scrumdevelopment@yahoogroups.com wrote:

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that

a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the scrumdevelopment 

group.

  File        : /WP_Macromeasurements_0.pdf 

  Uploaded by : michaeljamesseattle <michael@...> 

Description : This article challenges the value of traditional

metrics for managing product development schedules and presents a

reality-based alternative which is compatible with Agile approaches

such as Scrum and XP. It is written for development managers or Scrum

Product Owners who want to make decisions based on

empirically-derived schedule forecasts instead of shooting in the

dark.

Michael, I've only taken a quick look at this article, but the 

paragraph, "XP guru Ron Jeffries makes a similar point by advocating

Running Tested Features (RTF) as a project metric7. The RTF metric is 

similar to Scrum Velocity when Product Backlog Items focus on features 

and include automated test in each item’s acceptance criteria." bothers me.

It seems to me that the XP Velocity is similar to Scrum Velocity, as 

both are a measure of progress for a single iteration/sprint.  RTF is a 

cumulative measure over the project.

It also seems that this description suggests that Product Backlog Items 

need not be focused on features (or visible functionality) and do not 

need to be demonstrably working.  Such amorphous "stories" are one of 

the biggest problems I see teams struggle with when they're new to Agile.

If poorly defined stories are the case, then the RTF metric could do 

wonders to point out how little meaningful work is actually getting 

done.  Of course, that begs the questions how you'd actually count the 

features in the absence of well-written stories, or if you could count 

them, why you wouldn't use their definition for the stories in the first 

place.

  - George

-- 

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

   * George Dinwiddie *                      http://blog.gdinwiddie.com

   Software Development                    http://www.idiacomputing.com

   Consultant and Coach                    http://www.agilemaryland.org

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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