Functions points and Agile metrics / KPIs

Milind -

Function points are a traditional method of estimating work effort. Project teams following an agile lifecycle might use a relative sizing approach using a fictitious number such as storypoints.

Assessing how many storypoints worth of work items have been completed relative to what's left can provide a basis for forecasting and performance assessment.

Kiron

KPI's can set by the organization, sponsor, some stakeholders, even the PM. They can be at the project, program or portfolio level. They are whatever you need them to be. In Agile, they can be viewed through velocity charts, burndown charts, and also more traditional ways like good old Excel tables. There are just so many KPI's one can think of to apply to Agile and traditional projects, but the exact metrics would be project specific.

Thanks Kiron.

Are there any other metrics specially in the perspective of program projects?

--Milind

Other than just tracking what has been delivered relative to expectations (e.g. storypoints, velocity), it's good to look at richer metrics like:

- business value realized
- features uses vs deployed
- defect trends

Kiron

If you search inside CMU SEI site for example you will find methods to use function points as an adjustment to use with Use Case Points or Strorie Points estimation methods. I am using them.

At a project level, what might be worth measuring is committed vs. complete. While velocity for each team is different, the committed vs. complete graph will tell you if the team is stable and can stand on its commitment. If a team continuously wavers from the commitment then you can tell that something is off i.e. team might be taking in stories that are not ready or they may be overcommitting thus impacting the cadence adversely.