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Measuring Agile:

Key Agile metrics

Here is a comprehensive list of some of the most important Agile metrics that teams can use to measure performance, productivity, and overall effectiveness.
  • Automation Coverage
    The percentage of automated tests indicates the efficiency of the testing process.
  • Average Response Time
    Measures the time taken to respond to customer feedback or issues, reflecting customer service efficiency. It can be calculated from when the customer reports the problem, from when the team knows about it, or both, to evaluate the escalation procedure.
  • Backlog Health
    Evaluate the state of the product backlog, including the number of items, their age, funnel step, compliance with the Definition of Ready and prioritization.
  • Backlog Readiness
    The percentage of Product Backlog items that are compliant with the Definition of Ready (DoR).
  • Change Failure Rate
    The percentage of changes that fail and require remediation indicates the stability of releases.
  • Cumulative Flow Diagram
    Visualizes the flow of tasks through different process stages, helping identify workflow bottlenecks.
  • Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
    Assesses customer satisfaction with the product, which is often gathered through surveys.
  • Cycle Time
    Measures the aggregated working time taken to complete a task from start to finish, focusing on the efficiency of the development process and organizational latency.
  • Defect Density
    Measures the number of defects (bugs) per unit of work (e.g., per lines of code or per story), providing insight into product quality. If measured after deployment to a live system, you should also calculate the adverse effect on customers.
  • Defect severity
    Measures the distribution of defects across severity categories, such as low, medium or high.
  • Dependency Management
    Measures the number and complexity of dependencies between tasks, which can impact delivery.
  • Escaped Defects
    Counts the number of defects found after a product is released, indicating the quality of the product and evaluating the quality control process.
  • Feature Usage
    Tracks how often specific features are used, helping prioritize future development efforts. Frequently used during migrations from old (legacy) systems to new generations.
  • Innovation Rate
    Measures the time allocated to innovation or exploratory work versus routine tasks.
  • Lead Time
    The total duration taken from the moment a task is created as an idea or a story, depending on organizational preferences, until it is completed indicates overall efficiency.
  • Maintenance Cost
    The share of the available capacity that is used for required solution maintenance
  • Mean Time to Recovery
    The average time from when a live system fails, until normal operations have been restored.
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS)
    Measures customer loyalty and the likelihood of recommending the product to others.
  • Release Burnup Chart
    Tracks the amount of work completed against the total content planned for a release.
  • Release Frequency
    Measures how often the team releases new features or updates to the product.
  • Sprint Burndown
    Tracks the amount of work remaining in a Sprint at a given time, helping teams visualize progress.
  • Sprint Goal Success Rate
    Evaluates how often the team meets the goals set for each Sprint.
  • Team Satisfaction
    Surveys team members to gauge their satisfaction and engagement levels.
  • Technical Debt
    Quantifies the amount of work needed to fix issues caused by quick, less optimal solutions in the codebase. Several sub-metrics exist, such as the amount of data affected by technical debt or the aging index that shows the average age of unresolved technical debt items.
  • Test Code Coverage
    The percentage of the codebase that is covered by automated tests.
  • Time to Market
    Measures the time taken to deliver a product or feature to the market, reflecting responsiveness to customer needs.
  • Throughput
    Measures the number of tasks completed in a given time frame, reflecting team productivity. Be aware of task granularity and average size.
  • Training and Development Hours
    Tracks the time spent on team training and professional development, reflecting investment in skills improvement.
  • Value Points
    Estimated business value of Epic/Feature-level backlog items, used in the Scaled Agile Framework SAFe.
  • Velocity
    Measures the work completed in a Sprint, typically in Story Points (but it can also be in hours), to indicate future performance.
  • Work in Progress (WIP) Limits
    Sets maximum limits on the number of tasks in progress to improve focus and efficiency for individuals and teams.

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