metrics

When people talk about metrics, they often seem to lump them all together into a single sort of thing. This lack of distinction often seems to generate needless confusion. In my experience, it is helpful to have an awareness of the following broad classes of metrics before diving into a metrics discussion.

Progress Metrics: These are numbers that help demonstrate an individual or team’s progression towards completion of a task or project. [Burn down charts][burndown], as well as [Earned Value Measures][evm], are examples of this sort of thing. Progress metrics help a team and its leadership understand whether they are on track to complete a task per their plan. If your actuals show a significant variance from your plan, then that is typically a trigger for some sort of corrective action or a replan.