What agile metrics matter most from a business standpoint and how you can measure agile success, then communicate its value to your organization.

1. Agile
metrics

2. On-time or speed
of delivery
“On time” doesn’t mean that what you deliver
will meet stakeholders’ expectations. To measure
on-time delivery, we need a clear picture of what
is being delivered. To visualize these metrics, you
can use the burndown and the burnup charts.
A burndown chart demonstrates how much work
is remaining, whereas a burnup chart shows
the amount of work already completed.
1
Total amound
of work done
Work
remaining
New features
Effort
(pts) Time
Iterations
l1 l2 l3
Commonly
used agile
metrics and
measurements

3. Productivity
Predictability
Measure outcome, not output. Evaluate burnup
chart metrics for a product or based on value.
Follow closely the count of stories or features over
time to gain insights into how much the team is
actually delivering.
In a given time, it reflects how much work has
been completed at a sustainable pace on average.
If this metric fluctuates wildly, it indicates:
• team and scope changes
• unpredictable events happening
• the team is not mature enough to define the
amount of work small enough to complete
4
5
Product quality
Project visibility
To measure the product’s quality use:
• tracking customer satisfaction,
• steady revenue growth,
• testing success throughout the whole
development cycle.
It’s essential to look at the velocity of completing
working software with quality built-in.
Transparency builds trust across the team
and stakeholders:
• provide plans ahead of actions
• consistently track and share progress
• present results
Visibility brings alignment among internal teams
and reflects each team member’s impact in the given
time frame. It helps stakeholders make informed
decisions and identify possible risks.
2
3

4. Customer/user satisfaction
Business value
The metrics to assess customer/user satisfaction
differ from product to product and may include:
• sales numbers and growth
• the number of support calls
• features delivered in a time period
• product usage statistics
Sometimes measuring value has to be viewed from
a subjective, since the market drives decisions and
the value is often the best guess. If we were to draw
a formula, it would be a business value score applied
to the features to be delivered.
A more productive
way to measure agile
is to focus on (and
measure) the value
agile can bring you.
How to
measure
value in agile

5. Product scope
(features, functionalities,
requirements, etc.)
Effective way to measure
the value of agile
Setting short-term goals and tracking progress not
only feels rewarding and keeps the team engaged,
but also creates a real-time feedback loop with
invaluable information for any team member
or manager involved.
Effective way to measure the value of agile
is to track key performance indicators (KPIs) that
align with value. These can include:
Usage index: What features are people actually
using? Measure what’s valuable to your users, an
indispensable KPI for business value. By tracking
the usage index of features in a production setting,
you can prioritize the features that offer the greatest
return on investment.
Innovation rate: Innovation rate measures the
capacity of a team to build value-driven features
versus non-discretionary work. The more a team is
burdened with maintaining existing systems, the
less bandwidth it has to innovate, grow, and create a
competitive advantage. By reducing an application’s
support needs, you can increase a team’s innovation
rate and focus on creating new, value-driven features.
On-product index: An on-product index is the
measure of time a team spends working on the
product. Measure the efficiency of how a team is run
and how much they’re contributing to a product’s
growth. By reducing unnecessary meetings, you can
increase a team’s on-product index.
Installed version index: Similar to the innovation rate
KPI, the installed version index measures the number
of versions of an application that require support. Each
supported version increases the required support
needs, thus lowering a team’s ability to focus on value-
driven features and innovate.

6. Here are some questions
to ask that can help:
What’s the problem or challenge
we’re trying to solve?
What’s the simplest and quickest solution
to solving the problem?
Is this useful to our customers?
Are users using it?
How can we validate that what we’re building
is the right thing?
What’s the shortest path to value, both
to our customers and to our organization?
What’s our minimum viable product (MVP)?
Business value
in agile for IT
enterprises and
organizations

7. © 2022 Forte Group. All rights reserved
Forte Group is a full-spectrum, custom software delivery partner for enterprises looking
to accelerate business and evolve their engineering practices. We work with software
engineering departments, business leaders, and technology companies to consistently
achieve valuable business outcomes.
To learn more, visit fortegrp.com.
Ready to take the next step to build
a sustainable digital product strategy?
Get in touch with Forte Group for a no-obligation strategy assessment session
by getting in touch with us at contact@fortegrp.com.