March 3rd, 2020 by inflectra
On February 18, 2020 Inflectra and Sriram Rajagopalan hosted a live webinar: Scream For Scrum or Scream At Scrum: What’s Going On?
If you missed the webinar, here is a recap of the webinar.
The webinar recording is inside.
We live in a word where there are so many metrics. Several months back, I published a blog article, “if data is the king, data analysis is the queen.” With Big Data and Internet of Things creating so much volume of data, it seems we jump into analyzing everything and reporting on many things. And, always remember Einstein when thinking of designing or developing metrics for programs and portfolios. Einstein said, “Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted, counts.”
So, it is critical to understand why we are measuring something instead of focusing on what we are measuring. Therefore, let us bring our memory back to what program and portfolio does. In the earlier webinars, we discussed the five critical Program Management knowledge areas such as strategy alignment, benefits management, stakeholder engagement, program governance, and program life cycle management. We also have discussed how portfolio management builds on these five knowledge areas with performance management and communication management.
Now, let us hold off for a few minutes and ask ourselves why we should measure these critical pillars. In the James Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, there was a famous line that Elliot Carver, the villain of the movie says. “The key to a great story is not who, or what, or when, but why,!” However, frequently we rush to metrics. But, metric is sandwiched between two elements – the measure and the frequency.
I am sure many of you may relate to the early morning rush to the commuter train. When people ask for metrics for evaluating the programs or portfolios, I am frequently reminded of this rush. As I mentioned, we need to understand how the metric that we are defining, and measuring will relate to the strategic alignment for the purpose for which the program or portfolio exists.
Portfolios, Programs, and projects exist to serve three important types of needs. First, it could be persuasive to tell that we should develop a product or retire a product based on market needs. Second, it could be informative for the stakeholders to tell how we are doing (more like the status quo). Finally, it could be exploratory emphasizing experiments or prototype development to solve a problem or need before it becomes a problem or need. Let us explore some metrics in these categories.
Thank you for your interest in Agile webinars with Sriram Rajagopalan, Ph.D.
We hope to see you at our next webinar soon.
Team Inflectra
Webinar Recap Metrics in the Brand New World of Programs and Portfolios Sriram Rajagopalan
Ask an Inflectra expert:
SpiraTest combines test management, requirements traceability & bug-tracking
SpiraTeam brings your teams together, managing the entire application lifecycle
SpiraPlan lets you manage your programs and portfolio of projects like never before
Orchestrates your automated regression testing, functional, load and performance
The ultimate test automation platform for web, mobile, and desktop applications
The help desk system, designed specifically for software support teams
Cloud hosted, secure source code management - Git and Subversion
Exploratory testing capture tool that automatically records your testing activity
Let us deal with the IT pain so you don't have to. Or use on-premise if you prefer.
Our customers work in every industry imaginable. From financial services to healthcare and biotech to government and defense and more, we work with our customers to address their specific needs.
Our products do not enforce a methodology on you, instead they let you work your way. Whether you work in agile development, Scrum and XP, Kanban and Lean, Waterfall, hybrid, or Scaled Agile Inflectra can help.
If you want to learn more about application delivery, testing, and more take a look at our whitepapers, videos, background papers, blog, and presentations.
Customers use our tools to help automate repetitive tasks and streamline their business processes using our Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions.
We collaborate with a wide range of teams to bring our customers a range of services (including load testing, training, and consultation), complimentary technologies, and specialized tools for specific industries.
Learn how different organizations have benefited from using Inflectra products to manage their software testing and application develooment.
Outstanding support is the foundation of our company. We make support a priority over all other work. Take a look at our support policy.
Discover great tips, discussions, and technical solutions from fellow customers and Inflectra's technical experts.
If you can't find the answer you're looking for, please get in touch with us: over email, phone, or online.
We are constantly creating new videos to help customers learn about our products, including through in depth webinars, all freely available along with a wide selection of presentations.
We provide a number of resources to help customers learn how to get the most out of our products, with free online resources, virtual classrooms, and face to face.
Read about Inflectra, our manifesto, and values. Meet our incredible customers who are building awesome things. We are focused on their success using our tools.
The Inflectra Blog contains articles on all aspects of the software lifecycle.
In addition we have whitepapers,
background articles, videos and
presentations to help get you started.
Events are a big part of our awesome customer service. They are a chance to learn more about us, our products, and how to level up your skills with our tools.
We partner with educational institutions and individuals all over the world. We are also a great place to work and encourage you to explore joining our team.
Please contact us with your questions, feedback, comments, or suggestions. We'll get back to you as soon as possible.
When you need additional assistance (be it training, consulting, or integration services) our global certified solution provider partner network is ready to help.
At Inflectra, we are fully committed to provide our customers with the very best products and customer service.
We want to help developers extend and customize our tools to fit in with their needs. We provide robust APIs, sample code, and open source projects.