How do Agile teams determine their level of success? Several experts recommend a wide range of metrics, many of which you are probably currently using, to assess the effectiveness of Agile teams. I’d like to give you a couple of my personal favourites along with an explanation of why I appreciate them. If you believe your team can use these, feel free to borrow them!
I would anticipate that you might value some measures more than others because of the diversity of the organisations in the world today, which greatly influences the priority areas for each corporation. It is important that you are aware of the emerging metrics suitable for your company as they will play a major role in the future of agile.
1.Cycle time.
Cycle time is a statistic that I frequently advise Agile teams to utilise because it offers a wealth of insightful information about the team’s performance. Cycle time is like the speedometer or GPS tracker in your automobile; it tells you how well your machine (your team) is running and forecasts how it will perform in the near future based on the circumstances at the time. In my perspective, any Agile team that wishes to be considered “high-performing” must have a clear awareness of its cycle time.
2.Defect rate.
The majority of teams often place a high value on quality, thus simply producing a lot of “stuff” and distributing it to clients does not equate to success. A team’s defect rate gives an indication of the calibre of the work it is generating and also acts as a predictor of rework; a defect rate that is below ideal will typically result in more rework, which reduces the team’s capacity to deliver features that are useful to the customer.
3.Mean time to repair.
The team’s ability to bounce back from a setback is a very striking sign of their capacity for problem-solving. Although mistakes and accidents are to be expected, the team’s future capacity to add value will depend on how it handles unforeseen problems.
4.Delivery frequency.
This measure interests me since it highlights a few nuanced aspects of the team’s capacity to create and maintain a solid solution architecture and infrastructure. The likelihood that the solution architecture is sound increases with how rapidly a team can offer a solution. Moreover, being able to deliver swiftly will typically also entail that the team can recover quickly, as the team won’t be able to maintain a high delivery frequency without such a skill.
5.Team morale and customer satisfaction.
These two indicators were combined because, although being “non-technical” in nature, they are both crucial to a team’s performance. Whatever level of success increases and fosters engagement among team members and customers alike. As a result, these two metrics are closely related to one another; in my experience, it is uncommon for one to be high while the other is low because, in most cases, the team bases its decisions on customer feedback and vice versa. Agile teams should comprehend the significance of establishing and sustaining a successful relationship with consumers in order to achieve the required successes, keeping with the spirit of close customer collaboration.
If you have made it this far, you may have noticed that velocity is absent from my list. You might be asking why I didn’t include this well-known measure in my list. My theory is that velocity is a measurement of the amount of work (or quantity of work) produced by the team in a specific amount of time. According to its definition, there is no correlation between volume and value, therefore the amount of work a team produces is not always a good indicator of successful results. The fact that most teams employ the frequently muddled Story Point model to gauge the quantity of work performed makes this measurement highly subjective; this is another issue that is frequently discussed in the Agile community. As a result, I’ve opted to cross this action off my list. You will probably run into other Agile practitioners who are fervent believers in velocity. It’s fantastic for their atmosphere if this works for that team or company.
Conclusion
Most firms, in my opinion, value at least one of the seven measures I’ve listed. If your team is new to Agile, I would suggest starting with two KPIs and adjusting as necessary based on the priorities of your organisation. Your success depends on careful examination and adaptability. There are quite a few agile project examples where you can apply these metrics. But you have the freedom to choose the one best applicable to your business project.
