This presentation explores the nature of motivation and the place of metrics and measurement in software development, and how lean software development principles and practices shed light on motivation and metrics and how they can be used to support deep organizational improvement. We will examine the nature of motivation in terms of the four intrinsic rewards that drive positive engagement, and also how certain approaches to measuring and managing performance lead to organizational dysfunction. We will also show how the application of lean principles such as building quality into the product, respect for people and optimizing the whole enable more effective approaches to motivation and metrics in software development.

1. Measure for
Measure
Lean Principles for Effective
Metrics and Motivation
Paul Rayner
AGILITY. CRAFT. ARCHITECTURE.

2. Thinking About Work
A story…
and a quote.

3. Tom Sawyer

4. Work consists of
whatever a body
is obliged to do...
Play consists of
whatever a body
is not obliged to
do. - Mark Twain

5. “You can’t
control what you
can't measure.”
- Tom DeMarco

6. How Work Has Changed

7. The Compliance Era
The economics of the times:
• Stable environment with
with heavy demand
• Standardized products
and services
• Simplified work

8. Command and Control
Sound management meant:
• Simplifying work tasks
• Producing thick rule
books
• Building tall hierarchies
• Close supervision

9. Extrinsic Rewards

10. Metrics and Measurement

11. Human Development

12. The Last 3 Decades
80%
69%
70% 66%
60% 55%
Workers 50%
answering
“Strongly 40% 32%
agree” 30% 27% 28%
20%
10%
0%
The work I do is It is basically my My job lets me use my
meaningful to me responsibility to decide skills and abilities
how my job gets done
1977 2002

13. The Last 3 Decades
Restructuring
• Flatter organizational structures
• Cross-functional teams
• Free flow of information
Computers and Automation
• Reduced number of low-skilled jobs
• Increased need for worker judgment
• Greater worker access to information

14. The “New Work”
Purpose is
back!

15. Employee Engagement
The degree to which people
actively self-manage in
their work

16. Origins of Lean

17. 7 Principles of Lean
Software Development
Mary and Tom Poppendieck. Implementing Lean Software Development

18. Self-Management
Monitor
Commit to a Choose Perform
progress
meaningful activities to activities
towards the
purpose accomplish
purpose
the purpose
Monitor
activities for
competence

19. Intrinsic Rewards

20. Opportunity Accomplishment
Rewards Rewards
From Task Sense of Sense of
Activities Choice Competence
From Task Sense of Sense of
Purpose Meaningfulness Progress
From Kenneth Thomas. Intrinsic Motivation at Work

21. A specific example of something that made
me feel energized about my work was when …
• Someone appreciated me for my input into problem-solving
• We deliver as we projected
• Project went to production with great success
• I was trusted to do it my way.
• My boss told me I'd done a good job. I've had bosses who don't
- it's nice to hear it.
• I'm working on something that has a very positive and lasting
impact on on organization.
• I was given freedom to accomplish a strategic task and not
hindered or had goals change mid-stream.
• We won some good new business.
• A project that I had been working on went live and real
customers began seeing value added to their work because of
the work that I had done. I could draw the line directly
between my effort and value added... that felt pretty good.

22. The Energy Cycle
Judgments
Self-Management Intrinsic Rewards
Choosing Monitoring Sense of Sense of
Activities Competence Choice Competence
Committing Monitoring Sense of Sense of
to Purpose Progress Meaningfulness Progress
Energy
From Kenneth Thomas. Intrinsic Motivation at Work

24. Organizational
Dysfunction
I was going to
thrash them
within an inch of
their lives, but I
didn’t have a
tape measure
- Groucho Marx

25. Motivation and Intention
Performance/
Control Dysfunction
Intention
Informational/ Genuine
Inquiry Results
Intrinsic Extrinsic
Motivation

26. Some Lean Principles

27. Build Quality In
“You can not inspect
quality into the
product; it is already
there.”
- Deming

28. Diagnostic Metrics

29. Duplicated Code
Poor test coverage
Complexity
Performance
Error handling
…

31. Respect for People
Judgments
Self-Management Intrinsic Rewards
Choosing Monitoring Sense of Sense of
Activities Competence Choice Competence
Committing Monitoring Sense of Sense of
to Purpose Progress Meaningfulness Progress
Energy

32. Optimize the Whole
Measure up
by reducing the number of
measurements, and
find a higher level of measurement
that will drive the right results for the
lower level metrics and
establish a basis for making tradeoffs”
- Poppendieck & Poppendieck, 2007.

33. Key Resources

34. Conclusion/Takeaways
Intrinsic Rewards:
Work can be so much more than what a person
is obliged to do.
As workers:
Be aware of our own level of self-management and
energy, take pride in our work and build quality in.
As leaders:
Respect our workers by helping them self-manage
and optimizing the whole.

35. Questions

36. Thank You…
Paul Rayner
paul@virtual-genius.com
www.virtual-genius.com
www.virtual-genius.com/blog
www.slideshare.com/virtualgenius
AGILITY. CRAFT. ARCHITECTURE.

37. Resources
Austin, Robert D. Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations. New York: Dorset House,
1996.
Austin, Robert D. and Lee Devin “Knowledge Work, Craft Work, and Calling.” In Global Neighbors:
Christian Faith and Moral Obligation in Today’s Economy, eds. Hicks, Douglas A. and Mark Valeri.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008.
Bakke, Dennis. Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job. Seattle: Pearson Venture
Group, 2005.
Bolton, Michael. “Three Kinds of Measurement and Two Ways to Use Them.” Better Software,
July/August 2009, Vol. 11:5.
DeMarco, Tom. “Software Engineering: An Idea Whose Time has Come and Gone?” IEEE Software,
July/August 2009.
Foucault, Michel. “Discipline and Punish.” In Philosophy and the Problems of Work: A Reader, ed. Kory
Shaff, 59-72. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001.
Jones, Capers. Applied Software Management: Global Analysis of Productivity and Quality, 3d ed. New
York: McGraw-Hill Osborne, 2008.
Poppendieck, Mary and Tom Poppendieck. Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to
Cash. Boston: Addison Wesley, 2007.
Putnam, Lawrence H. and Ware Myers. Five Core Metrics: The Intelligence Behind Successful Software
Management. New York: Dorset House, 2003.
Thomas, Kenneth W. Intrinsic Motivation at Work: What Really Drives Employee Engagement, 2d ed.
San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2009.
Weinberg, Gerald M. Quality Software Management: First Order Measurement. New York: Dorset
House, 1993.

38. References
• Fonts:
– Euphemia, Leelawadee
– BoBsFrAnTiC True Type http://www.searchfreefonts.com/free/bobsfrantic.htm
– BigMisterC : http://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/BigMisterC.htm
• Tom Sawyer painting the fence (by Norman Rockwell):
http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2009/07/norman-rockwells-tom-
sawyer-part-1.html
• Groucho Marx: http://sporeflections.wordpress.com/2009/05/30
• House Doctors:
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Reviews/House/House-Quiz.html
• Man in the Grey Flannel Suit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Gray_Flannel_Suit
• Antique cash register:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zizzy/89696604/
• Motivation: http://demotivational.blogspot.com/2008/03/tps-
reports.html