Combining GQM+Strategies and OKR - Preliminary Results from a Participative Case Study in Industry

Abstract

Aligning IT strategies to business goals is a top priority for CIOs. However, measuring results that IT brings to business is a challenging task. We carried out a study to help an IT director of a large mining company to define OKRs (Objective Key Results) and quantitatively monitor the achievement of goals. We performed a participative case study to define OKRs for goals and initiatives to achieve them, by using GQM+Strategies to support us in that matter. As a result, after three meetings with the IT director and IT managers, we defined OKRs for five IT goals and initiatives to achieve them. From this experience, we noticed that GQM+Strategies and OKR can be used together, working in a complimentary way: OKR gives simplicity and agility to the process, while GQM+Strategies provides useful knowledge to define OKRs and initiatives to achieve them properly.