What is a negative metric? Well, a metric is something that you measure in order to give you an idea of how something is performing. A negative metric is a performance indicator that tells you if something is going badly, but it doesn’t tell you when that same something is necessarily going well. For example, velocity. If velocity is low, or fluctuating between iterations, this is usually a sign that something isn’t going well. However if velocity is normal there is no guarantee that the team is delivering value. We know that they are working, but that is all we know. If we want to be sure that they are delivering value,…
From September 2014
Why are outcomes not attached?
I’d thought I’d explain why my tagline includes the statement “outcomes not attached”. As a servant leader I’m heavily invested, one might say 100% committed, on getting good outcomes. However, those outcomes aren’t my own, they are those of the team that I serve. In getting the best result for the people that I coach, I can’t be attached to those outcomes, or how they reach them, in any way. Let me explain further. If I have the intention of steering the team in a certain direction, it might not be one that they would take. They won’t identify with, or fully understand the path that I’ve sent them on. As a result they won’t…
Retrospective – Dish the Dirt
I recently started working with a team who have been together for 18 months. A few discussions with the team revealed that there were a few issues that had been raised time and time again in their Sprint Retrospectives that they felt were beyond their control. They had now given up trying to remove these impediments to their progress. I devised this retrospective in an attempt to help the team create different perspectives on these problems to see if this would help them find solutions. What you’ll need: Paper and pens Dots to vote with A microphone or other form of talking stick A recording device Step 1: Setting the stage Explain…