Metric Gaming Diagnosis

Diagnose how a metric is being gamed and propose a balanced alternative that changes behavior without blaming anyone.

Scenario

Foundation case

A department manager ranks five teams by weekly velocity and shares it in an all-hands meeting. Over the last two months, teams' average story-point estimates have clearly inflated, but the actual amount of delivered functionality hasn't changed.

Your role

You are the agile coach redesigning the department's measurement approach.

Your task

Diagnose the incentive mechanism without blaming individuals, then replace it with a decision-focused primary and balancing signal.

Incentive and side effects

Five teams are publicly ranked by weekly velocity.
Average story-point estimates have inflated for two months.
The actual amount of delivered functionality is unchanged.

Your response

There is no single correct answer; we will evaluate the reasoning chain you build.

Gaming mechanism0/4000 · min 20

Root incentive0/4000 · min 15

Local optimization vs system health0/4000 · min 20

Balanced alternative0/4000 · min 15

Changing the process, not the person0/4000 · min 15