Many organizations adopt Agile, Scrum or DevOps methodologies to achieve benefits that give them a head start in our fast-moving and complex business world. But measuring a Scrum setup's intended benefits and operations can create tensions between the Scrum team and its corporate stakeholders. The entire enterprise governance across functions or departments is often closely integrated through metrics regarded as self-evident practices.
Traditional and Agile management metrics serve different purposes and align with distinct philosophies. Understanding their interplay can be critical to you as a stakeholder working with an Agile team or as a Scrum Master/Product Owner working with the non-Agile part of an organization.
Traditional and Agile management metrics serve different purposes and align with distinct philosophies. Understanding their interplay can be critical to you as a stakeholder working with an Agile team or as a Scrum Master/Product Owner working with the non-Agile part of an organization.
The divergent philosophies of metrics
At their core, traditional metrics focus on predictability, control, and efficiency, emphasizing budgets, schedules, and predefined scopes. Agile metrics, on the other hand, prioritize value delivery, adaptability, and continuous improvement, reflecting the iterative and customer-centric nature of Agile frameworks.
This is an example of two metrics that both attempt to track delivery progress but for different reasons and with a very different approach:
Traditional KPI: Project Completion Status measures the progress against a fixed end goal.
Agile Metric: Sprint Burndown tracks the team’s progress in real time, adapting to changes in scope as needed.
While traditional metrics aim to monitor and enforce stability, Agile metrics embrace change, which can be challenging for managers accustomed to static benchmarks.
This is an example of two metrics that both attempt to track delivery progress but for different reasons and with a very different approach:
Traditional KPI: Project Completion Status measures the progress against a fixed end goal.
Agile Metric: Sprint Burndown tracks the team’s progress in real time, adapting to changes in scope as needed.
While traditional metrics aim to monitor and enforce stability, Agile metrics embrace change, which can be challenging for managers accustomed to static benchmarks.
Mapping traditional metrics to Agile metrics
Building a Metrics framework for Scrum Implementation
Baseline metrics when starting Scrum
Value Delivery metrics
Scrum health metrics
Organizational success
Practical strategies for balancing metrics
The Bigger Picture: Why Metrics Matter
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Scrum for managers and Stakeholders
You’ll learn to engage with Scrum teams, improve collaboration, and build agility in your organization. The course covers Scrum fundamentals from a leadership perspective, focusing on your role in supporting product development, managing expectations, and aligning business goals with team outcomes.
Get ready to transform how you lead and collaborate. Scrum for Managers and Stakeholders is your tool to succeed in the fast-paced Agile world!
Get ready to transform how you lead and collaborate. Scrum for Managers and Stakeholders is your tool to succeed in the fast-paced Agile world!
Christian Triantafillou Schade
Agile Leadership Consultant, writer and trainer. Scrum Master, Release Train Engineer (RTE).
About your trainer
Christian is an Agile practitioner, seasoned project manager, accredited Scrum & DevOps trainer and leadership consultant. He is now bringing his expertise and unique view of Agile, modern leadership and related disciplines such as Scrum and DevOps to the students at the Corporate Revolutionary Academy, which he has co-founded.