3 easy team delivery metrics with ActionableAgile

Dimitri Koubaroulis
6 min readintermediate
--
View Original

Overview

The article discusses three key metrics for measuring team delivery performance using the ActionableAgile JIRA plugin. It emphasizes the importance of cycle time, deployment frequency for customer-facing changes, and deployment frequency for non-customer-facing changes, along with a detailed setup process for tracking these metrics effectively.

What You'll Learn

1

How to measure cycle time using JIRA and ActionableAgile

2

Why tracking deployment frequency is crucial for team performance

3

How to set up a cross-team JIRA board for metric visualization

Prerequisites & Requirements

  • Access to JIRA and the ActionableAgile plugin
  • Basic understanding of Agile methodologies(optional)

Key Questions Answered

What are the three key metrics for measuring team delivery?
The three key metrics discussed are cycle time, deployment frequency for customer-facing changes, and deployment frequency for non-customer-facing changes. These metrics help teams assess their delivery performance and identify areas for improvement.
How do you set up ActionableAgile in JIRA?
To set up ActionableAgile, first install the plugin from the Atlassian Marketplace. Then, create a cross-team JIRA board using a JQL filter that combines relevant team projects to visualize metrics across different teams.
How can blocked time affect cycle time metrics?
Blocked time can significantly impact cycle time metrics. The article suggests flagging tickets that are blocked for a non-trivial amount of time, which allows teams to decide whether to include or exclude this time from their metrics, providing valuable insights.
What is the process for excluding certain types of work from metrics?
To exclude certain types of work from metrics, tickets can be manually labeled with an 'outlier' label. This allows teams to filter these tickets out later, ensuring that only relevant work is considered in the metrics.

Key Statistics & Figures

Time to get metrics needed
a couple of minutes
Once the initial setup is complete, obtaining the necessary metrics typically takes just a couple of minutes.

Technologies & Tools

Some links below are affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase.

Project Management
Jira
Used for tracking and managing project tasks and metrics.
Plugin
Actionableagile
Provides agile metrics visualization and reporting capabilities within JIRA.

Key Actionable Insights

1
Regularly review cycle time metrics to identify bottlenecks in your workflow.
By analyzing cycle time, teams can pinpoint stages in their process that may be causing delays, allowing for targeted improvements and more efficient delivery.
2
Utilize JIRA's filtering capabilities to customize your metric visualizations.
Customizing visualizations helps teams focus on the most relevant data, making it easier to track performance and make informed decisions.
3
Implement a consistent labeling system for JIRA tickets to streamline metric tracking.
Consistent labels enable easier filtering and reporting, ensuring that metrics accurately reflect team performance across projects.

Common Pitfalls

1
Failing to label tickets consistently can lead to inaccurate metric tracking.
Without a consistent labeling system, teams may struggle to filter and analyze their metrics effectively, resulting in misleading insights.
2
Not accounting for blocked time can skew cycle time metrics.
Ignoring blocked time may present an overly optimistic view of team performance, as it doesn't reflect the true time taken to complete tasks.

Related Concepts

Agile Methodologies
Jira Project Management
Metrics Visualization
Team Performance Tracking