Question #4

One of the ways to help management feel like they are in control is through metrics. Schwaber's book suggests 4 charts or graphs to manage agile. We probably need more, and more focused on achieving business value. I think I should merge the “Implementing Goal Driven Metrics” class that I teach from the SEI into our implementation of the methodology.

I agree on the merger. I am not 100% convinced we need more than a small number of metrics to adequately control projects nor to drive transformation. Take a look at the my paper on Metrics for an Agile PMO. The Burndown chart is extremely powerful, as it tracks estimate to complete, and probability to complete as well as commitment and plan. It can also be broken down to display development, validation, and verification as three separate measures.

This is one area where the concept behind the balanced scorecard got it right. I believe that agile's Transparency practice helps us figure out how actions inter-relate and roll up through the various decision making levels within an organization (typically, ultimately to the Finance with profitability). I think as part of the methodology, we should recommended a balanced scorecard type metric program to align the entire organization (not just development or engineering) and allows them to put in some collected metrics at the bottom and demonstrate how they roll up to the Red/Yellow/Green/Blue indicators at each successively higher level. This would help folks implement methodology based on value proposition and indeed demonstrate that value prop explicitly.