Facilitation Guide

How to prepare and run the Software Delivery Performance Learning Hour remotely for 5 to 15 Participants.

Table of Contents

  1. Before the session
  2. Run the session
    1. Connect (⏱️ 5 min)
    2. Concept (⏱️ 10 min)
    3. Concrete Practice (⏱️ 30 min)
    4. Conclusions (⏱️ 10 min)
  3. After the session

Before the session

  1. Make a copy of the Miro board and clear any sticky notes left from a previous session.
  2. Share the board link with Participants in the calendar invite.
  3. Read the DORA Metrics reference so you can answer questions during Readouts.

  4. Plan the Breakout Rooms for the expected group size:

    Participants Breakout Rooms Metrics per room
    5–9 2–4 Some rooms take two metrics
    10–15 5 One metric per room

    Never leave a Participant alone in a room. A room with two metrics fills a shorter Metric Card for each.

Run the session

Connect (⏱️ 5 min)

  1. Open the Connect frame and ask: “How would you measure software delivery performance?”
  2. Give everyone 3 minutes to write sticky notes.
  3. Read a few answers aloud. Do not correct them; you will come back to them in Concept.

Concept (⏱️ 10 min)

  1. Walk through the Concept frames in order: what DORA is, Throughput, Instability, read them together, pitfalls.
  2. Point at Connect answers that are not delivery performance metrics, such as velocity or lines of code.
  3. Stress the pitfalls of using metrics as targets and comparing teams; this community spans several teams.

Concrete Practice (⏱️ 30 min)

  1. Open the Concrete Practice instructions frame and explain the four Metric Card fields.
  2. Open the Breakout Rooms and assign each room its metric frame.
  3. Visit rooms to unblock them. Remind them at 10 minutes to prepare their Readout.
  4. Close the rooms after 15 minutes, or when every frame shows the green ready stamp.
  5. Run the Readouts in metric order: Throughput first, then Instability. Keep each to about 3 minutes.
  6. Correct any misunderstanding of a definition after each Readout, using the DORA Metrics reference.

Conclusions (⏱️ 10 min)

  1. Open the Conclusions frame and ask: “When should you use these metrics? What are these metrics not used for?”
  2. Give everyone 4 minutes to write sticky notes.
  3. Group similar answers and link them back to the pitfalls from Concept.
  4. Thank everyone and point them to this site for further reading.

After the session

  1. Ask Participants to add sticky notes to the Feedback frame on the board.
  2. Export the board or take screenshots of the Metric Cards before clearing it for the next session.