Metrics for an Agile project

Q. How are we doing on delivering agreed scope of the current release?
A. Burn-up chart by iteration for the release. Below is a burn-up chart Manju created for reporting status on one of our large programs.



Among other things, this graph shows:
1. Scope changes (demonstrated by fluctuations on the "Total Scope" line
2. The gaps between succeeding status lines reflects in-process / wait stories. Larger than normally accepted gaps indicate bottlenecks. E.g. Dev is a bottleneck due to the huge gap between Analysis Complete and Dev Complete
3. Inventory of stories that are ready to go live (demonstrated by the "Showcase Passed" line
4. Actual completion status (demonstrated by the "Showcase passed" status line)

Q. How are we doing on throughput? How much value are we delivering? What is the trend - running faster, slowing down?
A. Velocity graph by iteration for the project. Only "Done" stories considered for velocity calculations. Below is a velocity graph Manju created for tracking velocity on one of our large programs. The 3 iteration average was first brought to my notice by Santosh, who was using it in one of his projects. I find this extremely valuable, as it balances the ups and downs into something like a trend line.