Abstract: In prison, individuality is replaced with conformity and you are held accountable to rules externally imposed upon you. Of course you aren't in prison, are you? Have you debated over the definition of a "Defect" vs. an "Enhancement" to reduce your defect numbers? Or justified why velocity dropped off when the team missed their commitment last sprint? If you've had conversations like these, you may be imprisoned by metrics.
A life of freedom exists, though. Freedom and team empowerment to make their own choices. Metrics take on a new life and become a continuous learning tool for the team. Teams begin to use metrics of their own to identify behaviors for improvement and highlight accomplishments. This transforms metrics from a control mechanism into a valuable tool.
Participants will leave understanding how to help teams learn from their metrics and ensure the freedom to measure the correct things. The session identifies key anti-patterns that can imprison team learning and encourage "metric-gaming" behaviors. Participants will learn the importance of a balance between freedom-promoting and imprisoning metrics, and how to identify the correct balance based on the team's maturity and needs.
Learning Outcomes: - How to find a balance between metric imprisonment and freedom
- How to identify metric imprisonment and freedom
- How to gauge a metric's value or lack thereof
- How to identify if metrics are changing the correct behaviors or creating bad habits
