Benchmarking

Definition

The practice of comparing features and performance of an organization, department or function with those of other organizations and standards.

Description

The following axioms should be considered in benchmarking:

- What works well for a given organization in one situation may not work well in another organization under different circumstances;

- There are lessons to be learned from undesirable situations as well as from [Best practice|best practices] — things that have been proven to work well and produce good results;

- Examining the practices of organizations with fundamentally different aims can produce surprisingly useful insight about another organization.