Summary

The problem with inconsistent metrics is that it leads to comparisons that are useless. Teams cannot be compared with one another, and changes cannot be selected for implementation because the impact of those changes will be unknown.

One organization would compare product teams with what seemed like a single, common metric. Upon closer examination, it was determined that teams were measuring differently. The metric became meaningless for cross-team comparisons. Worse, the goal of trying to establish best practices from the better performing teams became impossible because it was unclear which teams were actually performing better.

Before choosing metrics that determine what decisions and changes should be made, ensure that consistency is enforced. Software tooling is one way to enforce this if everyone uses the same tools, but tooling is only one part of the puzzle.

Applies to

Charter for Alignment