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List:       extremeprogramming
Subject:    Re: [XP] Don't measure the practices
From:       Phlip <pplumlee () omnigon ! com>
Date:       2002-09-25 3:01:30
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kentlbeck sez:

> At my rousing concluding speech for XP2002 I asked the academics to
> stop measuring the practices. A bit later someone asked here, "What
> the h2l did Kent mean by that?" I didn't know what I meant by that,
> so I didn't respond.
>
> This SIP stuff (software-in-process) is an example of what I
> mean. "By their fruits shall they be known." If you measure and
> discover that half of everyone isn't aware of their metaphor, that
> doesn't mean metaphor is a bad idea...

Mr. B is working off the aphorism "You get what you measure." Suppose you 
have a tribe of suits, and you can teach them to measure things, but you 
can't teach them not to produce the above effect. Now what's the >one thing< 
above all others that you could want to teach them to measure?

What one thing is easy to measure, but shows effects down into all the little 
measurements that partially matter? If we suppose that measuring line count 
is relevant for metrics, but not as a single meter of productivity, then 
measuring it indirectly, by measuring the result of delivering value, makes a 
little more sense.

Mr. B is attempting no less than learning to steer an entire culture. Props!

-- 
  Phlip
                     http://www.greencheese.org/SpringBreakfast
  --  This machine last rebooted during the Second Millenium  --

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