It’s been said: If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. For most agile teams burndown charts and some type of velocity measurement are all they are doing. However, with just a few more metrics, you can gain substantial insight into how teams are performing and identify improvement opportunities. Andrew Graves explores seven key metrics―Effort by Class of Service, Accuracy of Estimation, Cost per Point, and four others―to measure how your team is doing and make adjustments in real time. Andrew illustrates how to use these metrics to communicate progress to stakeholders. Discover how to use these metrics to identify and analyze trends that lead to performance improvement ideas and strategies. Learn how to use these seven metrics to monitor the impact of changes made to verify they are bringing the hoped-for difference.

1. Influenced by: Jeff Sutherland & Scott Downey
Scrum Metrics
TEAM LEVEL METRICS TO GUIDE TACTICAL AND STRATEGIC
DECISION MAKING

2. • Agile Coach, Trainer and Scrum Master
• CSP, CSM, CSPO, Innovation Games Orange Belt
• 15+ Years in management, senior level consulting, product
management and engagement management
• Head of Product Management for XRM Global
• COO for a publicly held software company
• Scrum Master and Agile Coach for various companies including
Accenture/AT&T, Milliman, GPC , IHG, Blinds.com etc…
Andrew Graves

3. What’s Ahead
Metrics:
What can we measure, why do we want
to measure it and what drives the
metrics?

4. Objective
To develop and standardize a set of
Easy to Capture Metrics
Help Scale agile across the enterprise
Help Scrum Masters & Coaches
Evaluate and Guide Teams
Provide Insights about team
performance for our business
stakeholders

5. THE MATH AND PURPOSE OF EACH
Metrics

6. Metrics
• Velocity / Story Point Capacity
• Adopted Work
• Found Work
• Injected Work
• Targeted Value Increase
• Accuracy of Estimation
• Reliability
• Cost per Story Point
Metrics Comparable Across Teams
Team Specific Metrics

7. Metrics: Velocity
I, as a… Scrum Product Owner who is trying to create
an accurate Roadmap for future releases
…need… a reliable metric on which to base my assumptions about
the rate of the team’s progress and sprint capacity
…so that… with our Leadership, we can make well-
informed tradeoffs and commitments based
on the reality of our teams capabilities.
Formula: Sum of Original Estimates of All Approved Cards

8. Metrics: Velocity
8
8
1
8
3
5
8
PBL SBL DONE Original Commitment: 19
Total Completed: 19
3

9. Metrics: Adopted Work
I, as a… a Scrum Master, who is trying to coach a team
toward more accurate Commitments during each
Sprint Planning Meeting,
…need… a way to measure how much work the Team can do in a given
Sprint, a metric that clearly shows if the Team has a tendency
to under Commit and is consistently having to pull work
forward from the Product Backlog before the end of the Sprint
…so that… I can encourage the Team toward higher Commitments during
the Sprint Planning Meetings without the risk of pushing them
to failure.
Formula: Sum of Original Estimates for Work Pulled Forward Original
Commitment

10. Adopted Work: 3
Metrics: Adopted Work
8
8
1
8
3
5
8
PBL SBL DONE
Total Commitment:
19
Original Commitment: 19
Total Completed: 22
3

11. Metrics: Found Work
I, as a… a Scrum Master, who is trying to help my Team make
more accurate and reliable Commitments in Sprint
Planning,
…need… a clear way to measure the likelihood of unexpected
work based on a Card’s Original Estimate
…so that… I can offer advice to the Team on making achievable
Commitments and provide them fair warning when they
start commit to story that will probably surprise them.
Formula: Sum of Total Work Reported per Story – Original
Estimate

12. 3
Found Work: 3
Metrics: Found Work
3
1
5
2
8
13
5
8
3
PBL SBL In Prog DONE
Total Commitment:
19
Original Commitment: 19
Total Commitment: 22
Source : Jeff Sutherland & Scott Downey

13. Metrics: Injected Work
I, as a… a Scrum Master, who is trying to help my Team make
more accurate and reliable Commitments in Sprint
Planning,
…need… a clear way to measure the likelihood of unexpected
work based on a historical behavior
…so that… I can help the team manage the scope for the sprint
and strive for achievable commitments.
Formula: Sum of Total Story points from new stories added to
sprint after sprint planning

14. Metrics: Targeted Value Increase
I, as a… a Scrum Product Owner who is trying to evaluate the
effectiveness of the product directions I have chosen
…need… a reliable way to measure the increased value
contribution of the Team sprint-over-sprint
…so that… I can compare the Team’s rate of contribution increase to
see if contributions are in alignment with ROI
expectations and continuous improvement is taking
place.
Formula: Current Sprint’s Velocity ÷ Original Velocity
Source: Jeff Sutherland & Scott Downey

15. Sprint # Velocity
Original Velocity
Current Velocity
1 8
2 13
3 21
4 37
5 42
TVI: 8 ÷ 8 = 100%13 = 162.5%21 = 237.5%33 = 412.5%42 = 525%
Metrics: Targeted Value Increase
Source : Jeff Sutherland & Scott Downey

16. Metrics: Accuracy of Estimation
I, as a… a Scrum Product Owner who is interested in creating
reliable roadmaps, including Optimistic, Likely and
Pessimistic release dates for larger initiatives,
…need… a metric that tracks the margin of error on the
Team’s Original Estimates
…so that… I can multiply their good-faith estimates by this
factor and create more realistic date projections.
Formula: 1 – (Estimate Delta ÷ Total Commit)

17. = 0.2272- 0.2272 =
5
2
8
3
1
SBL In Prog DONE
Delta: 5
Metrics: Accuracy of Estimation
Original Commitment: 19
Total Commitment: 22
Estimate Delta: 5
Total : 22
Actual
2
2
8
5
7
Delta
-1
+1
+3
+3
-1
1
0.7728 = 77%
Source : Jeff Sutherland & Scott Downey

18. Metrics: Reliability
I, as a… Scrum Master, who is concerned about the accuracy of
my teams commitments
…need… a metric that informs me of the margin of error when the
Team commits to a body of work
…so that… I can use this margin of error to predict reliable
dates, and know when it is safe to lobby for a higher
Commitment at each Planning Meeting
Formula: (Sum of Points Committed) ÷ (Sum of Points Accepted)

19. Chart: Reliability
-15%
-10%
-5%
0%
5%
10%
15%
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5 Sprint 6
Reliability Variance
Reliability Variance

20. Metrics: Cost per Point
I, as a… Executive, who is concerned about the value of my teams
contributions
…need… a metric that informs me of the cost of a story point
…so that… I can better estimate much projects will cost and
measure the level of value a team can produce over time
Formula: (total cost of a sprint) ÷ (sum of Story Points accepted in that
sprint)

21. Metrics: Cost per Point
$-
$200.00
$400.00
$600.00
$800.00
$1,000.00
$1,200.00
$1,400.00
Sprint 18 Sprint 19 Sprint 20 Sprint 21 Sprint 22 Sprint 23
Cost Per Point

22. Metrics: Effort by Class of Service (COS)
I, as a… Stakeholder, who is concerned about the focus of my scrum
teams
…need… a metric that informs me where my teams are spending their
time
…so that… I can better estimate much projects and keep my team focused
on the highest priority work
Formula: (Sum of Point dedicated to a COS a sprint) / (Sum of Story Points
complete in that sprint)

23. Effort by Class of Service

24. Metrics Dashboard

25. Additional Data

26. ITS ALL ABOUT THE RETROSPECTIVE
How do you capture the data?

27. Example Retro Agenda
1. Opening & Set the Stage
2. Review each story for context and to capture data for metrics
3. Capture Retro Data
4. Generate Insights
5. Decide What to do
6. Close the Retrospective

29. MAPPING METRICS TO SMELLS
So… What can I do with these
Metrics

30. Velocity & Cost Per Point
38
52 50 48
54 55
-
20
40
60
Sprint 18 Sprint 19 Sprint 20 Sprint 21 Sprint 22 Sprint 23
Total Points Accepted
(Velocity)
$-
$500.00
$1,000.00
$1,500.00
Sprint 18Sprint 19Sprint 20Sprint 21Sprint 22Sprint 23
Cost Per Point
• Spike might indicate an overly manual
deployment and CI process

31. Points Found
• Missed Estimates
• Incomplete User Stories
• Not enough time allotted for
Research and Discovery
• Just In Time Sprints
• Missunderstood requirements

32. Targeted Value Increase &
Points Adopted
• Minimal or no evolutionary design
• Disjointed development strategy
• Small backlog

33. Points Injected
5
-
13
18
5
-
-
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Sprint 18 Sprint 19 Sprint 20 Sprint 21 Sprint 22 Sprint 23
Points Injected
• Immature Scrum Organization
• No Respect for Sprint Scope or
the Sprint Plan
• Lack of focus

34. Effort by Class of Service
• Look for a good blend here
• Things like UAT rework and tech
debt are good things so long as
it’s a small slice
• Too much spread indicated lack
of focus

35. Example 1

36. Example 2

37. Example 3

38. Q & A

39. Contact Info:
Andrew Graves
expectperformance@gmail.com
404-784-7421