Chapter 3. Trends and data from project-tracking systems
This chapter covers
- What information raw data from a project tracking system conveys
- How to utilize your PTS to collect the right data to give insight into your process
- How to get data from your PTS into your metrics-collection system
- Trends you can learn from data in your PTS
- What you’re missing by relying only on project-tracking data
Perhaps the most obvious place to find data that points to your team’s performance is your PTS. Common PTSs include JIRA, Trello, Rally, Axosoft On Time Scrum, and Telerik TeamPulse. This is where tasks are defined and assigned, bugs are entered and commented on, and time is associated with estimates and real work. Essentially your project’s PTS is the intersection between time and the human-readable definition of your work. Figure 3.1 shows where this system lives in the scope of your application delivery lifecycle.
Figure 3.1. The first data source in your application lifecycle is your PTS. This is where tasks are defined and assigned, bugs are managed, and time is associated with tasks.
Trends that can be found in your PTS can go a long way in showing you how your team is performing. It’s typically the only system that teams will use to track their progress, so it’s a good place for us to start.
Because your PTS is tracking time and tasks, you can use it to answer the following questions: