Once our team is on its mission, it's crucial that we know we're moving in the right direction. One question that will help our team know this is: What defines our success? Answering this question helps us discover the measurements we can take to keep us on track.
In this chapter, we'll look at various real-world examples that will help our team determine the metrics they should and shouldn't be using. We'll consider negative metrics, positive metrics, metrics that give you quantitative feedback, and metrics that provide you with qualitative feedback. We'll then discuss how to make this information visible and how to measure trends over time so that you can see you're improving and moving along the right trajectory.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
- Qualitative versus quantitative measurements
- Negative versus positive metrics
- What you measure is what you get
- How will you define success?
- How to run a workshop that will help your team members set themselves up for success
- Team velocity – the engine is working, but it's a negative metric, so be careful
- Sprint and release burndowns
- Code quality
- Code complexity
- Team health indicators
- User happiness index