Technical Excellence and Leadership Skills

T16 Measuring Up! Collect the Right Metrics for the Right Reasons

03/21/2023

3:00pm - 4:15pm

Level: Introductory to Intermediate

Sara Caldwell

Business Agility Coach

Angela Dugan

CSA Manager, CSU, serving State and Local Government agencies

Microsoft

How many times have you been asked to deliver on metrics that did not make sense to you, that felt counterproductive to your or the team's effectiveness, or that were seemingly impossible to collect in a sane fashion? Oftentimes, I find that metrics being collected are ones that are easy to collect and report on but are not necessarily the ones that will help the team learn and improve.

When it comes to software delivery, lean and agile practices and methodologies have taken the lead. Metrics have lagged a bit and often rely on very waterfall-style milestones and phase-gates to determine a team's effectiveness. In the spirit of continuous improvement, this session will take a look at the measures we can and should collect from agile teams, why these metrics are relevant and interesting, and how we can use them to help our teams continuously improve.

You will learn:

  • Why it is so difficult to identify meaningful metrics in the software world
  • The importance of developing a healthy "metrics mindset"
  • The best types of quality-focused team metrics to focus on in an agile organization