Metrics and Scrum

So there we were, at an agile conference. Well, not at the conference exactly. But at a bar very near to an agile conference.

A few patrons were talking agile stuff - like they do. And someone, as evidence in support of their stance that all metrics are evil, used the “But the Scrum Guide”, defense.

“But the Scrum Guide doesn’t prescribe any metrics. As a matter of fact, the word metric is not in the Scrum Guide. Not once.”

I found this claim dubious, so I checked it out.

It is true, the word metric is not in the 2017 Scrum Guide. Not once.

While it is true that the word metric is not in the Scrum Guide, it is not entirely true that Scrum does not prescribe metrics.

The Scrum Guide has two sections on monitoring - Monitoring Progress Toward Goals and Monitoring Sprint Progress. It has an additional section on Increments.

Monitoring Goals

In monitoring toward goals, the guide mentions summing the work remaining. It states that the Product Owner tracks the total work remaining at least every sprint. And it states that this data is used to assess progress toward completing projected work by the desired time for the goal.

So we have a few metrics hidden herein - size of backlog , total work remaining, and a forecast.

Also - You may note that they mention summing the work remaining. While it is not a metric, this implies using story size. Otherwise, they could have used a word like count, quantify, or even determine.

Monitoring Sprints

In monitoring sprint progress, we see similar guidance. In this case, the measurements are within the sprint container. On a daily basis, the work remaining for the sprint is summed and recorded. This data is used to determine whether or not the team is on track for the sprint.

And more metrics - size of work in the sprint, work remaining in the sprint, and a sprint forecast.

Increments

Here, the Scrum Guide states, “The Increment is the sum of all the Product Backlog items completed during a Sprint and the value of the increments of all previous Sprints”. Now, I have to be honest with you - I’ve read this sentence a few times and, by this definition, I’m a tad confused about what a scrum increment is. But despite the oddity, we can see that they’re telling us to track the total amount of work completed to date.

Scrum Guide Metrics

So that’s at least 7 metrics Scrum prescribes:

  1. Backlog size

  2. Backlog work remaining

  3. Backlog work completed

  4. Backlog/Goal Forecast

  5. Sprint size

  6. Sprint work remaining

  7. Sprint forecast

If you look at other “official” Scrum sites, such as The Scrum Alliance, you will find additional metrics, such as burn down charts.

In my opinion, there are better ways to forecast and monitor progress than what the Scrum Guide suggests. You can learn more about these techniques and other helpful metrics in “Escape Velocity: Better Metrics for Agile Teams”.