Chapter 1. Measuring agile performance

 

This chapter covers

  • Struggling with agile performance measurement
  • Finding objective data for measuring agile performance
  • Answering performance questions with data you’re generating
  • Adopting agile performance measurement

There isn’t a silver-bullet metric that will tell you if your agile teams are performing as well as they can. Performance improvement is made possible by incorporating what you learn about your team’s performance into how your team operates at regular intervals. Collecting and analyzing data in the form of metrics is an objective way to learn more about your team and a way to measure any adjustments you decide to make to your team’s behavior.

1.1. Collect, measure, react, repeat—the feedback loop

Working with metrics in a feedback loop in parallel with your development cycle will allow you to make smarter adjustments to your team and help improve communication across your organization. Here are the steps in the feedback loop:

  • Collect —Gather all the data you can about your team and performance. Understand where you are before you change anything.
  • Measure —Analyze your data.
    • Look for trends and relationships between data points.
    • Formulate questions about your team, workflow, or process.
    • Determine how to adjust based on your analysis.
  • React —Apply the adjustments based on your analysis.
  • Repeat —Keep tabs on the data you’ve determined should be affected so you can continuously analyze and adjust your team.

1.2. Why agile teams struggle with measurement

1.3. What questions can metrics answer, and where do I get the data to answer them?

1.4. Analyzing what you have and what to do with the data

1.5. Applying lessons learned

1.6. Taking ownership and measuring your team

1.7. Summary

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