7.9Building a Metrics Practice from Scratch

Month 1: Foundation

• Choose 3-5 core metrics (defect escape rate, automation ratio, flaky rate, bug fix cycle time, customer-reported defects)
• Set up basic data collection (even if manual)
• Establish baseline values

Month 2-3: Automation

• Automate data collection from CI/CD and bug tracker
• Build the first dashboard (start simple -- Google Sheets is fine)
• Begin weekly reporting

Month 4-6: Analysis

• Identify the worst metric and propose an improvement experiment
• Run the experiment for 2-3 sprints
• Report the results to stakeholders

Month 7-12: Maturity

• Expand to leading indicators
• Add trend analysis and forecasting
• Begin quarterly metrics reviews with leadership
• Use historical data for estimation calibration