User-Centric Metrics for Agile

Far too often software programs continue to collect metrics for no other reason than that is how it has always been done. This leads to situations where, for any given environment, a metrics program is defined by a list of metrics that must be collected. A top-down, deterministic specification of graphs or other depictions of data required by the metrics program can distract participants from the potentially useful information that the metrics reveal and illuminate. In this podcast from the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Will Hayes, who leads the Agile Transformation Team, and Patrick Place, a principal engineer on that team, discuss with principal researcher Suzanne Miller, how user stories can help put development in the context of who is using the system and lead to a conversation about why a specific metric is being collected.