How To Measure Agile Success?

There are currently numerous companies out there trying to leverage various metrics to measure the overall success of their organization. But, when it comes to leveraging the metrics of Agile Project Management, things are a lot more complex than you would think it to be.

When you start an Agile project, you already have to make plans on ways to measure success because without measuring success in the right manner, your project can't proceed forward. Furthermore, when it comes to Agile, there is not a single method or metric that will be perfect for organizations of all sizes and kinds. Keeping those factors in mind, the following are some of the most important metrics by which you can measure the success of your business' Agile project management implementation.

The Metrics That Can Be Used To Calculate Agile Success

1. Timely Delivery

Timely delivery is one of the most important metrics that most organizations out there use to measure the success of Agile project management. But since Agile already relies on time management to finish projects within schedules - in this case, timely delivery is meant by the work that is done following the overall expectations of what is about to be delivered.

This helps in improving the visibility aspect of Agile project management in regards to the work that is being done and delivered consistently over time. This helps team members to be more encouraged about their work and therefore deal with complex situations beforehand.

2.The Defects

When you consider any project, you have to take care of its defects as well. Defects can be part of any project. But, with the help of Agile project management, your team will be able to reduce or minimize the number of defects that largely occur. You can easily track the defect metrics and allow the Development Team to learn and know the way it can avoid such defects and rectify the same as well.

The number of defects and the increase or decrease in such defects will help you know the overall progress of the project. It will help you to spark discussions with your Development Team, thereby improving the overall techniques during the Sprint Retrospectives. 

3. Satisfaction Of The Customer

This metric is used to measure how much the customer is satisfied with the overall progress of Agile project management. Using this metric to measure Agile projects is the real idea that lies behind the whole Agile philosophy. Agile relies on customer feedback to develop better and more efficient products by mainly focusing on the needs and requirements of the customers.

The Agile methodology generally works to deliver the best value to the end-user through its working product or software. You can measure customer satisfaction in various ways, which includes usage statistics, an increase in the number of sales, user opinions, and reviews, and likes.

4. The Quality Of The Product

It can be a little more difficult to measure the quality of the product developed through Agile procedures, with the help of such metrics. Like it was mentioned before, the methodology of Agile relies upon the creation of value for the end-user. Therefore, it means that even though there is a greater emphasis on the quality of the product, the most challenging part is the way you can measure the obtained success.

You can do this by starting to look at the overall customer satisfaction along with the growth rates in terms of revenues and also the other technical aspects of the Agile environment testing phases. When it comes to Agile practices and policies, the Developers focus on building software with the help of quality product integration right from the start.

When the Developers allows for continuous testing methods throughout the lifecycle of the product, it ensures that the software or the product is being developed in the right manner,The team strives and looks forward to providing the product as close to the product goal.

5. The Value Created For The Business

It's essential to measure the business value which is being created through the help of the various Agile policies and practices. It has been mentioned and recognized in the Agile Manifesto regarding the significance of business values in many Agile principles. When you're planning to measure business value, the ambition should be very clear about what you need. This is because creating value for the business is all about knowing whether the requirements for compliance or contract has been fulfilled.

Therefore, if you can apply the metric of business value to measure the kind of features that are to be delivered by the Developers, then it will help in measuring the whole project's success effectively.

6. The Overall Product's Scope

The success of your Agile project can be measured with the help of the project's scope too. The scope of the project will contain all the requirements and features, as an integral part of the Agile project management. When you will be setting a goal regarding the developments that are to be made in the upcoming three months, then it can get quite rewarding when tracking the status of the project and also completing the relevant tasks related to it as well.

When you'll be receiving updates in real-time regarding the benefits of your project being completed, it will benefit everyone involved in the development of a product or software. You will be easily visualizing the success of the project and also its overall progression towards the finishing line.

7. The Product's Visibility

Without a shadow of a doubt, visibility can be a massive factor and also an essential metric in various Agile policies and practices. Good product visibility will lead to better success in the overall project as well. The product's visibility is based on the overall transparency of product development and transparency is very significant in building long-term trust as well. In simpler terms, the plans of the project should be available to all and everyone should have access to the progress of the project, so that trust between team members could increase multi-folds. Following that method, everyone involved in the project's success, including the managers and stakeholders can provide their perspective on the project's success.

You have to make sure that the features of the project should be portrayed side by side with the current project plan in mind so that everyone could see the overall success. Moreover, with the help of visibility, the alignment of different teams becomes easy. When more than one team is working on the development of a particular project, then with the help of visibility, you can spark mutual understanding and cooperation between the team members and the teams as well. This will in-turn give a boost to the overall success of the project. 

8. The Return On Investment Or R.O.I

Return on investment can be defined as the income that is generated by the product or the software that is being developed. If the product costs less money to produce, which means that the company had to spend less money overall, then it can be said that the product's ROI is high.

In terms of Agile projects, the concept of ROI is different from what is being used in traditional projects. With the help of Agile projects, you can easily allow the product or software in hand to help you generate income from the first iteration or release itself. The revenue will continue to increase with every release version. ROI is indeed a great metric for a company to appreciate their Developers and also the overall value of the project that is ongoing as well.

With the help of ROI metrics, organizations can decide whether to fund or scrap a project completely. The ROI potential is what most companies look at. The ROI of individual projects, as well as projects for the company as a whole, can be tracked by the company.

9. The Overall Productivity

When working in an Agile environment, productivity must be kept at an all-time high. It can also be a very useful metric to monitor and look after the overall success of the project as well. In an Agile environment, productivity is measured in terms of overall output.

Thus, you can easily figure out the impact of productivity by looking at the requirements that are completed or done. If a team is high on productivity, then the requirements will be done fast and quick. If productivity is less, then more time will be required to complete the same requirements.

10. The Overall Predictability

Predictability is another one of the most important factors when measuring the success of Agile project management. You can measure predictability with the help of the velocity trend. Velocity trend can be defined as the maximum amount of work that a Scrum Team or an Agile team can pull off or complete in each Sprint.

When you'll measure this trend for around three to four months, you'll come to know about the amount of work that has been done or completed at a pace that is sustainable enough for the Developers. In case the metric of velocity differs on a drastic basis, then it can mean that several factors can be responsible for such behavior, including team changes, teams getting used to the new work, and so on.

Success can also be measured on the number of User Stories that are being completed regularly per week, which will be a nice indicator of predictability too.

11. The Duration Of The Project

There's no doubt that Agile projects are done much quicker than normal traditional waterfall projects. Thus, allowing the project to start quicker and at a much faster rate will help you cut all the unnecessary bloatware. Bloatware, in this case, is referred to as the requirements that are not significant and are not required. In this way, the project teams following Agile project management can deliver the project at a much faster rate than ever before.

You will need to measure the time duration required for the whole project to complete to know the success of the process.

12. The Overall Project Cost

The cost of the Agile projects will depend on the actual duration of the project. The length will be the duration, the greater the cost that will arise as well. But, since projects following Agile methodologies take less time to complete than traditional policy-following projects, the cost will also be on the lesser side.

Companies or organizations can use the various cost metrics to plan their budgets, determine the overall return on investment, and also know the time to exercise the redeployment of capital to boost working productivity. If the project cost stays within the budget, then it will be called a success.

13. The Process Improvement

Agile principles and policies depend on a crucial philosophy, which includes continuous improvement of the project development at hand. The Development Team should always strive to be better at all times. But measuring the process improvement will be not possible if the outcome of the project is not measured at all. Therefore, success needs to be measured at every Sprint ending to know the current status of the project.

You need to use the combination of the above-mentioned steps, including predictability, productivity, and velocity to know whether the development team is putting in the hard work. 

The Significance Of Agile Metrics And The Measurement Of Agile Success

One of the main reasons why metrics are utilised in Agile implementation is because it helps the Scrum Team to be highly aware of all the actions that need to be done for the product that is currently in development. They are quite powerful tools for adapting, planning, inspecting and understanding the project progress over an extended period.

By working with viable metrics, the Scrum Team will possess all the requirements and thereby validate the overall progress of the developing product. The metrics provide the Developers with a comprehensive checklist, so that they can easily maintain a regular flow of work to improve the functionality of the product.

Moreover, the rates of failure or success will help the Scrum Team either make necessary alterations or continue doing the same.

Precautions To Consider Before Using Agile Metrics

You must understand that metrics are always developed using good intentions. However, sometimes the same metrics can be counterproductive if used in the wrong manner. Therefore, it's suggested that before you decide to implement Agile metrics for your Scrum Team, you also need to consider the parallel implications for the same.

The desired outcome must be considered before implementing any of the above-mentioned metrics and once that has been decided, the metrics must be tailored so as to encourage the desired outcome. But, in case the metrics are doing more damage than improvements, the same must be inspected, changed, and readapted.

In a nutshell, the metrics should always encourage behavior that directly aligns with the Scrum Team's desired outcome and values.

Conclusion

Finally, it should be kept in mind that keeping track of the various Agile metrics is always beneficial to the organization or business entity. It will help the company to choose the right team and also the project for future success. You'll need an overview that is balanced in every field to make decisions that will work in favor of the Developers following Agile practices and policies, and also the project itself.

You need to apply these metrics in the best possible manner to help in counting the overall success of the Agile project management implementation. 

Useful Links

, Agile Vs Waterfall, John Okoro Trainer, Artificial Intelligence Training Courses, Eric Saint Andre Coach, Certified Scrum Master Certification Course