A Metric without context is just a number

In the 21st century, metrics are king. What organization isn’t informed or focused on metrics, relying on them to keep score, identify problems, and implement solutions? Metrics allow you to ask better questions, but they require interpretation. A metric without any context is just a number. One cannot make a decision knowing only a metric and without any other information.

For instance, if you were car shopping and all you knew was Car A had a highway fuel mileage of 32 while Car B had a highway fuel mileage of only 25? With just that information, would you be willing to buy Car A? Hopefully not, especially when I tell you Car A is a 1978 Ford Pinto.

If I said a particular scrum team had a velocity of 9, what use is the number alone? What’s the first thing that comes to mind when we consider that team? Do you, (like me) immediately jump to a conclusion? A better approach is to consider what questions to ask, questions that put the number into context such as

• How many people are on the team?
• How long has the team existed in it’s current form
• What’s the seniority of the team?
• How does the team point stories?

The answers to these questions may spawn other questions. For instance, if I respond to the last question that each story is pointed as a 1 and the team follows a “No Estimates” approach, you’ll want to know more and consider asking for additional metrics, such as cycle time and cummulative flow to further dig into how the team is perforiming.

Intuition and context play a huge role with metrics. Metrics should not replace smart people with their intuition nor should we rely solely on our intuition and observations alone. For those on-the-ground working the code, their intuition will point out where the problems lie. Sometimes these problems are obvious in the metrics. For many of the teams I work with, there is a bottleneck in delivery right after development completes. I see it each day looking at our Kanben board and from our conversations. The metrics also back up my observations, though it doesn’t come across as a large of a problem in the metrics as my intuition says it is.

Metrics also help us see patterns we have not seen before. Paired with our observations, metrics may help us articulate a challenge in ways to influence leadership action. Metrics, paired with intuition and context, can help spur leadership into action. Metrics help us see the consequences of a problem and consequentially, the benefit of fixing the issue.

Whether you rely on intuition first or metrics first, remember that they are stronger together. While some leaders may be influenced by observations and gut-drawn conclusions on their own, most will want to understand the numbers, not just for themselves but also for their leaders.