XPDay 2003 - Metrics are evil ;-)

So what can I say about my own contribution to XPDay?! Well, as in the previous two years it was fun to be there as a speaker, bouncing ideas off people and engaging in stimulating conversations. (E.g. Tom Gilb insisted - unsurprisingly - that just because metrics are misused that does not make them evil. A lot of XP / agile folk dislike metrics because of the way they are applied in a 'one size fits all' fashion, but I personally feel that appropriate measurements have their place at appropriate times.) The main point I wanted to make was that communicating with a team often and openly enough can get you some advance notice of problems, well before they show up in any backward-looking numbers, and in time to permit corrective action.