Measure Team Output

Velocity focus on outcomes, not output. Velocity is a relative and team-dependent measure, not an absolute one.

Velocity is the rate at which a team delivers value to the customer. A team that completes many tasks but delivers no value to the customer should have zero velocity. Velocity is a measurement, not an objective.

Delivery lead times and deployment frequency are both software delivery performance tempo measures. Delivery lead time measures how fast work can be completed.

Lead time is the time it takes to go from a customer requesting the request to be satisfied. Lead time is the time it takes to go from code committed to code running in production.

Measure productivity by calculating the number of deploys per day per developer to assess the shipping of work while validating with stakeholders how beneficial the changes were.

It is crucial to measure and understand the right things, with a focus on capabilities rather than maturity. This approach allows you to identify growth and improvement areas and tailor your efforts accordingly to help individuals and teams build the skills and abilities needed to drive progress, reach goals, effectively navigate the challenges of change, and achieve lasting success.

—

[¹]: Gene Kim(2018): (Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations)