Agile metrics

Agile metrics

• Cycle Time
• Earned Value Management (EVM)
• Progress
• Velocity

Cycle time

• Value and progress
  • Because value is delivered incrementally and iteratively through iterations, value and progress is typically measured at the end of each iteration. [The Art of Agile Development. James Shore.]

Project burndown bar chart

• If a bar extends below the horizontal axis on a project burndown bar chart, work has been added to the project indicating an increase in scope. [Agile Estimating and Planning. Mike Cohn.]
• If the bottom of the bar on a product burndown bar chart is above the horizontal axis, it indicates that work has been removed from the project (scope reduction) since initial planning. [Agile Estimating and Planning. Mike Cohn.]
• The top of a bar on a product burndown bar chart may lower from one iteration to the next because the team completed work in the previous iteration or the team re-estimated user story development effort.
  • When the team completes planned work during the iteration the top of the bar chart is lowered.
  • Additionally, the top of the bar chart may be lowered if the team re-estimates user stories and finds they are not as challenging as previously believed and therefore represent a smaller story point value.
  • [Agile Estimating and Planning. Mike Cohn.]

Source line of code reports (SLOC)

• Source Lines of Code (SLOC) reports are an imperfect source to be used for productivity reports. [The Art of Agile Development. James Shore.]

Earned Value Management (EVM)

• EVM, earned value management for agile projects
• EVM or earned value management is a management technique used to evaluate project performance with respect to cost and schedule. [Agile Estimating and Planning. Mike Cohn.]
• EVM or earned value management relies on other common financial metrics like Budget At Completion (BAC), Actual Cost (AC), Planned Value (PV), Earned Value (EV), Cost Variance (CV), Schedule Variance (SV), Cost Performance Index (CPI), and Schedule Performance Index (SPI). [Agile Estimating and Planning. Mike Cohn.]
  • Elements of Earned Value Management (EVM) :
    • BAC: Budget at completion
    • EV : Earned Value is value of work actually completed or earned (e.g., you have completed 50% of the project by week 5 of a 15 week $15,000 project = $7,500 EV).
    • CPI : Cost Performance Index (CPI)
      • CPI = EV / AC
      • AC is the actual cost the project has incurred to date.
      • < 1 is bad, = 1 is good, > 1 is good
    • CV : Cost Variance (CV)
      • CV = EV – AC
      • < 0 is bad, = 0 is good, > 0 is good
    • PV : Planned value
      • PV is the planned value of work at a given time in a project; you can calculate it by multiplying the BAC by the ratio of current week/scheduled weeks (e.g., 5 weeks into a 15 week $15,000 project = $5,000 PV).
    • SPI : Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
      • SPI = EV / PV
      • If SPI > 1, the project is ahead of schedule and if SPI < 1, the project is behind schedule.
      • < 1 is bad, = 1 is good, > 1 is good
    • SV : Schedule variance
      • SV = EV – PV
      • 0 is bad, = 0 is good , > 0 is good
• [Agile Estimating and Planning. Mike Cohn.]

Progress

• Of the options presented the best tool to show work in progress is a task board.
  • The User Story backlog shows what work is still remaining to be done on the project.
  • The product roadmap shows when work is planned to be completed.
  • Work breakdown structures are not commonly used on agile projects.
• Burnup chart.
  • Burn-Up Chart is a graph that shows the progress of work toward a goal line associated with a value on the vertical axis.
  • As work is completed over time (the horizontal axis), the progress line moves up (burns up) to be nearer to the goal line.

Velocity

• Velocity is a measure of the number of User Story points or stories completed per iteration.
  • An agile team can use its previous Velocity values as a method of estimating how many User Story points it may complete in the next iteration. [Agile Estimating and Planning. Mike Cohn.]
• If a User Story is not accepted by the Product Owner during a Sprint Review, the team should not mark the User Story as complete and collaborate with the product owner to determine if and when the User Story should be completed. [Agile Estimating and Planning. Mike Cohn.]
  • User Story points for partially completed stories are not included in the Velocity metric. [Agile Estimating and Planning. Mike Cohn.]
• Velocity alone is insufficient for comparing productivity among two or more agile teams.
  • This is because no two teams share the same definition of a story point. [Agile Estimating and Planning. Mike Cohn.]

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