01/31 – LeSS Talks: Abusing Metrics for Dummies: How to manipulate data to make us look good?

Today’s  great presentation by Certified LeSS Trainer (CLT) from Israel – Elad Sofer. Please, contact Elad directly for an details.

Materials Used

Main points:

• Data driven organizations are prone  to abusing metrics
• The word agile has outgrown itself
• The Observer Effect: the act of observing something, changes it
• Metrics measurement: manipulates behavior
• “Velocity is productivity metric” – against basic understanding of what -healthy organization looks like
• Political metrics example: Transformation % progress
• Vanity metrics example: # items that are in “dev done” status (but not tested)
• Taiichi Ohno: “Don’t look with your eyes, look with your feet. A person who looks only at the numbers is worst of all“
• Example of four (4) metrics that count:
  • Deployment frequency
  • Lead time for changes
  • Time to restore service
  • Changes failure rate
• Understand the difference between Leading and Lagging Metrics
• Avoid measuring people: it is inefficient and disrespectful
• OKR: Narrowing the gap between “O” AND “KR”

Additional Learning Assets:

• Upcoming LeSS Training