Welcome back to our ‘Mastering SAFe®’ series! We’re continuing below with our 3rd installment; you can start from the beginning with Part one and Part two.
“How are we really doing?”
When someone says “everything is fine,” is it really fine or should we be conjuring images of the cartoon with the dog drinking coffee surrounded by flames? The ambiguity can be halting and it’s time for a better answer.
Objective measures provide an unbiased assessment of whether goals and intended outcomes are being met. They allow teams to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and measure the impacts of change. By definition, objective measures are quantitative and measure concrete data or facts.
The Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) recommends 2 types of objective measure: demos and metrics.
Demos
A demonstration of working software is the most objective way to measure if the work meets the intended goals. It’s not a Confluence page somewhere with checkmarks next to a list of requirements; a demo is the exact implementation on display for everyone to review.
As a part of the SAFe® cadence, delivery teams will show completed functionality to stakeholders for the purposes of approval and feedback prior to releasing to customers. Demos should happen on a frequent basis, often aligning with the Iteration cadence. They’re best done when the environment is as similar as possible to the production environment where customers will eventually interact with the product, so that feedback is as specific as possible.
Metrics
Measurements of the delivery system allow teams to know how the system is operating and make informed decisions about adjustments.
There are 3 main areas SAFe® recommends.
1. Flow of Work Through the System
Flow metrics focus on how work is moving through the system. They help teams understand how well their processes are supporting continuous delivery of value to customers. Teams use these metrics to optimize their process, balance work and improve their processes.
SAFe recommends their six flow metrics:
- Flow Velocity: Number of work items completed in a time period
- Flow Time: Time it takes for a work item to be completed
- Flow Load: Number of work items in progress at any given point in time
- Flow Distribution: Types of work items in progress or to be completed in a time period
- Flow Efficiency: Time spent on value-added work while in progress
- Flow Predictability: Historical data to understand delivery consistency over time
2. Output of the System
The outputs of the delivery system indicate whether the work being completed by the system meets business objectives.
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are objective, measurable numbers that identify how well a company, project or team is performing. They are usually linked to long-term strategic goals and provide insight into performance.
Examples include:
- Revenue goals
- Engagement goals
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
- Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR)
- Defect rate
- Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a goal-setting framework to help define objectives and then create objective measures of the outcomes. The Objective is the goal and the Key Results are the measurable actions that define success of the objective. An example of an OKR would look like:
- Objective: Increase product adoption
- Key Result 1: Increase new active users by 20% by the end of Q2.
- Key Result 2: Launch 3 new features requested by users by EOY.
- Objective: Increase product adoption
3. System Performance
These measurements ensure the system is optimized for business agility. SAFe® provides self-assessments based on the 7 Core Competencies to help organizations measure and focus on growth:
- Organizational Agility
- Lean Portfolio Management
- Enterprise Solution Delivery
- Agile Product Delivery
- Team and Technical Agility
- Continuous Learning Culture
- Lean-Agile Leadership
At TMG, we’ve found that when an organization has defined metrics that are visible to everyone, teams become personally invested in the goal and the team’s ability to deliver. Metrics create conversations around optimizations and improvements that focus on the data rather than pointing fingers. Teams focus on solutions both in what can be delivered to customers and how the team operates.
Once metrics are defined and the mechanisms to capture them are set up, a company can move with relative ease from quarter to quarter knowing which areas need focus.
The hardest part can be deciding what to measure and how to measure it. Need help defining your organization’s metrics? Let’s talk!
