What are Leading Indicators? A leading indicator is a measure for evaluating the effectiveness of a how a specific activity is applied on a program in a manner that provides information about impacts that are likely to affect the system performance objectives. A leading indicator may be an individual measure, or collection of measures, that are predictive of future system performance before the performance is realized. Leading indicators aid leadership in delivering value to customers and end users, while assisting in taking interventions and actions to avoid rework and wasted effort.

The SE Leading Indicators Guide is the result of a project initiated by the Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI) Consortium in cooperation with the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), Practical Software and Systems Measurement (PSM), and Systems Engineering Advancement Research Initiative (SEARI). Leading measurement and systems engineering experts from government, industry, and academia participated in its development.

You may find it here.