieve results by a stated goal or plans and according to criteria." (IBNET, no date).
So far, we have agreed that the creation of the indicator is the first step towards our goal, and as Bruce Nauman said: 'what makes the work interesting is choosing the right (indicator) questions".
Different sources enlist several requirements towards the creation of an indicators database. As shown in Table 1 below, three primary sources help us classify them into few characteristics: Few, Simple, Timed, and Owned.
When we create an indicators database to monitor the efficiency of the whole operation of any WU, it is vital to keep a balanced approach to all areas inside the process; otherwise, it could create deterioration in those underweight areas or what is called "push-pull" effect. (Matos et al., 2015)