Agile Scrum Metrics and Tips for your Project and Product Success

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Scrum metrics are key indicators measured at predetermined intervals that scrum teams track and utilize to Inspect and Adapt. Scrum teams utilize metrics to inform decision-making, stakeholder engagement, increase planning and execution efficiency, and establish improvement targets and strategies. There are many metrics which are used in agile scum teams of which few are presented here which are recommended for development projects using scrum and agile. These basic scrum metrics are captured at team level for every sprint and release intervals.

End of Sprint Reports:

1. Sprint goal status: Green / Amber / Red

2. Sprint velocity: Total story points ‘Done’ in the sprint ( Ref Definition of Done)

3. Defects Metrics: Based on New / Total Open / Severity / Defect leakage etc.

4. Coverage metrics: Unit testing / Requirements / Technical debt

5. Test cases passed failed, Automation test coverage, Regression details

6. Sprint burn down: Committed vs Completed / Spillovers / Scope changes / Blockers

Release Reports:

1. Release status: Planned dates / Milestones list / Type of Release

2. Release burnup: Remaining hours / Story points / Remaining sprints / Team capacity

3. Risks and Issues for the Release with owners, follow up and action plans

4. AG Indicators for Releases: Health check / Red Amber Green, Earned Value indicators

5. Team morale / Happiness index / Agile Maturity indicators

In addition, some PMOs capture metrics at various levels from project, program and portfolio governance point of view. Agile project managers have a vast selection of metrics to choose from, each of which displays different sorts and levels of progress to different stakeholders. A deeper grasp of the various metrics for the agile methodology will assist project managers to identify how and when to communicate progress in the most effective manner. Below is an indicative list:

Weekly Status Reports

Current week Vs Previous week metrics, Milestones, Summary, Capacity available – Resources & Leaves, PRDs or Stories completed, Highlights from past sprint, lessons learnt, Overall progress timelines etc.

Monthly Status Reports

Overall project status (healthy / Not healthy), Budget – available hours, Schedule, Quality metrics, Risks, Roadblocks, Upcoming work, Action items, Executive support etc.

Program & Portfolio Level Metrics

Program velocity, User data analytics, features planned and accepted, enabler features planned and accepted, NFRs, OKRs, telemetry dashboards, Value stream KPIs, Employee engagement, Customer satisfaction, Productivity, Time to Market, Stakeholder health, Regulatory and compliance readiness, etc.

Implementing agile scrum metrics increases the transparency of your project teams to inspect and adapt. Utilize any Agile project management software, such as Jira, Asana, Clickup, etc., which comes equipped with customizable reports, dashboards, and plugins to help collect and report project status.

Some best practices for your web3 projects to keep in mind is to make the metrics easy to collect, linking metrics to goals, tracking trends and patterns rather than actual numbers, shorter measurement cycles and be cautions of getting into the trap of micro tracking.

References:

• Sprint Closure Report : Everything you need to know – DBPointer.com. [online] Available at: https://dbpointer.com/sprint-closure-report/.

• Cohn, M. (n.d.). Metrics You Can Bet On. [online] www.mountaingoatsoftware.com. Available at: https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/articles/metrics-you-can-bet-on [Accessed 31 Oct. 2022].

• Pmi.org. (2019). Metrics for agile projects. [online] Available at: https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/agile-metrics-progress-tracking-status-6564.

• Scaled Agile Framework. (n.d.). Metrics. [online] Available at: https://www.scaledagileframework.com/metrics/.

• www.aha.io. (n.d.). 37 Agile Metrics — The Complete Guide for Agile Teams. [online] Available at: https://www.aha.io/roadmapping/guide/agile/agile-metrics.