How many KPIs should a video analytics project start with?

Three or four, tied to the problem the business feels most right now. Add more once those are being acted on, not before.

How often should the list of checks be reviewed?

On a fixed schedule, monthly or quarterly, and whenever the business changes: a new season, a new store format, a new problem. Retire checks that are under control and add the ones that matter now.

Should every site run the same checks?

No. Keep a small common base, such as camera health, and let each site add the checks that fit its own problems. A mall store, a high-street store and a store fighting stock loss need different lists.

What is the difference between a rule and a framework?

A rule is small and specific: this check, at this site, for this person, at these times. It can be added, tuned, paused or removed on its own. A framework is decided once for everyone and is hard to change.

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Your checks should change as fast as your business does.

Most video analytics projects pick a set of KPIs at the start and run them unchanged for years. The business moves on and the checks don't. They should be a living list, and not the same list everywhere.

13 September 2026 · 4 min read · Tarsyer team

How should you choose KPIs for a video analytics project?

Treat them as a flexible set of rules, not a fixed framework. Start with the few checks that matter most now, review them on a schedule, retire the ones that are under control, add new ones as conditions change, and let each site run the checks that fit its own problems.

At the start of a project, someone writes a list: queue length, staff at the counter, PPE, whatever mattered that quarter. The checks get built, the dashboards get built around them, and then the list is left alone. Two years later the business has a new format, a new season and a new problem, and the cameras are still measuring the old one.

1. Start with what hurts now

Pick the three or four checks tied to the problem the business is feeling this quarter: long queues in the festive season, hygiene complaints, a rise in stock loss. Not every check you might one day want. A short list gets acted on; a long one gets a dashboard.

2. Review the list on a schedule

Put a date in the calendar, monthly or quarterly. For each check, ask three questions. Is this still a problem? Is anyone acting on the alerts? Has it been fixed? A check nobody acts on is noise, and noise teaches people to ignore the checks that matter.

3. Retire checks that have done their job

When a problem has been under control for a while, stop alerting on it. Keep a light weekly count so you notice if it comes back, and spend the attention on the next problem instead.

4. Let each site run its own mix

Every location has its own set of things to improve. A mall store’s problem is the Saturday queue. A high-street store’s is an unstaffed counter at quiet hours. A store in a new format needs to see how customers move through it. Forcing every site onto the same list means most sites measure something they don’t need and miss what they do.

Example: one chain, four stores, four different lists. Only camera health runs everywhere.

5. Write them as rules, not a framework

A rule is small and specific. For example: at this store, tell the shift manager when more than five people have waited at billing for over three minutes, between 5 and 9 pm. Rules can be added, tuned for one site, paused for a season and switched off, without re-planning the project. A framework is decided once and then defended forever.

What a year can look like

Festive season: billing queues and counter staffing, at the mall stores only.
After a store refit: how customers move through the new layout, at the refitted stores.
Stock loss rises in one region: after-hours checks at those stores; queue alerts paused there.
Queues under control: alerts retired, replaced by a weekly count.

Where Tarsyer fits

Every Tarsyer check runs on the same device, so adding, changing or retiring one is a configuration change, not a new project. Each site, and each camera, can run a different mix, and the list can change as quickly as the business does.