Transitioning to Agile means using different measurements.
Using status reporting such as traffic lights can be very misleading. Sometimes a project is 90% done but then the team tries to integrate the pieces into a product and finds that the requirements need to be changed, or it doesn’t integrate in the product as they though it would. It can happen that a project status light is green up to 1 month before the release date. This can be referred to as a watermelon project (green on the outside, red on the inside). Project status lights can turn red with seemingly no warnings.
Metrics for agile projects contain meaningful information that provide a historical track record, because agile projects deliver value on a regular basis. In addition to quantitative measures, qualitative measures can be considered. For example, an assessment how well a team is using practices that were chosen in the beginning, or the business satisfaction with the delivered features.
However, sponsors usually want to know when the project will be done. Once the team can establish a reliable velocity – average stories or story points per iteration – or the average cycle time, the team can predict how much longer the project will take.
The team needs to balance uncertainty and provide value to the customers.
«Agile project approaches are about learning – learning while delivering value. » PMBOK Guide
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