SemPI: A semantic framework for the collaborative construction and maintenance of a shared dictionary of performance indicators

Abstract Collaboration at strategic level entails the sharing of Performance Indicators (PIs) to measure the achievement of common objectives and evaluate performances. PIs are synthetic measures calculated starting from transactional data. Given their compound nature, it is difficult to achieve an agreement on their definitions and heterogeneities arise that make sharing and exchange a difficult task. Semantic techniques can help to address these challenges by providing a common layer of formal definitions and automatic reasoning tools to maintain its consistency. In this paper, we present a novel semantic framework for representing Performance Indicators that supports the construction and maintenance of a minimal and consistent dictionary. The distinctive feature of the approach is the logical representation of formulas defining PIs, allowing to make algebraic relationships among indicators explicit, and to reason over these relationships to derive PI identity and equivalence and to enforce the overall consistency of the dictionary. We also present a web application implementing the framework for collaborative construction and maintenance of the dictionary. We provide experimental evidence of the efficiency and effectiveness of the approach on synthetic and real data.