Escape Velocity

Better Metrics for Agile Teams

by Doc Norton

Time and time again, I find teams struggling with velocity as a genuinely helpful metric.

In some cases, it is a relatively harmless albeit poor tool for planning work. But too often, it is a detrimental means of holding teams to ill-informed commitments which ultimately exacerbates many of the team’s core issues. All of this in search of the answer to “How long will it take?”

In Escape Velocity we consider better alternatives to velocity as a metric and look at how other data such as lead time, flow, customer satisfaction, and team joy can not only help a team improve delivery, but provide better answers to “When will this be done?”

This work was written and produced entirely by the author. We are proud to be distributing it.

Escape Velocity is the result of over 15 years of experience working with teams on improving the way they deliver software products.

In the mid 2000s, I started seeing detrimental patterns of behavior across teams practicing some form of agile; especially those who had chosen the Scrum framework. These patterns were directly related to or at least influenced by the use of velocity as a metric, and I found myself coaching teams away from velocity.

As time passed, my understanding of metrics, their potential influence on teams, alternatives to velocity, and more successful and sustainable approaches deepened. My ability to explain why velocity was insufficient as a metric grew more informed, as did my knowledge of what to do instead.

I eventually codified much of that knowledge into the book, Escape Velocity. While on the surface, Escape Velocity may appear to be an anti-velocity treatise, it is actually about how to use metrics in a healthy way, what pitfalls to look out for, and what metrics can better serve the team and the organization in the pursuit of excellence.

To get the most out of this book, the reader should have:

• An open mind
• Access to the internet and a browser
• Access to work tracking software such as Trello, Asana, or Jira
• A spreadsheet tool like Google Docs or Excel

Releases:

• P1.0 2024/09/30

• Dedication
• About
  • This Book
  • The Title
  • The Author
• Preface
• What is Velocity?
  • Velocity is a Vector
  • Velocity is a Lagging Indicator
  • Velocity as a Measure of a Complex System
  • Velocity By Way of Analogy
• Velocity Anti-Patterns excerpt
  • Before We Get Started
  • Demand for Higher Velocity
  • Cross-team Velocity Comparisons
  • Estimation Teams
  • Estimating in Time
  • Comparing Estimates to Actuals
  • Measuring Individual Velocity
  • Iteration Packing
• Potential Side Effects of Metrics
  • The Hawthorne Effect
  • Goodhart’s Law
  • Friedman’s Thermostat
  • Perverse Incentives
• Variable Velocity
  • Velocity Should Stabilize
  • But What If Velocity Doesn’t Stabilize?
  • Poor Story Composition
  • Dependencies on Other Teams or Individuals
  • Too Much Work In Process
  • Silos
  • Various Forms of Mismanagement
• Other Metrics
  • Lead Time
  • Cycle Time
  • Cumulative Flow Diagrams
  • Delivery Frequency
  • Code Quality
  • Team Joy
  • Forecasting
• Customer Metrics
  • Outcomes Over Outputs
  • Feature Use
• Looking for Correlations
  • Scatter Diagrams
• Balanced Metrics
  A Starting Point
• Acknowledgements