Work Ponderings

We're in the process of introducing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in our workplace. There are a couple of forces behind this, which I'll describe without commentary for now.

1) In order to help us inspect and adapt, as good wannabe Agilists, we need some way to measure things and tell if we're actually improving. So a Feature Team might, for example, start tracking a KPI such as "how many Story Points of functionality are we delivering, per person day?" You could even argue that maintaining roughly the same value for that KPI is fine, once you reach an acceptable velocity.

2) Our parent company, we're told, wants to have some KPIs by which they can monitor our progress and tell how we're doing.

You can see how those are not necessarily the same usage of KPIs, although a broadminded person might allow that they could be.

Anyway, as I was sitting in a management meeting this week, a particular issue within the group came up that we were discussing how to resolve. The suggestion was made that perhaps these folks should own the problem, or those folks ought to create a process to solve it. Then I said, a little more than half-seriously, "Why not create a KPI for this and then track it and report on it every month?" That got a big laugh and then the discussion moved on to something else.

Which got me thinking: in how many areas are we not practicing what we preach? In other words, it's easy enough to impose mandates on others - some would say that's a part of what management is - but how often are we holding ourselves to the same bar? I know it happens, but is it happening enough? I've had questions like that asked of me, as the Agile Manager, and I don't know what the answer is. I don't, for example, have a list of tasks for every Iteration that I commit to and which then get reported on. Should I? Could I work effectively in that way, given how often my priorities change and that I don't actually generate product? More importantly, would things be better at work, if I and all the other managers had to work that way?

These are the sorts of things that wake me up in the middle of the night...