Appropriate agile measurement: using metrics and diagnostics to deliver business value

Agile software development continually measures both our product and the process used to create it, to allow improvement. With increased popularity, more risk-averse groups are being drawn to agile, bringing with them modes of evaluation incompatible with agile values and principles. These outmoded metrics drive dysfunctional behaviors which threaten the integrity of an emerging agile culture. This paper collects some of the current thinking on appropriate agile metrics, and proposes simple tools for use by teams or organizations. The intention of these tools is to foster dialogue about the appropriateness of metrics in a given context, and thereby to encourage measurements more congruent with the objectives of agile teamwork.