Measuring Impact In The Dojo
Last month at Agile Day Chicago, I (Joel) had the pleasure of listening to Mark Graban speak about separating signal from noise in our measurements. Mark referenced Process Behavior Charts, a technique described in the book Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos by Donald J. Wheeler. This simple tool helps us look at metrics over time and understand the difference between naturally occurring variations (what Wheeler calls “The Voice of the Process”) and signals, or variation in the metrics representing real changes. Signals can be indicators that a desired change is manifesting, or they can be indicators that something is wrong and requires further investigation.
Dojo Metrics - Moving From What is Easy to capture to What Matters
A fair question to ask when starting a Dojo (or any initiative for that matter) is “how do we know this is working?” Invariably, right on the heels of that question somebody always brings up the idea of capturing metrics. Then they turn to us and say “What are the right metrics for the Dojo?”.