The Metrics That Matter
Numbers lie. Or rather: numbers don't lie — but they can be asked the wrong questions.
Every Scrum team measures something. Most teams measure what's easy to measure: Story Points completed, sprints closed, charts that look good in a slide deck. But the metrics that actually help you improve are different. They reveal flow, friction, and hidden bottlenecks before they become crises.
This module is about reading your team's vital signs honestly.
What You'll Learn in This Module
- Why velocity alone tells you almost nothing about team health
- How to prevent Story Point inflation from turning into a vanity race
- The precise difference between Lead Time and Cycle Time — and why mixing them up costs you insight
- How to read a Burndown chart like a detective, not a reporter
- What a Cumulative Flow Diagram shows that a Burndown can't
Module Lessons
- Velocity Without the Inflation — Story Points done right; measuring throughput without gaming the system; what "Done" really means for velocity to be meaningful
- Lead Time vs Cycle Time — Definitions, how to measure each, what deviations tell you about where work gets stuck
- Reading the Flow: Burndown & Cumulative Flow Diagrams — Chart anatomy, pattern recognition, and the early warning signals buried in the data
Complete all three lessons and earn the Metrics Maven badge. You'll never look at a velocity chart the same way again.