Planes, trains & automobiles…from a software project perspective

I spent quite a bit of time working with 6^th Sense Analytics on their metrics product. This blog isn’t specifically about that, but about metrics in general and software metrics in particular. A metaphor has been running around my head of late when it comes to software metrics and I’ll probably ramble a bit on the topic.

Driving a car is very much like driving a software project. You start out with a specific destination in mind, but along the way, you have to be adaptive to your environment. A huge part of that adjustment is related to your reading various gauges and indicators on your dashboard, while also paying attention to the surrounding environment.

There are several things that come into play:

• Maintaining visibility
• Managing your speed
• Trusting your gauges
• Watch out for “Death by Data”

I hope the metaphor makes sense and drives you to think harder about how you manage software projects.