Chapter 4. Putting the metrics to work
This chapter covers
- Applying multiple metrics to expose potential areas of improvement
- Using patterns and trends to point to delivery problems
In this chapter, you’ll see how you can gain deeper insight into a situation by using multiple metrics, and multiple types of metrics, in concert. Trends in any single metric can highlight delivery issues, but can just as easily provide a false positive. When you overlay trends in multiple metrics, false positives tend to become obvious, and you can catch problems early.
So far, you’ve learned about the purpose, function, basic mechanics, and potential abuses of several metrics, and how your development approach, process model, and delivery mode influence your choice of metrics. You’ve seen that a single point-in-time observation offers little useful information and that you need to develop observation trends over time.
No single metric gives you all the information you need to keep your work on track or to recognize areas of improvement. When you overlay trends in multiple metrics, you can get a better sense of what’s happening. Even then, metrics won’t directly tell you the root causes of a problem; they’ll only indicate when reality diverges from expectations or exceeds limits you’ve defined as “normal.” It’s still up to you to discover root causes and determine appropriate actions. The more information you have, the better your chances of success in doing so.