{"id":20552,"date":"2022-01-05T07:57:24","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T13:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/flow-metrics-three-anti-patterns-to-avoid\/"},"modified":"2022-01-05T07:57:24","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T13:57:24","slug":"flow-metrics-three-anti-patterns-to-avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/flow-metrics-three-anti-patterns-to-avoid\/","title":{"rendered":"Flow Metrics: Three Anti-Patterns to Avoid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Flow<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Value stream management is a growing practice in software delivery<\/a> organizations of large scale enterprises and government agencies. Flow Metrics are a major pillar of how we measure improvement in value streams. <\/span><\/p>\n

As organizations begin to adopt <\/span>Flow Metrics<\/span><\/a>, our natural tendencies emerge to massage the newfound visibility to make the metrics “look good”. This is by no means a unique phenomenon: Any marketing expert could tell you, for example, how Google Analytics can paint a very different picture depending on the selected date range. <\/span><\/p>\n

That said, these anti-patterns would be wise to avoid, as they prevent us from using the data to improve our daily work. In this blog, we’ll review a few of the common anti-patterns about which you you should be aware. <\/span><\/p>\n

Get the full list with our humorous take on anti-patterns in <\/b>the <\/b>2022 Tasktop Desktop Calendar: 12 Tricks to Good-Looking Flow Metrics <\/b><\/p>\n

\"calendars
Click here<\/a> to claim your free calendar! (U.S. Only)<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chop up the value stream<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In his groundbreaking book <\/span>Project to Product<\/span><\/i><\/a>, Dr. Mik Kersten writes, “Correlating the Flow Metrics with business results provides us with a dashboard that connects the work being done in each value stream with the business results that the value stream is producing … if a part of the value stream is excluded, the flow metrics will not be correct; nor will they be meaningful if the value stream and product boundaries, as well as value metrics for each, are not accurately specified.”  <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Measure
Flow Metrics anti-pattern: Excluding part of the value stream<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When measuring a small segment of the value stream, which is typically made up of one specialization (e.g., engineering), flow can look pretty good. It effectively lops off the time a request, defect or business idea spent making its way to this team. And in this example, it also lops off the time the committed code will spend waiting for release, UAT or business signoff. As such, you will likely create an overly optimistic view of flow and effectively hide the bottlenecks that exist from idea to outcome, which we are so anxious to reveal. <\/span><\/p>\n

Tips to avoid this anti-pattern:<\/b><\/h3>\n