Our benefit has no baseline. Can we still measure improvement?
Missing comparison pointReconstruct a defensible baseline where possible and disclose its limitations. When reliable comparison is unavailable, use prospective measures without presenting unsupported improvement claims.
What to do now
- Identify available historical evidence
- Assess comparability and data quality
- Establish a documented baseline or limitation
- Measure future outcomes consistently
When to escalate
Escalate when
A consequential claim depends on a baseline that cannot be supported.
Who decides
The product or business benefit owner
Example
A team uses historical transaction timestamps where comparable and labels missing periods clearly.
Mistake to avoid
Inventing a before figure to justify the project.
Prevent a repeat
Compare observed outcomes with the baseline and separate forecast benefits from benefits actually measured.
Suggested ApprovedFlow setup
- Projects
- Tasks
- Documents
Keep the intended outcome and measurement plan with the project, and assign improvement work to an accountable business owner. See the platform
Related cases
- How can we measure benefits that appear months after delivery?Delayed benefit realization
- We measure adoption by logins. Is that enough?Vanity adoption metric
- Our lessons have owners, but actions still disappear. How do we follow through?Unmonitored improvement commitments
- Our change log records decisions but not benefits. What is missing?Change value not tracked