A large part of project management is collecting and sharing metrics on how things are going.  This could be the number of test cases completed, amount of code developed, or any other quantifiable aspect of a project.  Sometimes the numbers tell an obvious story - we completed everything, all the code is done… but sometimes the numbers tell a more subtle story.  To me this is much more interesting because instead of just sharing numbers, it requires me to dig in and find a story to tell about those numbers.

Sometimes the story isn’t “we were able to complete all our objectives this week”.  This message can be hard to pass along since it isn’t the best outcome; actually completing the work.  Instead, we have to dig in and see what other positives may be going on.  Here’s two additional things I look at for reporting:

Momentum

Depending on the task that has to be accomplished it can take some time for things to get started.  Test cases, for example, may have a delay between “started” and “completed”.  This can result in completion metrics being relatively low in the first parts of the testing cycle, with them eventually catching up as cases are closed.  

In these instances, I remind everyone to not only focus on the percent complete, but to take into account the “in progress” numbers as well.  Generally these will begin converting to “passed” and will result in success.

Error Resolution

Despite the best setup possible, errors also pop up in testing.  While these do represent more work and need to be dealt with, they do represent another source of positive metrics that can be shared.  While initially reporting on the number of new errors can be stressful (after all it’s MORE work), reporting on how quickly the team triages and resolves them is a positive.

I see it as a positive in two ways, first the team is actively improving the process by IDing errors, and two, the team is fixing them (hopefully quickly!).  Both of these can be presented as a value add vs. a distraction.

Both momentum and error resolution rates provide a lot of great stories.  The secret is just to keep your eyes on and be able to point out positive aspects that help keep things moving.