People Metrics: How to Use Team Data to Produce Positive Change

Summary

Usually when people think of metrics, the first things that come to mind are CPU, memory, or application response times. But what about metrics for human beings? After all, the health of a team will directly influence the health of a service or product!

I will go over the types of metrics that I have relied on over the past couple years at Acquia as a manager of an Ops team and how they have driven behavioral, cultural, and organizational change. I will then show:

• how to generate similar metrics yourself;
• how to interpret them;
• how to present them to peers and management as a vehicle of producing change 

Intended Audience

Engineers/Managers looking to improve their products and quality-of-life for their teams.

Knowledge Required

Little tech knowledge necessary. Knowledge about time-series services like Graphite is a plus!

Goal of Presentation

To generate an awareness around the types of metrics that can be captured for a team and how they can be used towards creating a happier and more successful business. 

 

References:

• The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
• Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time
• The Practice of Cloud System Administration: Designing and Operating Large Distributed Systems, Volume 2