Agile Metrics and Reporting Flashcards
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Read the first 7 Agile Metrics and Reporting flashcards as text
A burnup chart differs from a burndown chart primarily because it:
Answer: Displays both total scope and work completed, making scope changes visible
A burnup chart has two lines — total scope and completed work — so any scope additions or removals are immediately visible, unlike a burndown which only shows remaining work.
What is the risk of using velocity as the SOLE measure of team performance?
Answer: Teams may game the metric by inflating story point estimates to appear more productive
Velocity is a planning tool, not a performance benchmark; treating it as a KPI incentivizes inflating estimates rather than improving actual delivery quality and value.
In agile metrics, 'throughput' refers to:
Answer: The number of work items (stories, tasks) completed per unit of time
Throughput counts completed items over a time period (e.g., items per week), making it useful for flow-based forecasting without requiring story point estimates.
Which practice helps ensure that agile metrics are used for continuous improvement rather than blame?
Answer: Focusing metrics on the system and process, not individual team members
Agile metrics should diagnose systemic issues and guide improvement; attributing metrics to individuals creates fear, reduces transparency, and undermines psychological safety.
A team notices that their cycle time has increased over the past three sprints. Which investigation approach is MOST aligned with agile principles?
Answer: Hold a retrospective to identify process inefficiencies or bottlenecks causing the increase
Agile's inspect-and-adapt cycle means using metrics to surface problems, then collaboratively diagnosing and fixing root causes in retrospectives.
When a Product Owner changes scope mid-sprint, which metric is MOST immediately impacted?
Answer: The sprint burndown chart, which will show an unexpected spike in remaining work
Adding scope mid-sprint increases remaining work, causing the burndown line to rise instead of fall, which is immediately visible on the chart.
Which statement BEST describes how agile metrics should be used in a healthy team environment?
Answer: Teams should self-select meaningful metrics, inspect them regularly, and adapt their process accordingly
Self-organizing teams choose metrics relevant to their context, review them in retrospectives, and use insights to drive their own continuous improvement.