This is the final segment of a 6 part series.
Part I introduced the concept of analytically measuring the performance of delivery teams.
In Part II – We talked about how Agile practices enhance our ability to measure more accurately and more often.
Part III defined a system model for defining 3 dimensions of performance (Predictability, Quality and Productivity). We then got into specifics of how to measure the first dimension; ‘Predictability’
Part IV covered the second of the three dimensions; Quality
and Part V covered the most controversial and often misunderstood dimensions of them all; Productivity.
The intent of this series wasn’t to present a one size fits all measurement model for all IT organizations. Rather, the goal of this paper was to emphasize the value and thus the priority of taking a more analytical approach to measuring the performance of your multi-shore (and even single shore) delivery teams and to provide a concrete, real-world example of how we have helped some of our customers move beyond subjective evaluation of predictability, quality and productivity for their organizations.
In the end, you may leverage all, parts or none of the specifics in this white-paper. But hopefully it’s gotten the conceptual ball rolling and shown that measuring IT performance is certainly not the hardest engineering problem IT management faces. It merely requires adopting a process and leveraging some fairly basic tools that you probably already have (or can easily adopt from the Open Source community).
Oh and – yes, you may have to let go of some old-school, subjective and emotional baggage. But the result of integrating measurement as a core practice within your software delivery methodology will yield an IT organization that is far better positioned to deliver measurable value to the business in the most efficient manner possible.
Further Reading
A Practical Guide to Feature-Driven Development (Paperback)
~ Stephen R. Palmer / Stephen R. Palmer
Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager’s Guide (Paperback)
~ Craig Larman
Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum (Paperback)
~ Mike Cohn
Agile Estimating and Planning (Paperback)
~ Mike Cohn
Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed (Paperback)
~ Barry Boehm
Applied Software Measurement: Global Analysis of Productivity and Quality (Hardcover)
~ Capers Jones (Author)
The Yourdon Report (Blog)
IT Value Metrics: How to Communicate ROI to the Business (article in CIO Magazine)
http://www.cio.com/article/144451/IT_Value_Metrics_How_to_Communicate_ROI_to_the_Business
(also contains links to other important articles like “The Metrics Trap”)
