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5.23 A Measurement and Analysis Process That Fits an
Agile Organization
SP 1.1 of the Measurement and Analysis Process Area states:
Establish … measurement objectives that are derived from … needs and
objectives.
I told a Senior Manager at BOND that I have starting point process tem-
plates, but you have to go to the next step to achieve your objectives. Part of
that next step was having the working groups extract the real processes that
worked in the company. In some cases, those working groups required us to
engage senior managers. An example was Measurement and Analysis (MA).
I had developed a simple “Agile” Measurement and Analysis Process tem-
plate that could help an organization just starting its CMMI effort. To use it,
we needed to make some key management related decisions. I told them that
before we decide what to measure, we needed to discuss the objectives of the
measurement program. The first question I asked was:
What is the objective of your measurement program?
After some discussion, the leaders agreed that the main objective of the mea-
surement program should be to help the project leaders be successful in
managing their projects. The first statement we placed in the Measurement
and Analysis Process was the agreed-to measurement objectives:
Provide accurate information to aide the project engineer's decision-making
process in effectively executing the project management plan.
It was also agreed that this was a starting point objective for the measure-
ment program and we would revisit it regularly. Later this objective was
expanded as we began to institutionalize the Senior Management reviews to
include the statement:
Provide objective oversight/insight for senior project management. 21
We n e x t d i s c u s s e d t h e m e a s u re s t o s u p p o r t t h e s e o b j e c t i v e s . We b ro u g h t i n a
number of experienced project leads to participate in this discussion, asking
21. The CMMI doesn't tell you what your measurement objectives need to be. You are supposed to
decide, and it is fine to evolve your objectives as your organization grows. The CMMI doesn't say you
need a “boatload” of metrics.
 
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