More often than you would like to see it, teams struggle to craft a proper Sprint Goal. As a workaround, teams then use generic Sprint Goals like “We’re burning down the whole Sprint Backlog”. Typically, those teams fail to make this generic goals, and also achieve only mediocre Sprint results at best. This article gives an overview of what a Sprint Goal is, what it is good for, and hence, why Sprint Goals are Mandatory.
Relevant Kanban Metrics for Software Teams
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Lead Time and Cycle Time
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Throughput
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Work Item Age
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Work in Progress
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Touch Time & Flow Efficency
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Leading and Lagging Indicators
Leading indicators are metrics that can predict future outcomes or trends. They are used to identify potential problems or opportunities before they occur, and can help organizations to take proactive steps to address potential issues or seize new opportunities.
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As we said, lead time is the time it takes to complete a work item from start to finish. This metric could be considered a lagging indicator, as it reflects the time it took to complete a task in the past.
Delivery rate is the rate at which work items are being completed. It is a lagging indicator, as it can be observed only at the end of the process, and represents the overall efficiency and performance of the process. However, it cannot be used to predict future events.
Work in progress (WIP) is the amount of work that is currently being actively worked on. This metric is a leading indicator, as it can predict future trends in terms of the amount of work that is being completed. Furthermore, it indicates lead time and/or delivery rate, as it influences both of them.
Work item age is the amount of time that a work item has been in progress. Hence, it is a leading indicator of lead time, as no item can be finished faster than the amount of time it already has been in progess.
It’s important to note that these categories are not mutually exclusive, and a given metric may fall into both categories depending on how it is used. For example, lead time could be considered a lagging indicator when used to assess the effectiveness of past actions, but a leading indicator when used to predict future trends.
Final Thoughts
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