Date: February 16th, 2005
Time: 6:00 - 8:30

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Metrics

In a Metrics Program, many weeks of work occasionally culminate in important meetings where metrics are shown to management and actions taken. Unfortunately, the graphical presentations in the reports are often ineffective or missing. At best, management spends the meeting clarifying the data. At worst, they make no decisions or bad decisions.

In this engagement at CGI-AMS, the metrics program includes guidelines for choosing just the right graphs. Every key metric is shown as a graph. Time in meetings is spent assigning action items based on clear pictures of the process. This presentation shows how.

For example, a Metrics Specialist wants to show Defect Rates by Severity Level for the various subsystems of a large project. Should she use:

  • A clustered bar graph?
  • A line (time-series) chart?
  • A 3-D line chart?
  • Others?

Should she use one graph or many?

This presentation will be featured at the SEPG 2005 conference. This is a chance for those attending the conference to get more on their plates, or for those not attending to get a free sample.

About The Speaker

Chris Laney is a Metrics Coordinator at CGI-AMS, a $3B software and outsourcing company founded in the 1970s. He is responsible for a metrics program and leveraging CMMI practices across North America. He has a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA/Statistics degree from the University of Alabama. He is a Certified Quality Engineer and has held many Quality Engineering positions in manufacturing. Chris has taught statistics and designed experiments courses for such groups as IFPUG, the ASQ, IIE, and the University of Alabama College of Continuing Studies.