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The art of being 10x faster and 99% more predictable.
- 1. © 2019 Arm Limited Mariapaola Sorrentino – Scrum Master @agile_gardener 14 November 2019 The art of being 10x faster and 99% more predictable A team’s tale narrated in numbers
- 2. © 2019 Arm Limited Caveat This story is narrated through the language of numbers but let’s not forget the key values! Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools Support, trust, and motivate the people involved Working software is the primary measure of progress Agile processes to support a consistent development pace Responding to Change Over Following a Plan Simplicity is key!
- 3. © 2019 Arm Limited The characters 11 data engineers 2 architects 1 Product Owner 1 Scrum Master
- 4. © 2019 Arm Limited The emails…
- 5. © 2019 Arm Limited The effort points
- 6. © 2019 Arm Limited 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5 Sprint 6 Sprint 7 Sprint 8 Sprint 9 Committed vs Completed Committed Completed Velocity
- 7. © 2019 Arm Limited The cycle time
- 8. © 2019 Arm Limited 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 1 Average cycle time = 50.5 days Standard deviation = 84.7 days
- 9. © 2019 Arm Limited The questions
- 10. © 2019 Arm Limited The retrospective a-ha moment Average cycle time = 50.5 days Standard deviation = 84.7 days After 2 sprints: Average cycle time = 5 days Standard deviation = 0.8 days The team became faster and more predictable in less than 2 sprints 10x faster 99% more predictable
- 11. © 2019 Arm Limited Happily ever after? After 3 sprints: Average cycle time = 3.9 days Standard deviation = 3.5 days
- 12. © 2019 Arm Limited After 8 sprints After 3 sprints: Average cycle time = 4.2 days Standard deviation = 4.5 days
- 13. © 2019 Arm Limited What questions do we answer with metrics?
- 14. © 2019 Arm Limited Is the team busy?
- 15. © 2019 Arm Limited Is the team effective?
- 16. © 2019 Arm Limited Is the team working at a sustainable pace?
- 17. © 2019 Arm Limited What metrics are you going to use?
- 18. © 2019 Arm Limited Is the team happy?
- 19. © 2019 Arm Limited Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools Support, trust, and motivate the people involved Working software is the primary measure of progress Agile processes to support a consistent development pace Responding to Change Over Following a Plan Simplicity is key!
Editor's Notes
- Hello! Today I am going to tell you a story, the story of the transformation of a team and how metrics are supporting this transformation
- This is the story of a team and it is important to remember that the numbers in this story are the language, not the main characters! Let's not forget what matters the most and why we are doing this!
- The main characters in this story are data engineers, and the architects, product owner, and scrum master supporting them. With the majority of the team being data engineers, you can see how numbers are the appropriate language to use here! I joined this team in July, facilitating their quarterly planning event and then I went on holiday for ten days.
- When I came back from my holiday, I found my inbox full of requests from stakeholders . They wanted to know when their items were going to be done. Having only worked with the team for a few days, I took a look at the metrics to work out an estimate for our stakeholders.
- I looked at the team velocity and say/do ratio.
- I looked at the previous 4 sprints (sprints 1, 2, 3, and 4 in this graph) and I noticed the team was under-promising and over-delivering. Not really predictable, but at least it wasn’t the other way around! I joined the team during sprint 5 and, even at a glance, you can see the stabilizing effect of applying lean and agile principles. What comes next explains how we got there.
- After looking at the velocity and the say/do ratio, I looked at the cycle time.
- On average, any item in the backlog was taking 50.5 working days to complete (that’s more than 2 months in calendar days!). With a standard deviation of 84.7 days, an item in the backlog could take up to 135.2 working days. That’s more than 6 months in calendar days!!! How was I going to answer the questions that our stakeholders wanted to be answered? Erm… with 3 items in the backlog to complete your request, it is going to take between 6 months and forever…
- So I started asking questions to the team: What are we doing? Why are we doing this? Who is this for? When is this due for? Where do we find the relevant info? How do we know when this is done? What are our top 3 priorities as a team? Within a week you could hear the team becoming impatient because of all these questions I was asking and then…
- Then I showed them the data and the effect of applying lean and agile techniques on the team performance. And you can't believe the enthusiasm! "I want more of this!" "A scrum master that talks our language!" "A scrum master that is not using metrics to beat the team!"
- The ups and downs are to be expected when items in progress are moved to another sprint
- The team is now converging to an average cycle time and standard deviation somewhere between less than a day and 5 days and those glitches in standard deviation are becoming fewer and smaller. Do the numbers matter? No not really. What matters are the conversations that the team is having around those numbers and is learning to work in a new way that suits them and addresses the customers’ needs.
- So, what do we use metrics for? What are the questions we should answer when we look at different metrics?
- Velocity and say/do ratio: is the team busy?
- Cycle time: is the team effective?
- Burndown: is the team working at a sustainable pace?
- I am going to ask you what metrics you are going to use after today with your team, and…
- And the most important questions of all: are the people involved happy? Is the team happy? Are the customers happy? Because numbers can provide answers to a lot of questions, but at the end of the day the only metrics that matter to me are the smiles, the energy, and the feeling that the people involved in the process of making our amazing products are happy. While I was talking numbers with my team of data engineers and speaking their language, what I was secretly tracking was the difference that lean and agile practices were making to their life.
- This is what matters!
- Thanks!