When it comes to development methods, lean and agile have clearly taken the lead. In the spirit of Kaizen, this session will take a look at the measures we can glean from agile teams, why the are relevant and interesting, and how we can use them to help our teams get even better.

1. Agile Metrics
That Matter!
Clint Edmonson
Polaris Solutions
clinted@polarissolutions.com

2. Why do we need metrics?

3. Who’s not being productive?

4. Who’s to blame?

5. This project is a train wreck!

6. What do we do?

7. Can we do better?

8. What do I mean by “Matter”?

9. Empirical, not subjective

10. Describe past & present state

11. Help us take timely, decisive action

12. Sprints

13. Sprint Backlog Composition
Stories
Defects
Technical Debt
3
2
6

14. Story Burndown

15. Work In Progress Watch out!

16. Code Churn

17. Automated Build Health

18. Code Quality

19. Team Outlook

20. Projects

21. Sprint Velocities

22. Release Burndown

23. Release Burndown

24. Cumulative Value
Value Delivered

25. Net Throughput

26. Technical Debt

27. Determine the achievable throughput of a
stream
?
Theory of Constraints analysis tells us the limits of our teams

28. Variations in Individual Performance or Dedication
Dramatically Affect Throughput
5 2
7
105
8
3 ?
Optimizing individual utilization will amplify variance and unpredictability.
Transitions & handoffs
have a cost too!
Our tools can tell us
cycle times and handoff
delays!
We have to optimize for the whole system, not individual performance.

29. Portfolio

30. Release Frequency

31. COGS & Value Stream Economics
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is the direct cost attributable to the
production of goods sold by a company.
• Cost Per Release/Feature ( cost / # stories delivered )
• Cost Per Team Member ( cost / # team members )
• Stories Delivered Per ( # stories delivered / # team members)
Team Member
• Cost Per Sprint ( cost / 2 weeks )
Now you’re thinking in terms of value streams!

32. Customer Satisfaction
• User adoption + usage ( cost / # users )
• Customer & stakeholder satisfaction
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

34. PMO Guiding Principles
1. Customer satisfaction is the primary measure of project success and ROI.
2. Working, tested features are the primary measure of project progress.
3. Cycle time is the best measure of productivity.
4. Reduce batch sizes and limit WIP to achieve faster time to market.
5. Govern for flow of value and outcomes over predictability and adherence to plans.
6. Fund value streams, not projects and line items.

35. THANK YOU!
Clint Edmonson
Polaris Solutions
clinted@polarissolutions.com