Agile Indicators: Start with Questions!
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This document discusses using metrics and indicators in Agile development. It advocates starting with questions rather than jumping straight to metrics. Good indicators help answer questions about whether a team is going in the right direction, how soon they will get there, and how fast they can adjust. The document provides examples of learner-focused questions versus judger-focused questions and emphasizes the importance of curiosity.
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Agile Indicators: Start with Questions!
- 3. What metrics or indicators do you currently use?
- 4. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy Disclaimer This is NOT a talk about answers. This is a talk about questions! A few years ago… Also, this talk was not generated using AI.
- 5. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy Managers who don’t know how to measure what they want settle for wanting to measure what they can measure. -Russell Ackoff
- 6. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy Discussion Measure what I want! Measure what I can! What do I want to measure? What can I actually measure? Time: 5 minutes
- 7. Are you measuring what you want or are you measuring what you can?
- 8. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy Agenda ● The problem with metrics ○ Why do some love metrics and others hate them? ● Why do we need metrics? ● A different perspective ● What are Agile indicators? ○ Are we going in the right direction? ○ How fast are we going? ■ (Underlying question: When are going to get there?) ● Start with Questions! ● Staying Curious!
- 9. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy I love metrics because... I hate metrics because... Love / Hate relationship with metrics... I constantly feel evaluated or judged they convey that we are not good enough (managers usually look for the negative!) they can help us learn and improve... they could highlight bottlenecks they offer some level of confidence they don’t tell the whole story they almost always miss the context! managers use them to measure productivity I can use them to forecast what might happen I can use them to tell whether our project will be on budget, time, scope, etc. they usually confirm our biases! they can easily be gamed!
- 10. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy Metrics translator... When managers or leaders ask... Team hears... Why are you not going faster? What have you been busy doing? Can you get this issue resolved? Can you give me an answer now? What is your velocity? (story points delivered per sprint) How busy are you? When are you going to deliver this feature? (Date) Are you sure you are going to be on time? What is your estimate? Can you deliver by this date?
- 12. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy What we usually do? Data What data do we currently have or can we get from our Agile tools? (ex: Jira, Version One, etc.) Metrics / Reports What metrics or reports can we give management or leadership to keep them happy?
- 13. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy Start with Questions! Question What questions do we want to answer? Indicator What indicators help us answer these questions? Structure What structure support these indicators? Data What data do we currently have? What data do we need to have? Indicator What indicators help us answer these questions?
- 14. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy In reality, it looks like this... Structure / Data What structure support these indicators? What data do we currently have? What data do we need to have? Question (Start here!) What questions do we need to answer? Indicator What indicators help us answer these questions? Agile Indicators Start with Questions!
- 15. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy What are Agile Indicators? Based on our observation and experience, Agile indicators boil down to 3 main questions: ● Are we going in the right direction? (Compass) ● How soon will we get there? (Speed) ● How fast can we adjust? (Response)
- 16. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy Shifting from judger to learner mindset Source: https://inquiryinstitute.com/CM.pdf Used with permission
- 17. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy Imagine if... We aligned on the questions and the indicators with the teams from the get go! “For instance, at Amazon, metrics are established in advance of every activity and specify what actions are expected to happen in ways that can be measured in real-time. If the metrics show that activity is not having the impact that was expected, action is required.” -Stephen Denning. Forbes: Why Agile Often Fails: No Agreed Metrics
- 19. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy Start with Questions! ● What do we want? ● How will we know when we get it? ● How will we know that we build it right? Measure for outcome and impact over output
- 20. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy What questions come to your mind? Team A Team B How is team A getting more work done than team B? What’s the team velocity? How many stories are we completing every sprint? Where are we seeing bottlenecks? What can team A learn from team B and vice versa? Where do we see opportunities for improvement?
- 21. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy What questions come to your mind? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 When can we deliver all stories? When can we deliver all stories? What is our “release” goal? How likely are we going to meet our goal (based on this chart/trend)? What can we deliver by Sprint 11? What cause the scope change? What are we noticing? What insights can we take from this? Can we deliver all stories by Sprint 12?
- 22. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy What questions come to your mind? Why are we not meeting our commitment? What obstacles are we running into? What are the common obstacles we run into? How long does it usually take to resolve these obstacles?
- 23. @selleithy #AgileIndicators LinkedIn.com/in/selleithy Key Takeaways ● Start with Questions! ● When looking at indicators, ask, am I asking a judger question or a learner question? ● Be Curious and Stay curious Don’t just collect the dots, connect the dots.
- 25. What is your top takeaway today?
Editor's Notes
- Most teams hate the idea of tracking or sharing metrics with managers or leaders. When the teams are asked to share metrics like velocity, burn down and other output driven metrics, teams hear what are you "busy" doing? So, the team starts to focus on showing how busy they are which drives the wrong behavior and stifles their opportunity for learning and growing and using metrics for good. Since, the essence of agility is continuous improvement via inspect and adapt. We want to reframe the conversation around Agile indicators that start with questions! What questions are you asking your team? How are you helping them to learn and grow? What indicators are you looking at? In this session, we will be providing insights around using Agile indications with questions in order to embrace a different mindset. A mindset that encourages more learning, growing and less judgment. A curiosity mindset that encourages organizations to move from “busy work” or output focused metrics to outcomes focused using questions.
- Use a piece of paper and split into half (write down measure what they want in one half of the paper and write down measure what they can in the other half of the paper (What do managers (or leaders) want to measure? Vs. what can managers (or leaders) actually measure? Turn to the person next to you
- The problem with metrics Why do some love metrics and others hate them? Why do we need metrics? A different perspective
- A different perspective
- A different perspective...
- A different perspective...
- A different perspective...
- What are Agile indicators? Are we going in the right direction? How fast are we going? (Underlying question: When are going to get there?)
- Staying Curious! Understand the difference between the learner mindset vs. the judger mindset Adopt a curious/learners mindset using choice maps
- Possibly introduce Q-storming / Q-prep
- Understand the difference between the learner mindset vs. the judger mindset Adopt a curious/learners mindset using choice maps Opinion: Use the questions from earlier slide
- Possibly introduce Intent-based leadership by David Marquet
- Judger Questions Why is team A getting more work done than team B? What’s the team velocity? How many stories are we completing every sprint? Learner Questions What can team A learn from team B and vice versa? Where are we seeing bottlenecks? Where do we see opportunities for improvement?
- These stories are for a specific feature and these teams are working on more than 1 feature any given sprint. When can we deliver all stories? (Fixed scope) What can we deliver by Sprint 12? (Fixed Date) Can we deliver all stories by Sprint 12? (Fixed Scope and Date) Learner Questions What is our “release” goal? How likely are we going to meet our goal (based on this chart/trend)? What are we noticing? What insights can we take from this? What is our biggest takeaway here? What cause the scope change?
- If we think of our stories as experiments (because we don’t know what we don’t know yet). Story about a lead saying that the team is horrible and failed our sprint (basing it on one data point) Judger questions: Why are we not meeting our commitment? (most teams will commit to less work so they can meet their commitment so that they can look good.) Learner questions What obstacles are we running into? How long does it usually take to resolve these obstacles? What are the common obstacles we run into?