The members of your organization might diligently collect the data and report it as requested, yet they never see evidence that the data is being used for anything. People may grumble that they spend precious time measuring aspects of their software, but they have no idea what the benefits are. The required metrics forms are submitted to some black-hole collection center. Your management doesn’t seem to care whether they get the data or not.

Software engineering cannot be a data-driven profession if the available data disappears from sight. Project managers and senior managers must close the loop and share results with the team. They need to relate the benefits of having the data available and explain how the information helped managers make decisions and take appropriate actions. Make selected public metrics trends visible to all stakeholders so they can share in the successes and decide how best to address the shortcomings.