Agile Metrics Overview

Agile is an iterative approach to project management where teams reflect and review after every iteration.  Not only does this allow them change direction but they can see if there was anything they could have done better and then adjust their strategy for the next iteration of work.  

Many agile frameworks exist, including Scrum, Kanban, SAFE, Less, and XP.  Depending on your organization or team size, different ones have advantages or disadvantages.  For example, SAFE was built for large organizations wanting to scale their Scrum practice to dozens, if not hundreds, of teams.

The Agile Manifesto

Seventeen software developers created the Agile Manifesto in February 2001 to express four values and 12 principles for Agile software development. They rejected the more linear approach to start a more creative product development process.

The four main pillars of Agile are:

• Individuals over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change by following a plan

Example Metrics to Track

Limit WIP - How much work in progress exceeds the limits set by the team?
Cycle Time - How long does it take us to deliver value from start to finish?
Velocity - The count of completed story points in a given sprint.
Explicit Policies - Are our workflow policies clear when work is ready to pull?
Feedback Loops - Are we using data to help us identify improvement opportunities?
Service Level Expectations - Does the team manage aging-work-in-progress against their Service Level Expectation?
Planned vs Actual - Does the team consistently deliver the work they plan to complete?
Retrospectives - Is the retrospective effective in identifing and making progress on improvement opportunities?