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example. Another example of an “informal” process in Agile organizations is
measurement flow down.
Not all measures have to be “formal” in the traditional sense of the word for-
mal (e.g., written). Some of the most valuable measures leaders use every
day in making
decisions
are employed “less formally.” I have used the follow-
ing scenarios to help Agile organizations “formalize” and train an Agile
Measurement Program.
To d e m o n s t r a t e h o w m e a s u re s a re u s e d l e s s f o r m a l l y, c o n s i d e r t h e d e v e l -
oper who brings a concern to his project leader regarding a teammate
named Joe, who has missed a team meeting. The project leader makes a
quick assessment and decides that no action is required. He knows Joe and
he knows Joe is normally reliable. This is the first time he has heard of any
potential problem and therefore decides no action is needed at this time. In a
second scenario, another developer raises to the project lead a situation
where Tom, another team member, has missed the last three team meetings.
In this case, the project leader decides he needs to talk to Tom to find out
what is happening.
After presenting the two scenarios, I then ask the class if they think the
project leader used any measures in carrying out his job in either of the sce-
narios. Often the immediate reaction is that measures are not used here, but
this turns out to be false.
An Agile Perspective on Measurement
Agile Perspective on Measurement: A measure is a
standard
used for
comparison
to
reduce uncertainty
when making a
decision
.
4
In both cases, the project lead uses a standard, which is the expectation that
people attend team meetings almost all the time, and sometimes things hap-
pen causing people to miss meetings (e.g., sick, doctor appointment…).
When someone misses three meetings in a row, this is a signal that action
should be taken. This situation is outside the expected standard. The point of
this discussion in training is to communicate the fact that we use measures
constantly in our job and that both formal and less formal measures have
value. Such scenarios also help people understand the culture that exists
within an organization and the expectations in doing a job in that organiza-
tion whether it is traditional or
Agile
.
4. Definition based on
American College Dictionary
.
