Metrics in Isolation are doomed to Fail

You know how it is: all metrics can, and will, be gamed.

So using metrics is always a balancing act: how much can you learn from a single metric, how resistant is it to being gamed, and does it have a counterbalance that avoids pushing the organisation too far in one direction?

Resiliency

Are you familiar with the term resiliency?

Not the one used in psychology, the one used in technology.

Technology is about Humans

Did you know: tech work isn’t about tech

🚀…it’s about humans.

No, really.

Katherine Porfilio refreshed this thought in my mind this morning with her latest post.

Do you think deploying is expensive? Try not deploying!

🐙 You think deploying software is painful and expensive? Try not deploying it!

To tie it back to theory quickly: those who have come in contact with Lean manufacturing will recognise “inventory” as one of the nine wastes Lean defines (the -> I in TIMWOODS :-) )

Playing

💭 I have a favourite trick question in my trainings: “what do you call people whose job it is to conduct experiments all day?” The obvious answer might be “scientists”, but I’m going for… did you guess it … children.

Do you know if you work for a software company?

Because I think you do.

You see, Mac Andreessen’s famous quote about how “software is eating the world” is surprisingly close to the mark.