Metrics Mania

In Last 15 years a huge change is seen in Information Technology Industry in India. Many Indian companies undertook quality journey. India emerged as the country having largest number of level V certified company on CMM framework. Needless to say, CMM based Metrics based management at level IV and above. Many companies interpreted the provision loosely and achieved level V certification without having internalization of Metrics in the organization for managing and improving software projects. I remember once Ron Radice was participating in QAI seminar in India. He asked the audience to raise hands if they were from a company which was at level IV or higher. 50 odd hands went up. The second question was how many of them followed control chart; about 8-10 hands went up. That was an interesting observation. Technically all those who had raised their hands before should have raised hands again.

Since then Metrics based management has come up a long way. Many companies have adopted Metrics for reporting their performance. I have noticed a very interesting scenario. Metrics is collected, presented, beautiful charts, and trends are shown but project still limps. Many buzz words like “Defect Prevention” is a part of regular quality discussion in the companies. I have noticed that the Metrics program, very often are not connected with a set of parameters which can be used to meet customer expectations. I have seen that many times a schedule variance is computed in product release scenario with zero deviation. Whenever Product releases are planned, the release date is announced. If the release progress is not in line with the release date, the scope is adjusted to meet the release date. In such situation going with the traditional definition of schedule variance is elusive. What required here is a Metric which pin points the problem and leads towards the possible solution. In software companies you can find many such instances where all buzz words keep on floating without a real benefit to the organization. I call this syndrome a “METRICS MANIA”.

If you want to get out of this syndrome and do some concrete contribution towards success of your project, client satisfaction: you can follow a three step process:
1. Define Customer Success Factors (CSFs): Clearly define what will make customer successful. It could be Quality of deliverable, timeliness of delivery and cost. Just ensure you don’t have a huge laundry list. Keep the list simple and short.

2. Map against each CSF one or at most two Metrics. Look at their definition clearly. Ensure adjusting them will change the end result, leading to customer satisfaction.


3. Collect, analyze and adjust the Metrics periodically. Share with the customer, get their perspectives. Tweak your Metrics program to reflect on CSFs.

Metrics is a dashboard, a lever in your hand to manage the process for defined outcome. It has to be simple, and easily understandable in the organization. It should be percolated down the line. Each person should know how he is contributing and changing customer’s life with simple measurements. A successful Metrics program can be culture changing event in an organization. Keep it SIMPLE. It works.