The Launch of Agile Metrics in Project Management

Metrics is the measurement of an organization’s performance, it pertains to the team’s qualitative output and alignment to the company’s goal.

A firm with no data is equivalent to a blindfolded man. Without the sense of sight, the man finds difficulty assessing the right direction and what steps to take to move from one place to another. Same goes in business, the firm won’t know if the objective was achieved on time or the clients and stakeholders are satisfied with the outcome.

Nowadays, most organizations use agile metrics to build consistent team productivity and quality outcome but how well do they know its’ purpose?

The Answer for Team Productivity

Agile Metrics not only measures the cause and effect of a situation or assess the development of a project. It is an indicator of any performance changes and progress of a cross-functional team. The group is composed of people from different departments, dedicated to execute the company’s vision and accomplish the tasks.

1.    Start-to-End Ratio

Start-to-End Ratio measures the difference of the target goal and the number of completed work. In this metrics, it aids the group to identify WHAT they want to achieve after the sprint and HOW to carry out the plan. During the HOW phase, the team indicates the tasks and sprint backlog items.

2.    TimeBoxed Sprints

This type of agile metrics reports the time consumption of a task, covering the re-checking and testing of the program. It assists in estimating the completion of a job while measuring the number of errors reported after.

In a traditional setting, a manager would assign tasks in one go. But according to the metrics, this isn’t ideal for team efficiency. The “TimeBoxed Sprints” believe in focusing on one goal which means shortening the sprints to 1-2 weeks. What’s the outcome? A thought-through plan and quality deliverables.

3.    Defect Escape Rate

A common mistake of project management is how the team checks for defects AFTER the project’s completion. As your team focuses on quality control, it should use ‘test-driven development’ to eliminate bugs and issues. So, while the project is under development, a set of people should test and scan through the program to fix any bugs.

4. Velocity Theory

Velocity is a way to measure the work progress in a sprint, it gives an accurate and realistic performance chart. The average total of 3 iterations calculate the velocity, individual performance and finished work. This plans out the next sprint’s target goal based on team performance.

In the first sprint, the target is 100 story points, but the team managed to finish 50 stories. The data acquired provides the group an ideal target plan which means they’ll adjust the goal to 45-50 story points, increasing it gradually to the team’s improvement and capability over time.

Conclusion

An organization can follow the four Metrics, but it won’t mean anything if not for a close-knit team. Without the stability and mutual accountability of the group, the desired outcome won’t go through. With that said, creating an empowered and quality driven team involves open communication and value delivery.