Makuake Advent Calendar 2022 - Article for Day 6!
Overview
Recently, I've been frequently reflecting on process improvements for our Scrum team. To find some hints for Kaizen, I decided to read Agile Metrics.
The original book is probably Agile Metrics in Action, which was published a few years ago.
What is Agile Metrics?
Agile Metrics refers to metrics used to measure the performance of agile teams.
Metrics involve collecting data related to the definition of performance for the team from the team's processes. Specifically, this means gathering data from tools used in the team's activities, such as project management, source code management, build systems, and monitoring tools.
The purpose of Agile Metrics is to improve performance, not to weaponize (using metrics to blame teams or individuals) or to engage in gaming (focusing solely on improving metrics).
It is crucial to observe the team's situation and changes through metrics, and to repeatedly learn and connect this to improvements.
What the Book Discusses
Agile Metrics provides hints to answer the following questions:
- How do you measure performance in an agile team?
- Where do you collect metric data from?
- What trends and insights can be learned from data obtained through tools like project management, source code management, build systems, and monitoring?
- How do you create actionable metrics?
- How do you measure team performance based on agile principles?
Thoughts
To measure a team's performance, it's essential to first break down and consider what aspects of performance to measure and what constitutes good performance for the team. This should be the first step.
Defining metrics that lead to actionable insights seems to require some level of prediction about what insights can be derived from the data. This is the most challenging part of agile metrics compared to system monitoring, in my opinion. Should we learn from experience? I’d like to know more examples about this.
Even though a lot can be analyzed from a single data point depending on the method, collecting data from various sources makes me realize how tedious it is to set up the necessary infrastructure. While there seem to be convenient services available, still...