Agile Metrics for Iterative Processes

Agile Center of ExcellenceRichard K Cheng

Agenda

◊ Metrics for the project

◊ Metrics for the iteration

◊ Metrics for team performance

◊ Metrics for business initiatives and

value

◊ Metrics for the enterprise

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Common Agile Metrics

◊ Story points – Commonly used as a rough order of magnitude effort estimate for user stories (common in Scrum, other processes

such as Kanban have metrics such as TTC)

◊ Projected velocity – Sum total of story points at the start of the iteration

◊ Actual velocity – The sum of completed stories points at the end of the iteration

◊ Hours?

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Metrics for the project

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Metrics for the project

◊ Baseline Story Point represent the remaining story points at the start of the iteration

◊ Story Point Updates represent story points that are added or removed to the overall project during the iteration

◊ Story Points Completed represent the story points completed for the iteration

◊ Cumulative Story Points Delivered represent total story points delivered to date

◊ Story Points Remaining represent the remaining story points at the end of the iteration

◊ Ideal Pace represent the pacing of the project based upon the story points remaining and estimated velocity of the team. In this example, I show it as it was at the start of the project, however, this should be updated often. Updating at the end of each iteration is ideal.

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Metrics for the project

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Project Burn Down / Burn Up Chart

Metrics for the iteration

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Metrics for team performance

For a Scrum team, key goals include:

1. Achieving a high completion percentage (actual velocity / projected velocity)

2. Stabilizing velocity

3. Increasing velocity (after 1 and 2)

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Metrics for team performance

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Metrics for team performance

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Metrics for team performance

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Metrics for business initiatives

Story Points Percentage

Foundational 78 22%

Maintenance 9 3%

Optimization 168 48%

New Product 98 28%

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First Quarter Initiatives

Metrics for business value

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Story Points Business Points

Comment

Feature 1 40 8 High effort, lower value

Feature 2 20 13 High effort, decent value

Feature 3 4 8 Low effort, mid value

Feature 4 13 40 Mid effort, high value

Feature 5 5 20 Low effort, high value

Metrics across the enterprise

◊ Limits of velocity….

◊ How do you measure teams against each other?

◊ What are the metrics for executives?

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Contact Information

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Richard K Chengrichard.cheng@excella.comhttp://www.excella.comhttp://www.Excella.com/blogs/richardchenghttp://www.OneMoreAgileBlog.com

http://www.onemoreagileblog.com/2009/07/common-agile-metrics.html