An Agile Balanced Scorecard

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An Agile Balanced Scorecard
Roland Cuellar (May 27, 2009)

There are a number of frameworks for measuring performance on software development projects, including leading/lagging indicators, efficiency/effectiveness, and the Balanced Scorecard. Is it possible to combine the best of these approaches into a unified system that can be implemented on larger Agile projects?

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board keeps close tabs on two high-level measures of economic performance: GDP and inflation. While growing GDP and simultaneously keeping inflation in check are the end goals, the FRB looks at many other measures as well. That is because GDP and inflation are “lagging indicators” of economic performance — they confirm longer-term trends but cannot predict them. For example, it took macro economists a full year to figure out that we were already in the current recession. So it would be foolish to focus on only these numbers because by the time they indicate that a change is required, it is already too late.

Enter “the leading indicators.” Leading indicators are measures that often give early signals as to where the economy is heading. By looking at such measures as housing starts, durable goods orders, warehouse inventories, unemployment rates, etc., the FRB can see early trends in where GDP and inflation may be headed and decide what actions to take.

What does all of this have to do with Agile and software development? Managers in corporate settings also need to think about leading and lagging indicators of software development performance.

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