The spirit of agile development is incremental, ongoing improvement — something that every agile team wants to embrace. But embracing this idea and implementing it are two different things. How do you know if your iterations are making an impact? How can you ensure you are providing more product value to customers over time?
This is where both quantitative and qualitative data comes in. Agile metrics help agile teams set benchmarks, measure against goals, and evaluate performance. Agile metrics typically assess productivity, predictability, quality, or value in some way.
The metrics you choose will vary based on your goals, organization, and development team. For example, the most common agile metrics for scrum teams are burndown and velocity — while kanban teams typically track cycle time, throughput, and work in progress (WIP). But in this guide, you will also find plenty of methodology-agnostic metrics to choose from.
As an agile practitioner, tracking the right metrics can provide invaluable insights into your team’s performance and progress But with so many potential agile metrics to choose from, it can be challenging to determine which ones to focus on In this article, we’ll explore the 7 most important agile metrics that I’ve found deliver the greatest value for understanding and improving project delivery.
Sprint Burndown
The sprint burndown report tracks the completion of work throughout an agile sprint It’s one of the most common and helpful metrics for scrum teams The x-axis represents time, while the y-axis refers to the amount of work remaining, measured in story points or hours.
The goal is to have all the forecasted work for that sprint completed by the end. If a team consistently meets its sprint forecast, it demonstrates the success of agile in their organization. However, accuracy is important – don’t be tempted to declare work complete before it really is just to improve the metric.
The sprint burndown shows the team’s progress completing user stories for that sprint. If the remaining work deviates above the ideal burndown line, it may indicate challenges or impediments. Reviewing the report in standups helps the team stay focused and on track.
Velocity
Velocity measures the average amount of work a team completes within a sprint, measured in story points or hours. It’s a useful metric for forecasting, as the product owner can use velocity to predict the team’s cadence for working through the backlog.
For example, if the product owner wants to complete 500 story points from the backlog, and the team’s velocity is 50 story points per sprint, they can estimate needing 10 sprints to complete that work.
Monitoring velocity over time provides insights into the team’s performance. New teams often see an increase in velocity as they optimize their workflow. Existing teams can track velocity to ensure consistency, and confirm whether process changes improve throughput.
Decreases in velocity typically signify inefficiencies in the team’s process that should be addressed. Review estimation practices and identify any impediments during retrospectives when velocity declines.
Cycle Time
Cycle time measures the total time an item spends “in progress” before being marked “done”. Teams with shorter cycle times generally have higher throughput, while consistent cycle times indicate more predictable work output.
The goal is to have a consistent and short cycle time across work items. Measuring cycle time helps teams recognize bottlenecks, prioritize workflow improvements, and monitor results. For example, increases in cycle time may signify reduced agility.
Kanban teams use cycle time as a core metric, but scrum teams also benefit from optimizing it. Shorter cycle times translate to higher throughput for any team.
Cumulative Flow Diagram
Cumulative flow diagrams visualize the workflow through various stages of development. The x-axis shows time, while the y-axis represents cumulative count of items in each stage.
Blockages or gaps in the movement between stages indicate bottlenecks in the process. Reviewing the cumulative flow highlights areas for the team to improve flow and throughput.
For example, large backups in testing stages may signal issues with test automation coverage or environments. Addressing these bottlenecks helps smooth out the stages and streamline delivery.
Release Frequency
A major goal of agile is to deliver value frequently through iterative releases. Tracking release frequency provides visibility into how regularly the team deploys new increments of working software.
High-performing agile teams release output at the end of every sprint, enabling fast feedback and continuous delivery. Measuring release frequency identifies gaps between sprints without releases, which may indicate integration or deployment issues.
Shortening the time between releases provides benefits like faster user feedback, reduced risk, and improved collaboration. Reviewing release frequency helps teams optimize their delivery capabilities.
Defect Escape Rate
The defect escape rate calculates the number of bugs that make their way to production vs. those identified earlier in development stages. A low defect escape rate signals a high-quality development process.
For example, if 100 defects were found over a release, and 10 of those made it to production, the defect escape rate would be 10%.
Tracking defect escape rates provides visibility into software quality and test coverage. Teams can use this metric to assess and improve their quality assurance practices.
Cost Per Defect
While finding fewer defects is good, the cost to fix them also matters. The cost per defect metric measures the time spent fixing bugs vs. building new features.
To calculate it, add up the total cost (like staff time) spent resolving defects in a period. Then divide that by the number of defects fixed.
High cost per defect signifies inefficiencies in the testing and quality processes. Reviewing this metric helps teams identify expensive defect areas and continuously improve quality.
Sprint Commitment
The sprint commitment tracks how often the team meets their forecasted scope for the sprint during planning. Low sprint commitment rates signal issues with estimation or overzealous planning.
For example, if a team commits to 10 stories per sprint but only completes an average of 8 stories, their sprint commitment rate would be 80%.
This metric helps reduce unrealistic planning and improves estimation. Reviewing it with velocity can indicate whether the team tends to over or under-commit for sprints.
In Summary
While many metrics exist, these 7 form a powerful core set that I’ve found deliver the most value. Sprint burndown, velocity, cycle time, release frequency, defect rates, cost per defect, and sprint commitment provide comprehensive insights into throughput, quality, and predictability.
I recommend picking 1 or 2 metrics to start with. Burndown charts make an excellent entry point. As your team matures, introduce additional metrics to address specific areas, and discuss trends during retrospectives.
Approach metrics with care – they can help illuminate progress, but be wary of using them punitively. Focus on continuous improvement and removing impediments. With time and refinement, your metrics practice will yield invaluable benefits for agile delivery.
How to choose agile metrics for your team
In the list below, we have defined nearly 40 agile metrics — but in practice, you may only need a handful. Select metrics that clearly map to your goals and that you can commit to improving as a team. Here are some considerations for choosing which agile metrics to track:
Metrics should be clearly defined
It is difficult to make measurable improvements based on a confusing jumble of numbers. Make sure the team understands what each metric means and how it will be tracked.
Metrics should be comprehensive
Choose a set of agile metrics that covers a breadth of agile performance — predictability, productivity, quality, and value.
Metrics should be evaluated together
A single agile metric does not paint a full picture. For example, an increasing throughput metric indicates high productivity on the team — a positive result. But coupled with a low Net Promoter Score, it is clear that you are not delivering enough value despite the high volume of completed tasks. Examining these metrics together provides a more realistic view of your performance.
Metrics should have assigned ownership
Certain metrics will be monitored on a leadership or business level while others will be tracked by your development team. What matters is that each metric has a dedicated owner to ensure responsibility for reporting is clear.
Metrics should instigate improvement
Reviewing metrics is not a passive activity. When you choose to track an agile metric, make sure to consider how you will actively work to improve on it and how you will define success.
Metrics should be trackable Do not commit to complicated metrics without a reliable way to measure them. Dig in to see if your agile development tool supports the metrics you want to use.
Metrics should align with your methodology
Some agile methods like scrum, kanban, and the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) have built-in metrics — though teams following these methodologies often track broader business metrics as well. If you do not subscribe to one agile methodology, you have more freedom to pick and choose the metrics that make sense for you.
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Why do agile metrics matter?
Agile metrics help you keep a pulse on agile development. By tracking clear metrics for output, quality, and satisfaction (among internal and external stakeholders), you can better spot opportunities for improvement. Predictability metrics also help you plan work with greater accuracy and avoid guesswork about bandwidth.
Besides being an effective agile health monitor, agile metrics can help you track progress towards your goals. It is common among agile teams to establish performance standards based on agile metrics (which you might refer to as “agile KPIs”). Agile KPIs offer a quantifiable way to show if you have improved — and demonstrate your success.
Agile metrics are often represented in numbers, reports, and charts. But ultimately, the story they tell is about people. This is important — at the core of any agile success is the team. Metrics reflect effort, contribution, and perhaps even tradeoffs you have made in priorities or investments. The right metrics signal areas of strength and weakness — ideally they should promote transparency, highlight achievements, and spark conversations on how the team can improve.
POWERFUL AGILE METRICS THAT CHANGE THE GAME
What metrics do agile teams use?
For example, the most common agile metrics for scrum teams are burndown and velocity — while kanban teams typically track cycle time, throughput, and work in progress (WIP). But in this guide, you will also find plenty of methodology -agnostic metrics to choose from. Track agile development progress in Aha! Develop — get started.
Why are agile project metrics important?
Agile project metrics are helpful for a series of reasons during a project. One of the benefits of using agile quality metrics is its effectiveness in measuring team performance. The main goal of any agile KPI is to ensure project teams can be self-manageable throughout the project process.
What are the three rules for agile metrics?
The following three general rules for agile metrics have proven to be useful: The first rule of meaningful metrics is only to track those that apply to the team. Ignore those that measure the individual. The second rule of meaningful metrics is not to measure parameters just because they are easy to track.
Should agile metrics be imposed or measured?
The metric is used by the team – Agile metrics should not be imposed or measured by management, they should be used voluntarily by agile teams to learn and improve. The metric is surrounded by conversation – Metrics should not just be numbers, they should be the starting point of a conversation about process and roadblocks affecting the team.
