Un-Assessments Reflections by the Team, for the Team

Metrics can backfire. They are useful for both self assessment by teams and retrospectives. But trying different metrics since 2002 with 80 teams at IBM has shown itpsilas not just a matter of finding the right metrics. Itpsilas important to use them properly, and to avoid common pitfalls, including bloated metrics, the evil scorecard, lessons forgotten, forcing process, and inconsistent sharing. Turning assessments into "un-assessments" returns power back to the engineers on the team so that they can discuss their own data and improve their process. Instead of defining more metrics, this paper tells how not to misuse them.