This fun chart is from Pivotal Tracker. It’s a stacked line chart of the types of stories we’ve completed each iteration since we began using Pivotal Tracker.

The graph provides a colorful analysis of how we allocated our efforts: squashing bugs; bulking up the code; adding functionality.

Seeing past results is powerful. One naturally follows the trend into the future. What breakdown do we want? Is it good or bad to spend time squashing bugs? I can’t help but feel extra motivated in bringing the red line (bugs) down to 0. I wonder if the black line (chores) is cyclic, and if so with what frequency. Can I raise the blue line (features) consistently? Will all these short term metrics trick us into making a bad decision?

It will be fun to find out.

Note that bugs and chores are always 1 “point” on the chart, since we’ve opted not to assigned points to them. Keeps us driving towards features since that’s the only way to burn down each iteration’s point-based allocation of stories. Although we can’t precisely compare story allocation to time spent, these results look like a reasonable proxy.

I don’t have too much more to say on this. Just wanted to share something colorful while we wait for more data to come in.

Proudly ProcrasDonating,

Lucy.