Measures

Abstract

There is a consensus that the performance, control and management of every process and activity can be improved using measures to monitor them. The agile approach promotes a constant tracking during the entire project. Further, the tracker role includes the responsibility to define and refine the measures, data collection, and measure presentation. Some measures are presented daily, like the daily progress within the iteration; some measures are presented each iteration, like the iteration progress within the release; yet, other measures are presented every release, like customer level of satisfaction or product testability. When measures are addressed on a regular basis, all teammates and stakeholders can view them, give feedback, and suggest measure refinements. Thus, their understanding of the project is improved, their accountability for the project deliverables is fostered, project transparency is increased, and cognitive complexity is reduced. We answer the following questions as they are expressed in agile projects: (1) Why are measures needed? (2) Who decides what is measured? (3) What should be measured? (4) When are measures taken? (5) How are measures taken? (6) Who does take measure? (7) How are measures used?