What metrics do you track on an Agile team, and what do they tell you?

Question

Accepted Answer

Agile metrics should reveal **flow and predictability**, not rank individuals. The most useful ones describe how work moves through the team: burndown, velocity, cycle time, and throughput. Read together, they show whether the team is healthy and improving.

## Core metrics

```text
BURNDOWN     remaining work over the Sprint; flags scope/pace issues
VELOCITY     points completed per Sprint; forecasting aid
CYCLE TIME   time from "start" to "done" per item; flow speed
THROUGHPUT   items completed per period; flow volume
```

A **cumulative flow diagram** visualizes WIP and bottlenecks across columns.

## Concrete example

A team's burndown stays flat for a week then drops sharply at the end — a sign of large, late-finishing items. They respond by slicing stories smaller, and cycle time falls.

## Common pitfalls

- Using metrics to compare or rank individuals, which corrupts behavior.
- Chasing velocity as a target, leading to point inflation.
- Tracking numbers nobody acts on — vanity metrics.

## Why it matters

Good metrics make problems visible — slow flow, big batches, mid-Sprint scope creep — so the team can address root causes.

The point is learning and adaptation, not surveillance; metrics serve the team, not management dashboards.