PMI Sites
Register
Disciplined Agile
Search

    Measure Outcomes

    This Ongoing phase process goal describes potential improvement outcomes, or improvement goals, and suggests potential metrics to measure progress against those outcomes. Although all of these outcomes are important you will want to focus on a subset at any given time, and that subset is likely to evolve as your improvement focus evolves. Context counts.

    Copyright Project Management Institute All Rights Reserved Measure Outcomes v5.4 Improve Flow Accumulated impact Classes of service Cost of delay Cost of interruptions Cumulative flow diagram (CFD) Cycle time Deployment frequency (DF) Employee focus factor Features accepted Flow distribution Lead time Process cycle efficiency Ratio of fixing work vs. feature work Throughput Work in process (WIP) Improve Predictability Burnup chart Burndown chart To complete performance index (TCPI) Schedule performance index (SPI) Schedule variance Cost performance index (CPI) Cost variance Improve Quality (Data) Accuracy Consistency Data storage cost Data transformation errors Duplication Empty values Error to data ratio Timeliness Improve Quality (General) Change requests Customer effort score (CES) Customer satisfaction (CSAT) rating Customer success ratio Defect cycle time Defects (during development) Defects (released into market) Safety incidents Social media monitoring Type of work being done Improve Quality (Service) Anonymous customer First response time (lead time) Post service rating Response time (cycle time) Volume/throughput per channel Improve Quality (Software) Build health Cyclomatic complexity Defect density Lines of code (LoC) Path coverage Test coverage Improve Team Capability Lottery factor Skill level (individual) Skills matrix (team) Improve Team Diversity Hires by ethnicity Hires by gender Role level by ethnicity Role level by gender Turnover by ethnicity Turnover by gender Improve Risk Tolerance Capacity risk Change risk Cycle time (to address risk) Financial risk Risk profile graph Increase Customer Delight Customer net worth Customer satisfaction (CSAT) rating Market share Net promoter score (NPS) Number of experiments performed Number of logins Number of transactions Returning customers Smiley face rating Total customer revenue Increase Team Health Employee satisfaction rating Engagement net promotor score (eNPS) Knowledge sharing Number of experiments performed Psychological safety Safety incidents Smiley face rating Team dependencies Increase Initiative Health Customer satisfaction (CSAT) rating Organizational confidence Sponsor confidence Team confidence Increase Value Age of items Blocking items Earned value (EV) Input cost Internal rate of return (IRR) Maintenance cost Net present value (NPV) Operational cost Payback period Return on investment (ROI) Revenue Time to value Total customer profitability Unit scrap ratio Value points Forecast Schedule Acceleration Accepted output items Burnup chart Burndown chart Cumulative flow diagram (CFD) Hours worked Lead time Number of change requests Percent work complete Throughput Velocity Work breakdown structure (WBS) tasks complete Forecast Value Delivered value (offering ROI) Minimum business increment (MBI) ROI Net present value (NPV) Spend graph

    Figure 1. The Measure Outcomes process goal diagram.

    Click the diagram to open the interactive DA Browser, where you can learn more about the decision points and options of this goal.

    Why This is Important

    There are several reasons why this goal is important: 

    1. Metrics should be driven by context, not by mandate. Every team has unique outcomes and improvement goals to measure. This observation is the critical driver for context-based metrics strategies such as objectives and key results (OKR) and goal question metrics (GQM).  Where these strategies walk you through how to take a contextualized approach to measurement, they don’t go that final step to help you to select metrics that are right for you.
    2. There are many things you could measure, but only a few things you need to measure right now. This is why an outcome/goal driven approach is critical – you want to focus on collecting the metrics that will provide insights into the decisions you need to make.
    3. Process improvement requires contextualized measurement. With validated learning strategies such as Guided Continuous Improvement (GCI), part of running an improvement experiment is to assess the effectiveness of the new way of working (WoW), and to do that you need to measure what you’re hoping to affect.
    4. Effective governance requires contextualized measurement. You need to provide visibility to whomever is governing you, thereby providing them the information that they need to govern well. An important aspect of that visibility is access to metrics, ideally in real-time. 

    Key Points

    • The measurements take for a team should be driven by the outcomes or improvement goals they are trying to achieve.
    • Every team is unique, therefore each will potentially collect and report a unique set of metrics.
    • Your metrics strategy must evolve over time as your situation evolves.

    January 2023

    Agile Metrics

    Agile Metrics Micro-Credential

    Become an agile metrics expert and elevate your career with our 7 PDU specialized course. Help your team and organization thrive by learning why, what, and how you should measure, as well as how to report results to management.

    Non-member price: US$250 
    Member price: US$225

    Get Started