Agile Enterprise Metrics

Key performance indicators are used by some large enterprises to alert executives to opportunities and dangers. Executives seek "leading indicators" to help them make decision early enough to make a difference. In large enterprises adopting agile practices, managers sometimes use behavioral compliance metrics to help teams self-assess or to gauge how practices are performed. These often cause dysfunctions, especially when coupled with incentives to meet metric-based targets. We outline a set of scalable metrics that articulate the "Why?" of agile practices, and allow freedom for teams to explore their own approaches. Anecdotally, these approaches seem to produce improved Product Owner communication, team member alignment, more accurate forecasting and higher quality software production.