---
id: KB-IC-006
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/reports-and-quality/measuring-whether-control-is-improving
idioma: en
categoria: informes-y-calidad
subcategoria: informes
audiencia: usuario
nivel: avanzado
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-IC-001, KB-IC-003]
citadoPor: [KB-TL-017, KB-IC-017, KB-IC-018]
---

# Knowing whether this is improving

_Three numbers that tell the truth, and two that mislead._

**Responde a:** how do i know if document control is improving · document management indicators · measuring compliance improvement · supplier documentation kpi

Six months in, the question appears: is this working? An honest answer needs three numbers, and there are two people watch that say nothing.

## The three that do say something

| Number | What it reveals | Which way it should go |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Average days to complete a case | Whether the process works | Down, then stabilise |
| How many complete with nobody phoning | Whether automatic chasing works | Up |
| How many expired items exist right now | Whether control is real or on paper | Zero, and stay there |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The second is what genuinely measures whether this is giving you time back. A case completing in ten days but with four phone calls along the way has saved nothing: it has only moved the work.

## The two that mislead

**En corto**

- Total documents: it only rises and means nothing.
- Percentage of complete cases: it can be high because you close the hard ones incomplete.

The second is the more treacherous, because it looks like the natural indicator. If it rises while cancelled cases also rise, what is improving is your willingness to give up, not your control.

## When to look

Quarterly, not weekly. These numbers move slowly and watching them daily only generates noise and hasty decisions about variation that is chance.

> [!WARNING]
> Always compare with the same period last year, not with last month. Almost every sector has seasonality, and a poor August against July says nothing.

> [!NOTE]
> If a number will not make you change anything, do not measure it. A dashboard with fifteen indicators nobody uses is more work than information.

**How often should they be reviewed?**

Quarterly. Monthly while you are mid-change.

**Can they be broken down by team?**

Yes, and sometimes that is where you see the problem is local.

**What if they get worse?**

It often means volume grew or you are now measuring what you could not see before. Not always a bad sign.

## Ejemplos

**A company celebrates that 92% of its cases are complete.**

- Also checks how many were cancelled incomplete that quarter

→ Finds the percentage rises because hard ones get closed, and switches to days-to-complete instead.

**People say this is going better and nobody has a figure to back it.**

- Picks two or three indicators and measures them consistently
- Compares with the same period last year
- Notes what changed in between so it can be explained

→ The improvement is demonstrated rather than asserted, and you know what caused it.

**Measurement starts at rollout and not before.**

- Recovers the figure for how it was done before

→ The comparison has two points.

**The indicator improves because the measurement changed.**

- Keeps the criteria stable

→ The improvement is real rather than methodological.

**Ten things are measured and nothing is decided.**

- Keeps the ones that change decisions

→ The report gets read and used.

**The indicator worsens one month and panic sets in.**

- Looks at the trend rather than the point

→ The reaction is proportionate.