The number that would prove your quarter was never collected

Who this is for

• VPs of Engineering and CTOs who own the board or exec update.
• Engineering managers whose update feeds a budget, headcount or date decision.
• Anyone asked for a number they do not have, who had to answer anyway.

The problem

• You can describe the work. You cannot prove it moved anything.
• Nobody set the measurement up, so next quarter is just as hard.
• Tickets closed and story points go in. Nobody outside engineering can act on either.
• The reader learns to skim, and the next update starts from behind.

What it does about it

• Reads last period first: every promise and every gap you said you would close needs a line saying what happened.
• Translates activity into consequence: a table of what each kind of work becomes for this audience.
• Keeps measurement apart from inference: the figure first, your conclusion after, so a reader can argue with one and accept the other.
• Builds the gap table: every claim that wants a figure, where it would come from, what it costs to start collecting.
• Picks two to start: two, not all of them, each with an owner.

Two minutes to first output

1. Gather the board export, the deploy log, spend, headcount and last update.
2. Paste the pack and all of it in one message. Tidy is not required.
3. Read the gap table before the update.

What it will not do

• Invent a figure. It writes the line and marks the hole.
• Ask you who the audience is. It states the assumption at the top so you can correct it.
• Pretend to have a memory on a first run. It says there was no prior update.