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DSI
Template

KPI & Monitoring Plan Builder

A builder that turns vague objectives into measurable indicators with baselines, targets, owners, failure thresholds, and a stated corrective action.

Type
Template
Difficulty
Intermediate
Time
40 min
Version
v1.0.0
Updated
8/9/2026
deliveryaccountabilityevidence

What this helps you do

Most funded proposals contain metrics. Very few contain a monitoring plan, which is a different thing: a metric tells you what will be counted, a monitoring plan tells you who counts it, from what source, how often, what reading counts as failure, and what happens then.

This builder produces that plan. Every objective gets leading indicators, which move early and let you intervene, and lagging indicators, which confirm whether the objective was actually met. Every indicator carries a baseline, a target, a measurement method, a data source, a frequency, a responsible party, a failure threshold, and the corrective action attached to it. An indicator without a failure threshold is a reporting line, not a control.

When to use this

  • You are reviewing a proposal whose metrics are stated but not operationalised.
  • An award has been ratified and you are setting up how it will be followed.
  • You are writing the monitoring section of a published rationale.
  • You are testing whether a proposal's own reporting plan would actually detect failure.

When NOT to use this

  • The work has finished and there is nothing left to monitor. Use the closeout tracker instead.
  • You need an evaluation of results already in hand rather than a plan for collecting them.

What you'll need

  • The objectives as stated in the proposal or award
  • Any baseline data that exists today, or the acknowledgement that none does
  • The reporting commitments the recipient has made
  • A data source you can access independently of the recipient

Estimated completion time

40 minutes

Working time for one governance action, assuming the inputs listed here are already to hand.

How to use it

  1. 1Write each objective as an outcome, not an activity. Delivered a report is an activity; readers changed behaviour is an outcome.
  2. 2For each objective, add at least one leading and one lagging indicator, and label which is which.
  3. 3Record the baseline. Where no baseline exists, write none exists rather than leaving the field blank, because that absence is a finding.
  4. 4Set the target with its date. A target without a date cannot be missed.
  5. 5Write the measurement method precisely enough that two people would produce the same number.
  6. 6Name the data source and whether it is independent of the recipient. Self-reported figures are usable but must be labelled.
  7. 7Set the frequency to match how quickly the thing can move, not how often the recipient likes to report.
  8. 8Name a responsible party for collecting each reading, including where that party is you.
  9. 9Attach indicators to milestones so a missed milestone and a missed indicator are visible together.
  10. 10Set the failure threshold before any data arrives. Thresholds set afterwards get set to whatever the data shows.
  11. 11Write the corrective action for each threshold breach: what is raised, with whom, and by when.

The tool

Full template - v1.0.0

Objective

  • Objective stated as an outcome
  • Who benefits if it is achieved
  • Time horizon
  • How the objective was described at the vote
  • Whether the objective is within the recipient's control

Indicator definition

  • Indicator name
  • Leading or lagging
  • What it is a proxy for, and how good a proxy it is
  • Baseline value and baseline date, or none exists
  • Target value and target date
  • Measurement method, written so two people would agree
  • Unit and any adjustment applied
  • Data source, and whether it is independent of the recipient
  • Frequency of measurement
  • Responsible party for collection
  • Linked milestone

Thresholds and response

  • Failure threshold: the reading that counts as off track
  • Warning threshold, if you want an earlier signal
  • Consecutive periods required before the threshold is treated as breached
  • Corrective action on breach
  • Who is contacted, and by when
  • Escalation if the corrective action does not work
  • Who decides the escalation
  • Where the breach is documented publicly

Plan quality review

  • Every objective has at least one leading and one lagging indicator
  • No indicator can be satisfied by activity alone
  • Every indicator has a baseline or a stated absence
  • Every indicator has a failure threshold
  • At least one indicator is independently verifiable
  • The plan would detect failure before the money is spent
  • Reporting cadence is faster than the tranche schedule
  • Someone is named for every collection duty
Fictional Example

Invented for illustration. It does not describe a real governance action, proposal, or organisation.

Fictional plan: developer onboarding programme

  • Objective: developers who complete the programme continue building on Cardano six months later. Outcome, not activity.
  • Leading indicator: weekly active participants in the programme. Baseline none exists, target 60 by week 8, measured from cohort attendance records, self-reported, weekly, collected by the recipient.
  • Lagging indicator: participants with on-chain deployment activity six months after completion. Baseline 0, target 25, measured from public chain data, independent source, measured once at month 6 and again at month 12, collected by the reviewing DRep.
  • Failure threshold on the leading indicator: fewer than 30 weekly active participants for three consecutive weeks. Corrective action: raise publicly with the recipient and request a revised recruitment plan within 14 days.
  • Failure threshold on the lagging indicator: fewer than 10 participants with deployment activity at month 6. Corrective action: request that the remaining tranche be paused pending a revised plan, escalated in a published note.
  • Plan quality review found the recipient's own reporting cadence was quarterly, slower than the tranche schedule, so the leading indicator was added to close the gap.

How to interpret the result

  • If every indicator is lagging, the plan can only tell you about failure after the money is gone.
  • An indicator the recipient both defines and reports is not worthless, but it should never be the only one attached to a tranche.
  • A failure threshold nobody would ever act on is decoration. Delete it or write the corrective action honestly.
  • When a plan has no baseline anywhere, the real finding is that success was never going to be measurable.

Limitations

  • Indicators are proxies. Optimising the proxy instead of the objective is a well-known failure mode and this template cannot prevent it.
  • A monitoring plan written by an observer carries no obligation on the recipient. Its force comes from being published and followed.
  • Frequency is limited by what the data source actually publishes.
  • The builder structures measurement; it does not judge whether the target itself is reasonable.

Sources and methodology

Downloads

  • Markdown export: the complete tool, including metadata, instructions, the template, limitations, sources and version history.

No other file formats are published for this resource. We list a format only when the file exists.

Version and governance

Current version
v1.0.0
Published
Not recorded
Last updated
8/9/2026
Next scheduled review
2/9/2027
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Editorial status
Not yet externally reviewed

No named reviewer is shown because no external review has been completed. Attribution appears only once a verified reviewer has signed off.

Changelog

  • v1.0.0 (2026-08-09) - First published edition.
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