Misuse of Agile Metrics for Reporting
Is Sales the same as Profit?

Misuse of Agile Metrics for Reporting

In my role as the principle agile coach in a government organisation, I am tasked with gathering metrics on agile adoption. I'm meeting considerable resistance due to the fear that any metric, like simple velocity, will be used against them.

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

The first line of the agile manifesto states "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools". Yea ok, I hear you say, so we should talk to each other. Why then do teams insist that they don't want to give reporting metrics to management. Teams, at least in my experience, continually refuse to give any metrics. I've heard it all:

  • We're self-managing, Management doesn't belong here (no, you're misunderstanding self-managing, you should be self-organising, that's not the same)
  • They can find out all they need by looking into our tools (e.g. Jira)
  •  They'll misunderstand and punish us for not having a high velocity
  •  They'll reward the team with the highest velocity, or worst, the team member who delivered the greatest points
  • They'll demand we burn down faster

Honestly, you'd think that the manifesto stated "Processes and tools over individuals and interactions".

I can't remember the name of the company involved in the case study I did at university in my management studies those many years ago, but it discussed a deal that the board of directors made with a new, incoming CEO. The CEO gave them the option of paying her a percentage of the sales that she would increase under her command. It sounded great, no increase, no loss, so nothing to worry about, and if she did increase sales, then she'll be in for a handsome pay.

What happened was that over the next three years she tripled sales by selling everything at a loss. She walked away with hundreds of millions and drove the company into the ground doing so.

Selling at a loss tripled sales but destroyed the company - was that the right metric?

Should all companies no longer use sales as a metric from that point? After all, it was taken in the wrong context, and the company was destroyed. No, they simply needed to understand what the metric was and not use it in isolation.

In the same way, teams can't keep velocity hidden in case someone uses it wrongly.

All metrics are good, all metrics can be used, but no single metric can be used in isolation.


DragonsArm is an agile training organisation operating throughout the world

Hristina Djondjorova-Kotecka

Software production Management, Ph.D.

6 年

One can do things manually or using tools - I often hear opinions "why KPIs at all" "KPIs does not help management process as no KPI solved any problem". OK, but why to do the management the harder way.? I mean, one can use so called "impression", but, well, how one can be sure the impression is right? Metrics are only a tool. Each tool can be used in wrong or proper way. It's a bit like in handcrafts - you are or you are not a good craftsmen.You can craft sens-full set of KPIs and then you can make decisions based on facts and not "impressions".

David Lew

Successful delivery of greenfields, transformations and other high value projects. I achieve this by building high performance teams, aligned to business objectives and hungry for continuous improvement.

6 年

It is up to an agile coach (or similar role) to help management to understand useful metrics, and to build trust between technical teams and the business. If management want to use velocity, the history of abuse of this metric tells us why technical teams would be sceptical. Work needs to be done to build trust and for management to comfort the teams in the knowledge of how these metrics are to be (appropriately) used. Any metric should be made visible, but trust is vital for Agile to work successfully.

Michael Küsters

Thought Provoker / Founder @VXS

6 年

Here's an article on measurement systems for organizations starting the agile journey: https://failfastmoveon.blogspot.com/2015/11/measuring-agile-transition-progress.html

Michael Küsters

Thought Provoker / Founder @VXS

6 年

"All metrics are good ..." Okay, how about we measure cups of coffee consumed per line of code written. How is that good? Metrics are based on our mental models and therefore, understanding. Not all models are equal. Here are some key constraints: 1. Models with predictive capability are better than those without. 2. You get what you measure, therefore try creating measurement systems that support desirable outcomes.

回复

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Steve Peacocke的更多文章

  • The donkey herder's theory to life

    The donkey herder's theory to life

    If a donkey doesn't want to walk, you can yell and scream, jump around and pull or push, swear at it and get red in the…

  • The Lao Leadership Style

    The Lao Leadership Style

    Lao Leadership is a term that I created a few years ago. “Lao” translates into “Senior” as a title in Chinese Mandarin.

    1 条评论
  • Once is Not Enough

    Once is Not Enough

    Just because chance gave us a great opportunity once, does not mean that we should give up striving forward. An…

    6 条评论
  • The burndown chart isn't good or bad

    The burndown chart isn't good or bad

    The burndown chart doesn't show you how well you are doing. It shows you what is happening.

    7 条评论
  • 10 Reasons to Love Story Pointing

    10 Reasons to Love Story Pointing

    10 Reasons to Love Story Pointing. Pointing (or planning poker) is a way of estimating that focuses on the size and…

  • Agile: 7 Differences between water and the bottle

    Agile: 7 Differences between water and the bottle

    I have often been asked to explain the difference between a Framework (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, XP, etc.) and Agile.

    20 条评论
  • The Power of “AND” in a Retrospective

    The Power of “AND” in a Retrospective

    There have been many items written on having Retrospectives. My own 3-step style I advocate for goes along the lines of…

    3 条评论
  • Fail-Fast is not about Failing

    Fail-Fast is not about Failing

    In one or two progressive companies I worked for, there was an understanding of the saying “Fail-fast, learn-fast”. In…

    2 条评论
  • Why Agile coaches can’t reach some people

    Why Agile coaches can’t reach some people

    Back in the early 2000’s, for up to three times a week over a few years, I visited the country’s maximum-security…

  • Standups: The 7 Rules of Engagement

    Standups: The 7 Rules of Engagement

    Through my experiences as a trainer and an Agile Coach, I have many times come across teams where no one has ever…

    2 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了