Agile Metrics in Action: Measuring and Enhancing the Performance of Agile Teams

Project tracking systems, test and build tools, source control, continuous integration, and other built-in parts of the software development lifecycle generate a wealth of data that can be used to track and improve the quality and performance of products, processes, and teams. Although the iterative nature of Agile development is perfect for data-driven continuous improvement, the collection, analysis, and application of meaningful metrics often fades in favor of subjective measures that offer less insight into the real challenges of making better software.

Agile Metrics in Action: Measuring and enhancing the performance of Agile teams is a practical book that shows how to take the data already being generated to make teams, processes, and products better. It points out which metrics to use to objectively measure performance and what data really counts, along with where to find it, how to get it, and how to analyze it. The book also shows how all team members can publish their own metrics through dashboards and radiators, taking charge of communicating performance and individual accountability. Along the way, it offers practical data analysis techniques, including a few emerging Big Data practices.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Measuring agile teams
Chapter 1 Measuring agile performance
Chapter 2 Observing a live project

Part 2 Collecting and analyzing your team’s data
Chapter 3 Trends and data from project-tracking systems
Chapter 4 Trends and data from source control
Chapter 5 Trends and data from CI and deployment servers
Chapter 6 Data from your production systems

Part 3 Applying metrics to your teams, processes, and software
Chapter 7 Working with the data you’re collecting: the sum of the parts
Chapter 8 Measuring the technical quality of your software
Chapter 9 Publishing metrics
Chapter 10 Measuring your team against the agile principles

Appendix A DIY analytics using ELK
Appendix B Collecting data from source systems with Grails