Team Guide to Metrics for Business Decisions
This book is 70% complete
Last updated on 2019-01-17
About the Book
Team Guide to Metrics for Business Decisions is the second guidebook in the new collection from Skelton Thatcher Publications.
Learn how metrics can help your team answer questions like “How fast are we going? What should we do next? Where’s the bottleneck?”
The ‘Team Guide’ collection is designed to help teams building and running software systems to be as effective as possible. Guides are curated by experienced practitioners and emphasise the need for collaboration and learning, with the team at the centre.
About the Contributors
Manuel Pais is an independent DevOps and Delivery Consultant, focused on teams and flow.
With a diverse experience including development, build management, testing and QA, Manuel has helped large organizations in finance, legal, and manufacturing adopt test automation and continuous delivery, as well as understand DevOps from both technical and human perspectives.
Manuel is co-author of the Team Guide to Software Releasability book and lead editor for the remaining books in the Team Guide series.
Table of Contents
- The Team Guide series
- Foreword
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Introduction
- What is covered in this book
- All the time in the world
- Value, quality and operational metrics
- How to use this book
- Get Started!
- Feedback and suggestions
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1. Throughput: “How fast are we going?”
- 1.1 Why should I care about throughput in my team role?
- 1.2 What’s the problem with velocity and story points?
- 1.3 What is throughput?
- 1.4 Use throughput for short term predictions
- 1.5 Use throughput to validate experiments
- 1.6 Use throughput for long term predictions
- 1.7 Debunking some myths
- 1.8 Public resources
- 1.9 Get started!
- 1.10 Summary
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2. Lead Time: “How long will this take?”
- 2.1 Why should I care about lead time in my team role?
- 2.2 What is lead time?
- 2.3 Measuring lead time
- 2.4 Use lead time to make predictions
- 2.5 Use lead time to answer business questions
- 2.6 Use lead time for continuous improvement
- 2.7 Use lead time to answer “What should we work on today”?
- 2.8 Debunking some myths
- 2.9 Public resources
- 2.10 Get started!
- 2.11 Summary
- 3. Metrics for Quality: “How do we know this works?”
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4. Forecasting and Planning: “When will it be done?”
- 4.1 Why should I care about forecasting in my team role?
- 4.2 The common way of estimating in agile teams
- 4.3 How long will this feature/project take?
- 4.4 Answering business questions with probabilistic forecasting
- 4.5 Forecasting tips & tricks: how to improve your forecasts
- 4.6 Estimate vs forecast: benefits of forecasting
- 4.7 Debunking some myths
- 4.8 Public resources
- 4.9 Get started!
- 4.10 Summary
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5. Metrics for Flow: “Where’s the bottleneck?”
- 5.1 Why should I care about flow in my team role?
- 5.2 What is flow
- 5.3 Use a cumulative flow diagram to answer: Is work flowing well?
- 5.4 Use net flow to answer: Is our process balanced?
- 5.5 Use flow efficiency to improve the end-to-end process
- 5.6 Public resources
- 5.7 Get started!
- 5.8 Summary
- 6. Metrics for Value: “Why are we making this software?”
- Terminology
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References and further reading
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 - Throughput: “How fast are we going?”
- Chapter 2 - Lead Time: “How long will this take?”
- Chapter 3 - Metrics for Quality: “How do we know this works?”
- Chapter 4 - Forecasting and planning: “When will it be done?”
- Chapter 5 - Metrics for Flow: “Where’s the bottleneck?”
- Chapter 6 - Metrics for Value: “Why are we making this software?”
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About the authors
- Chris Young
- Mattia Battiston
- Why we wrote this book
About the Publisher

This book is published on Leanpub by Skelton Thatcher Publications
Developing and running modern software systems requires teams of motivated and well-trained people; however, most IT books are written for the individual technologist. The Team Guide series from Skelton Thatcher Publications takes a team-first approach to software systems with the aim of empowering whole teams to build and operate software systems more effectively.
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