A Comprehensive Evaluation of the

Performance Management Practices of

Nilavo Technologies Limited

Prepared For:
Homayara Latifa Ahmed
Assistant Professor
IBA, University of Dhaka

Prepared By:
Saleh Ahmed ZR-46
Zareen Tasnim RH-83
Arefin Rezwan ZR-

21 June 2015
Institute of Business Administration
University of Dhaka
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Executive summary:
Theoretically, performance management is the process by which managers and
employees work together to plan, monitor and review an employee's work
objectives and overall contribution to the organization. It includes activities
which ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient
manner.
But in real life, in most cases, performance management is synonymous to
performance appraisal which consists of a checklist of criteria to be met based
on which employees are fired or promoted. Bangladeshi companies, too, apply
the aforementioned method of performance appraisal to evaluate employee
performance rather than actually managing the performance of its employees.
Moreover, in many organizations, especially start-ups, creative agencies and
small firms, there is no definite method of performance management.
Nilavo Technologies Ltd. is a small local IT firm which develops software and
exports them to clients abroad. Being a highly technical and flexible firm, with
a small workforce, it has no structured, observable or defined method of
evaluating performance of its employees. As such, we have looked into the
organization and its industry, and importantly into its employees and the context
of their jobs. We have also looked into the current performance management
processes practiced in the company. Based on all these factors, we have
identified some challenges of the company and aimed to re-structure and redefine its performance management system to alleviate these challenges.
Moreover, we have aimed to align the organizational goals and employee goals
to help the organization realize its vision of sustainable growth.

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Table of Contents
1

Organizational Background...........................................................................................................5
1.1

Organogram and personnel:...................................................................................................5

1.1.1

Technical:.......................................................................................................................6

1.1.2

Non-technical:................................................................................................................6

Business model..............................................................................................................................7
2.1

Project duration:.....................................................................................................................7

2.2

Workflow analysis:................................................................................................................7

2.3

Project specifications:............................................................................................................8

2.3.1

Client specifications:......................................................................................................8

2.3.2

Work plan:......................................................................................................................9

2.3.3

Work assignment:...........................................................................................................9

2.3.4

Implementation and monitoring:....................................................................................9

Current performance management practices................................................................................11

3.1

Definition of job:..................................................................................................................11

3.2

Definition of performance:...................................................................................................11

3.3

Standards for the parameters:...............................................................................................11

3.4

Performance management system:.......................................................................................12

3.4.1

Continuous monitoring:...............................................................................................12

3.4.2

Performance review:....................................................................................................12

3.5

Career planning:...................................................................................................................13

3.6

Other benefits:.....................................................................................................................13

Challenges of the organization.....................................................................................................13

4.1

External challenges:.............................................................................................................14

4.2

Internal challenges:..............................................................................................................14

Performance management system................................................................................................15

5.1

Performance planning..........................................................................................................15

5.1.1

Goal alignment and line of sight:.................................................................................16

5.1.2

Work distribution and employee allocation:.................................................................16

5.1.3

Strategic map:..............................................................................................................16

5.2
5.2.1

Performance analysis:..........................................................................................................17
Key performance areas (KPAs):...................................................................................18

5.3

Format of performance review:............................................................................................20

5.4

Performance development....................................................................................................21

5.5

Performance audit................................................................................................................21

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1 Organizational Background
Nilavo Technologies Limited is a local firm which operates in the IT sector of Bangladesh and
specializes in software development. Established in 2006, it is a private limited company. It is an
export firm and mainly serves a single client company based in USA. It does not cater to any local
client in the country and so its whole revenue is generated from export. It is located in Banani, Dhaka.
The vision of the company is achieving sustainable growth. And its mission is to maximize client
satisfaction by providing superior quality work and staying true to its commitments.

1.1 Organogram and personnel:

The personnel in the company can be divided in two categories namely technical and non-technical.
These categories are explained further below:
1.1.1 Technical:
This category constitutes the core employees of the company, as they are the skilled engineers who
participate in the operations to earn revenue. It consists of:
a) Full-time engineers: graduates with at least a Bachelors degree, and their hierarchy is mentioned
below:

JTSP U ROE R N ANO F O I IT OJ NOJE W E R EC R C A E T TR E L E A D :

SEQM NO UA GF NFA T I TA LN W WG I E T A E A Y R R R E S E
EAD N SE GSV IU E N LR E O AE PRN M C E N T
b) Part-time interns: generally 3rd year university students

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1.1.2 Non-technical:
This category consists of the following people:
a) Administration (including finance and HR): the personnel in this section are:

C
M
GD
H
A
O
EE
A
NP
O
N
IEU
A
R
G
RT
M
N
AY
A
G
LM
N
D
MA
RN
A
E
NA
C
AG
T
GE
O
ER
R
R
C
T
O

b) Support staff: consisting of clerks, transport and cleaners

The total number of employees in the company is 35, among which 80% belong to the technical
category.

Business model

The company caters to a single client and develops software products for that client. They mainly
focus on developing new upgraded versions of the original products. Thus the company receives
projects from the same client on a regular basis. The client also demands completely new product
development projects, but on a lower scale.
The company receives contract for each project from the client and the client is billed based on an
engineer/month (per engineer per month) rate.

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2.1 Project duration:

Each project is different and consists of different work specifications. Thus the time-frame of the
projects can vary from few weeks to few months and the work cycle varies accordingly. The average
project (long-term) is 6 months.

2.2 Workflow analysis:

The Chief Technical Officer (CTO) is in charge of operations. He looks after each project contract,
defines the parameters of work and monitors the whole system. The general workflow process for a
project, both long and short-term, is given below:

The CTO divides the project into different major tasks and stages. A number of tasks have to
be completed within a particular stage, within a particular deadline. CTO assigns major tasks
to Project Manager and Project Leads.

They break the tasks down to smaller component tasks and assign to other engineers as
required. Here, the criteria on which job assignment of each engineer is based are:
a) capability and specialized skills for the particular task
b) previous experience in similar task
c) previous performance of similar task

Each component task has a particular deadline. The completion of each component task,
within the designated deadline, is known as milestone.

Multiple teams of engineers are formed based on the component tasks, and each team
performs only the specific component tasks assigned to them.

Deadlines have to be met strictly and stringently as all the smaller work units (tasks and
stages) are interconnected and delay in one segment will have a drastic effect on other
segments.

Project Leads monitor the different teams and they report to the Project Manager, who in turn
reports to the CTO.

2.3 Project specifications:

Each project starts with receiving an order from client and ends with gaining approval of the product
by the client. Thus even after delivery of the product, the firm has to wait for client trial and feedback.
Modifications, if any necessary, based on client feedback are executed and finally the particular
project is completed.
All the employees generally work as a big single team for each project, with smaller sub-teams based
on tasks of the project. The stages of a typical project are:

Requirement gathering from clients in the form of client specifications

Work plan as per client specifications
Work assignment
Implementation and monitoring
K2Review

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Delivery and maintenance

These stages along with their associated components are described below:
2.3.1 Client specifications:
Since the firm deals with technical product, detailed and highly specific requirements are given by the
client. This is known as client specifications and the final product has to meet each and every criterion
mentioned in the client specifications. It also includes a deadline given by the client within which the
product has to be delivered.
2.3.2 Work plan:
The client specifications serve as the framework of the whole project. Based on it, a work plan for the
whole project is prepared by the CTO and Project Manager in the very beginning. This work plan is
followed throughout the whole span of the project and covers all the tasks required to complete the
project. The work plan includes:

Breakdown of the entire project into smaller task modules

Specific requirements of each module including technology to be used
Order in which the modules will be carried out
Deadline for each module
Identification of the unit tasks for each module
Details of each unit task in the form of written brief
Deadline for each task
Distribution of modules and tasks among the engineers

2.3.3 Work assignment:

Each module is generally assigned to a single individual to maximum 3 people. The assignment of
tasks among the engineers (senior, software and junior) depends on the following criteria:

Difficulty of the task

Importance of the task
Specialized skill of individual engineers
Experience of engineers in similar task
Deadline within which the task has to be completed
Development or QA(quality assurance) mentality

Tasks are primarily assigned based on the nature of work and how well it matches with the specialized
skill of an engineer. Besides, an engineer who has done the same type of work is preferred for that
particular work.
The tasks which are very difficult, crucial and/or have to be completed within a very short time are
assigned to the senior engineers.
QA mentality can be described as the dedication and perseverance to check and re-check a finished
task unit or module repeatedly to find errors or loopholes. In contrast, development mentality is the
mentality to finish a work as efficiently and quickly as possible to meet the requirements. Quality
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assurance, the second phase of a task module, entails more critical work and requires engineers who
possess QA mentality. Thus the tasks under quality assurance stage are assigned to a few senior
engineers only.
2.3.4 Implementation and monitoring:
From the technical point of view, each module has two major aspects based on the type of work.
These two aspects entail distinctive and different group of tasks, and thus are carried out in two
separate phases, one after the completion of other. These phases are:
Phase 1: Software development
Phase 2: Quality assurance (QA)
These two phases are described below:
2.3.4.1Phase 1: Software development
The firms projects can be divided into two categories. These are:

Adding new features to software programs

Bug or error fixing of software programs

The software development phase varies according to these two categories. This phase mainly consists
of developing the programming codes for various aspects of the product. Engineers are provided a
detailed written list of the tasks and requirements and they develop the codes accordingly. Once they
finish developing the codes for that particular module, they submit the codes and the QA phase
begins.
2.3.4.2Phase 2: Quality assurance
QA entails checking the developed software to ensure that it meets client expectations and quality
standards of the firm, industry and client. QA consists of the following segments, in this particular
order:

Matching developed software with client specifications

Ensuring functionality and quality of the software

Test cases are developed in this phase to check the functionality and quality. Test cases are programs
and codes that determine whether the developed software performs properly in different case
scenarios relevant to the product usage. The test cases have only two options-pass and fail. If the
software operates properly, it passes. If any glitch is present in the software, it fails in the test case and
is sent back to the development phase for correcting that problem.
In this way, numerous test cases are developed and implemented. And a particular module is tested,
sent back to the development phase for modification and tested again in QA. This cycle is repeated
again and again till the module passes all the test cases. The test cases are first carried out manually
and then automated to increase efficiency and reduce scope of error.
After each unit module is tested and receives QA clearance, regression testing is done. Regression
testing checks if each unit module functions properly with respect to other modules when combined in
a single product. Regression testing also involves test cases and other measures. After rigorous
regression testing, the final product, including all the modules incorporated together, receives QA
clearance.
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2.3.4.3Monitoring:
The Project Manager leads, coordinates and monitors throughout the whole project. The two Lead
Engineers are responsible for the two phases namely software development and quality assurance
respectively. These three positions are constant for every project and the same three people carry out
these responsibilities respectively.
The Project Manager and the two lead engineers report to and consult the CTO.
Throughout any project, review sessions are held at regular intervals to discuss the progress and
problems of the work completed till then. The CTO, Project Manager and Lead Engineers sit with
teams of each module in these review sessions. The frequency of these review sessions depend on the
difficulty, novelty, and urgency of issues of the task modules.
2.3.4.4Review:
Once the final product receives QA clearance, it is submitted. After submission, team distribution of
the product occurs. In this stage, the product is used by the firms engineers for a few days to see if it
works correctly. If it functions properly in the team distribution, it is given to the client for feedback.
After receiving client feedback and making necessary alterations, if asked by the client, a Beta or test
release of the product is done. Here, the product is used by some real-time, live users. If the results of
this Beta release are positive, the product is considered ready to be delivered to the client.
2.3.4.5Delivery and maintenance:
Final delivery is made to the client and all maintenance services are provided and managed by the
firm. The payment is received after delivery.

Current performance management practices

3.1 Definition of job:

Here, we look at the job of the core employee, i.e. an engineer (senior, software, junior) from both
software development and quality assurance categories. The job consists of various tasks, which vary
according to projects. As mentioned before, the Thus there is no absolute job specification. Rather, it
is relative and differs according to the nature of each individual project, the tasks each project entails,
and the individual employee.

3.2 Definition of performance:

There is no absolute definition for performance, as the job varies according to each engineer and each
project. Rather, performance definition and standard is based on each project and the task
requirements. Each task has a target delivery quality and date. Each engineer is expected to meet or
exceed the target quality and date and this is known as performance.

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3.3 Standards for the parameters:

There is no specific absolute standard for performance as the tasks differ for each project. Rather
comparative standards are taken into consideration while measuring performance. There are no rating
scales and the criteria are mostly qualitative and subjective. These comparative standards are based
on:

Minimum requirements as per client specifications

Previous performance of similar work
Performance and estimates of senior engineers
Performance of peers

3.4 Performance management system:

The performance management system in the company consists of two parts which are:

Continuous monitoring
Performance review

The method and stakeholders of each are given below:

3.4.1 Continuous monitoring:
The performance of each engineer is monitored at a continuous basis during the project. Anytime
during the project, if the performance of an engineer is not upto the mark and lagging behind, then the
engineer is informed, given feedback and provided in-house training if necessary. The standard of
performance is based on benchmarking. This is done by:

absolute benchmarking: performance measured in terms of required deadline and quality,

and previous benchmarks in similar task

relative benchmarking: performance measured in terms of the performance of other

engineers

3.4.2 Performance review:

The company has its own performance review system. It is subjective and no rating scale is used. It is
conducted twice a year, and evaluated by the CTO.
The semi-annual performance review consists of the following parts:
3.4.2.1Self review:
Each engineer completes a form for self-review. The form is confidential and is evaluated by only the
CTO and Project Manager. It consist subjective questions which each engineer has to answer. The
questions are like:
What, according to himself, has he achieved during the past 6 months?
Which jobs has he performed well?
Which tasks has he performed unsatisfactorily?
What are his plans for the next 6 months?

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3.4.2.2Review by Project Leads

The Project Lead talks to each engineer individually to discuss his performance for the period. His
achievements, problems, concerns regarding both his and his team-mates work, other opinion he may
have etc are discussed. Informal peer review is also included in this section. Based on these individual
discussions, both Project Leads give their opinions to the Project Manager about the engineers. The
Project Leads discuss the each engineers task performance and also behavior in terms of team.
3.4.2.3Review by Project Manager
The Project Manager gives his opinion about each engineer and major concerns in a discussion with
the CTO. In this discussion, the self-review forms are also evaluated and discussed.
3.4.2.4Review by CTO
The ultimate decision is taken by the CTO based on all the above discussions. The CTO himself
speaks to an engineer in case of a critical or controversial issue.
3.4.2.5System of feedback:
The company has a friendly and open culture. Thus the system of feedback of employees are
encouraged, and taken into account. The feedback system is done through discussion with the CTO or
Chairman, and it can take place anytime during the work cycle.
3.4.2.6Reason for performance review:
Performance review is conducted to formally ensure all employees are performing at an acceptable
level. It is also used as a means to reward employees who are exceeding expectations so that there is
career growth of the employees.
3.4.2.7Results of performance review:
Title, salary, performance bonus, etc. are set based on the review. The bonus is monetary and annual.

3.5 Career planning:

Engineers join as Trainee Software Engineer and then progress to Junior Software Engineer, Software
Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, Project Lead, Project Manager, and so on. Pace of career
progress depends on performance and capability. But this pace of progress is quite slow. Moreover,
the number of top positions is only 3(Project Manager and 2 Project Leads) and are currently
occupied. Thus there is a risk of career plateau.

3.6 Other benefits:

Provident fund, 50% from salary of employee and 50% provided by the company
Leave Fare Assistance
Medical insurance
Transportation
Allowances for internet and phone
Lunch allowance
Referral bonus (50% on appointment of candidate and 50% after his 6 month completion)
Longevity bonus (bonus given due to staying with the company for a particular period)
Festival bonus

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Holiday readjustment for overtime

Recreation center and in-house tournaments: table tennis, carrom, treadmill

4 Challenges of the organization

The challenges of the organization can be divided into two groups, namely external environmental
and industrial challenges and internal organizational and interpersonal challenges. They are described
below:

4.1 External challenges:

Infrastructural: Since continuous internet connectivity is required for completing the tasks,
electricity power shortage and disrupted or slow internet connectivity reduces efficiency.
Intense competition: Since the industry is highly competitive, migration to other companies and job
switching are quite common. Thus employee retention is somewhat low for the industry. As a result,
not only financial but non-financial benefits like securing good working environment, holiday
facilities etc are required to retain employees.
Bureaucratic system: Income tax procedures, payment and billing of electricity and internet,
expansion of electric power supply etc are time consuming due to the bureaucratic system of the
country. Thus expansion of facilities cannot be done easily.

4.2 Internal challenges:

Underperformance: Since each project is team based, thus underperformance of one engineer affects
the overall team performance and output.
Replacement difficulty: Since the work is specialized and technical work, it is difficult to find proper
replacement if any engineer leaves. More importantly, since the work is team based and it is essential
for a new recruit to gel in with the team, the replacement procedure becomes more difficult.
Recruitment process and training: The recruitment process is quite lengthy as each applicant is
judged both on individual and team performance. Moreover, a new recruit has to be trained for the
specific tasks required for the projects. Moreover, a new recruit does not have to sign any bond of
minimum service time to the company. Thus the recruitment and training process is quite costly and
becomes a sunk cost if a recruit leaves.
Team work: Since the projects have to be completed by all the engineers working as a single team
and the tasks are inter-related, good team rapport and team spirit is essential. Non-cooperative attitude
of a single employee may disrupt the whole process.
Task creativity and efficiency: Since the same type of work is usually given to the same engineers,
specialization of work occurs. Although this increases efficiency, but it also has a downside. Any
other employee may be better suited to the task and may complete the task more effectively and
efficiently. Again, this also limits the creativity of the employees and they cannot expand their work
portfolio.
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Dependence on senior employees: Since the higher positions of the employees are based on seniority
along with competency, the company is highly dependent on these 2-3 engineers. Besides, due to
more long-time connections with the management, the opinions of the senior employees are given
more importance. This can have a major impact in the performance review system as it is the process
is subjective.
Ineffective peer review: Since it is a team-based workplace, proper peer reviews are required to
identify the role of individuals in any disruption in the team performance. Since, the number of
employees is quite low and everyone is familiar with everyone, the employees are reluctant to notify
the senior employees of any negatives about their peers. This may result in problems remaining
unsolved.
Lack of specific standards and criteria: As there are no specific job or performance definitions, the
evaluation of performance is highly subjective. For example, what constitutes good performance or
very good performance has no definite standards. This has an impact on performance review and
employee satisfaction as bonuses and promotion are given on the basis of performance comparability
of different employees. Since the judging criteria are not visible to the employees, they may not agree
with the results of performance review.
Analyzing the challenges faced by the company, we identify the main problems, in terms of
performance management and thus the overall organization to be the following:

Lack of clarity in defining, measuring and comparing individual performance

Lack of clarity in defining, measuring and comparing behavioral competencies for team
performance

5 Performance management system

The performance management system can be divided into 5 phases as shown below:

PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM

PERFORMANC
E PLANNING

PERFORMANC
E ANALYSIS

PERFORMANC
E APPRAISAL

PERFORMANC
E

PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT
Here, we take the performance of the core employees, engineers (senior, software, junior) from both
software development and quality assurance categories under consideration. Each of these phases for
managing performance of these core engineers are discussed below:

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5.1 Performance planning

Performance planning is the first step in the performance management process. It refers to setting
expectations and objectives for the groups and individuals to channelize their efforts towards
achieving organizational goals. The various components falling under this phase are given below:
5.1.1 Goal alignment and line of sight:
The organizations vision is sustainable growth. But the company is dependent on only client at the
moment for its orders. Thus, the company needs to look for more clients for being sustainable.
On the other hand, since the employees are main resources in the company, growth in the employees
capabilities would result in growth of the company in terms of earning revenue. But since
specialization occurs, and limited number of projects is taken, employee skill base remains limited.
And this reduces productivity of the employees and thus, productivity of the company. This in turn
hampers growth of the company. Thus employee skill growth should be a goal of the company and
this would be in alignment with the individual employee goal.
On the other hand, the organizations mission is to maximize client satisfaction by providing superior
quality work and staying true to its commitments. And this is the goal of every project the company
undertakes. To achieve this, the goal of each employee should be set at producing excellent quality
work.
Thus the employee goals would be excelling in quality and growth of capabilities.
5.1.2 Work distribution and employee allocation:
As this is a project based organization, a detailed work distribution is done for each phase of each
project for each employee. The method of work allocation and planning already applied in the
organization, as mentioned above, is to be used for this purpose.
5.1.3 Strategic map:
Balanced scorecard is the strategy which addresses and integrates the core issues prevailing in the
organization, and the goals the organization wants to achieve. Based on the four perspectives of the
balanced scorecard, the strategic map for the company is formulated accordingly:

FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE:

CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE:

INCREASE
REVENUE

INCREASE
REVENUE
PORTFOLIO

INCREASE
CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION

INCREASE
CUSTOMER
AWARENESS

INTERNAL PERSPECTIVE:
INCREASE
EFFICIENCY

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IMPROVE
COMMUNICATION
AND STANDARS

LEARNING AND GROWTH PERSPECTIVE:

Lead and lag indicators:

a) Financial perspective:
i) Increase revenue
Lag: amount of revenue generated
Lead: increase in number of clients and orders, better profit margin
ii) Increase revenue portfolio
Lag: revenue growth
Lead: increase in number of clients and orders
b) Customer perspective:
i) Increase customer satisfaction
Lag: customer satisfaction score
Lead: reduction in delivery time of project
ii) Increase customer awareness
Lag: number of customer calls
Lead: promotion through internet
c) Internal process perspective:
Increase efficiency
Lag: higher number of projects completed within a timeframe
Lead: improved employee performance, improved team performance
d) Learning and growth perspective:
Improve communication and standards
Lag: employee satisfaction and growth of skills
Lead: better framework for performance management

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5.2 Performance analysis:

Performance analysis involves setting the criteria and standards for performance and understanding
the various factors contributing to performance
Here, we address the issue from the learning and growth perspective as it relates directly to the main
immediate challenges of the organization as which, as mentioned before, are:

Lack of clarity in defining, measuring and comparing individual performance

Lack of clarity in defining, measuring and comparing behavioral competencies for team
performance

Thus, if we improve the communication and standards for defining and measuring performance,
comparability would be easier and more transparent. And observability and knowledge of the criteria
would lead to greater employee satisfaction. Moreover, there would be less scope of bias and it would
decrease the dependency on sole opinions of the senior Project Manager.
Besides, this would help define performance and what constitutes good or bad performance. This in
turn would help to increase the efficiency of the organizational process by establishing clearly what
performance means and what the KPIs are.
5.2.1 Key performance areas (KPAs):
Although it is a project based organization and the nature of work differs, these are the critical
parameters i.e. which could be considered for measuring performance of both the software and quality
assurance engineers. And these critical parameters could be grouped under two KPAs. These are:

Individual performance
Team performance

Each KPA consists of a number of critical criteria which are the key performance indicators or KPIs to
measure the behavior and performance of the engineers. They are given below:
5.2.1.1a) KPA: Individual performance
Associated KPIs;
The KPIs under individual performance are related to the performance of each engineer, irrespective
of others, and include quality, output and input aspects.
Solidity of work: The solidity of work KPI refers to quality of the programming code and number of
bugs or errors present in the software.
Each task can be completed in various methods of programming. But there are some ways which are
more efficient, effective, competent and safe. These methods by which the tasks are done determine
the quality of the programming code. Moreover, the number of bugs increases the risk factor of the
work. Thus this KPI is the most important of all and would carry a higher weight.
Timeliness: The timeliness KPI refers to whether deadline is met or not.
As the tasks are highly interrelated, delay in one deadline will delay the whole process. Thus the
nature of the work is very time-sensitive and timeliness is a crucial criteria.
Efficiency: This KPI refers to how much of a particular task is done within a fixed period of time.
The deadline given for completion of a particular task is the maximum time which is required by an
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employee to complete the task. Although the deadlines are set to ensure a certain level of efficiency
from the employees, they are realistic too and contain a time margin for error fixing or delay. Thus
there is scope of meeting varied degrees of efficiency within the deadline. And so, it can be a KPI to
measure good performance.
Level of understanding instructions: This KPI refers to how well and accurately a member
understands the written task description and instructions.
Each task has very specific instructions. These instructions are in a detailed written format based on
client specifications and work assignment according to CTO and Project Manager. It is very important
that the engineer understands this written brief on his own and completes the task accordingly.
5.2.1.2b) KPA: Team performance
Associated KPIs:
The KPIs under team performance address both the behavioral competencies for team work and also
interpersonal or dyadic factors.
Team spirit: The KPI of team spirit refers to how well the member adapts and works cohesively with
the group. It also refers to the extent an employee contributes towards completing the team objective.
As the tasks are interdependent and hence, the employees are interdependent and team spirit is thus a
very important KPI.
Cooperation: This KPI refers to how much the member helps others, especially junior engineers to
solve problems they may be facing in coding or fixing errors.
As the tasks are technical and each task is different upto an extent, this would act as coaching for the
junior employees. And this would also help build better interpersonal relationship between the people.
Tolerance and responsibility: This KPI refers to the extent an employee is tolerable of others
mistakes and how he deals with them. Besides, it also refers to the extent an employee takes
responsibility for any error of the sub-team or dyad and the way he deals the situation.
As this is a small organization, with interdependent task and jobs, having a good, healthy and friendly
environment is extremely important. And thus this KPI would help determine an employees role in
maintaining that environment.
Some of the facilitating and inhibiting factors, attributable to the individual, seniors, subordinate or
juniors, organization and its systems and work environment, affecting the performance of the
employees are given below:

Facilitating factors:

Familiarity with task

Inherent desire and initiative to exceed target
Clarity of the written instruction brief
Advice/demonstration of difficult work by seniors
Maintenance of deadline by other engineers
Fast and uninterrupted internet service
Updated and appropriate software in workstations and computers

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Efficient and competent juniors to enable delegation

Inhibiting factors:

Inability to be flexible or adaptable

No feedback from Project Manager or Leads
Inertia in the absence of pressure
Absence of team spirit among the other members
Virus in the computers of the workplace
Loadshedding and disrupted electricity
Lack of working knowledge and skill of the juniors
Lack of training

5.3 Performance Appraisal

5.3.1 Format of performance review:
The format and criteria of the framework is based on the two challenges and the balanced scorecard as
mentioned above. The performance management framework is directly related to the learning and
growth perspective of the balanced scorecard. It is the lead indicator to improve communication and
standards. It would increase employee satisfaction by bringing transparency and observability into the
performance review system. Besides, results from the evaluation would help increase the efficiency of
the organizational process by identifying and communicating the problems of each individual, the
gaps in the process, and the measures to overcome them.
The format of evaluation of performance in the performance review is given below:
5.3.1.1Who evaluates:
The performance evaluation is kept the same in terms of who does the evaluation. The Project
Manager, CTO, Project Leads will evaluate the engineers, as well as the engineers themselves through
self review. We only introduce a form for formal peer review.
5.3.1.2When it takes place:
The performance review is kept semi-annual, as per industry standard. Moreover, since average
project duration is 6 months, conducting performance evaluation twice a year has the chances of
coinciding with completion of a project.
5.3.1.3What is evaluated:
The performance of the employees throughout the 6-month period, based on the KPIs would be
evaluated. Moreover, the results and critical incidents found during the continuous monitoring phases
would also be taken into account. Besides, self-review, peer evaluation and management discretionary
decisions would also be considered as the work environment is very fluid and flexible and the work
type has many subjective components.

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5.3.1.4Evaluation method:
Behaviorally rated anchor scales, BARS would be used to measure the KPIs. and the results would
form the basis for bonus, increment in salary. Besides, the results of continuous monitoring as per the
Project Leads and Project Manager would be taken into account.
For the peer evaluation, ranking could be used with a comments section to explain the answers.
Besides, subjective judgment regarding behavioral competency and results of self-evaluation forms as
provided by the CTO and senior employees, as mentioned above, will be taken into account for career
planning and successor planning.
5.3.1.5How review takes place:
The existing methods for self-review, review by Project Manager, Project Leads and CTO, as
mentioned above, would be used i.e. confidential e-mail for self-review, discussion of employees with
Project Leads and discussion for Project Leads, Project Managers and CTO. The new addition, the
peer review form would be confidential and handed over to the Project Manager.
5.3.1.6Feedback:
The feedback method would remain the same i.e. immediate feedback at any time of work as
continuous monitoring is done. Besides, open discussion with Project Manager and CTO after
performance review, as mentioned before, would still be in place.

5.4 Performance development

Based on the results of the performance review, 2 key successors with high potential will be
determined and they would be given more challenging jobs to test their capacities and build them up
for the future. Besides, more promotional ranks are created so that career plateau doesnt happen.

5.5 Performance audit

As this is a small organization with similar types of projects, and the review format is quite flexible,
the performance audit can be done after every 2 years or so. But if the environment changes
drastically, i.e. if new clientele with decidedly different types of projects are incorporated in the
revenue portfolio, then the performance review would need audit and revision.

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6 Works Cited

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