This is a true short-take on flow metrics. I want it to be a reference piece for other works…
I attended a Professional Agile Leadership class with Ryan Ripley not that long ago. Ryan is a colleague and friend of mine and I always appreciate (and learn new stuff) when we get together. If you ever get the chance to attend a Ryan Ripley class, take it!!!
But I digress.
Ryan was VERY enthusiastic about flow metrics in the class. He has moved on from a velocity position and then from a #noestimates position, and now believes that flow metrics that the most relevancy and value in agile contexts.
I’m not sure I’m as enthusiastic as Ryan is about them, but I agree that they’re important. I also think we’re not talking about them enough. Here are some solid references to bring you up to speed on flow metrics:
LeanKit, the basics explained - https://leankit.com/learn/kanban/lean-flow-metrics/
Yuval Yeret - https://www.agilesparks.com/blog/4-key-flow-metrics-and-how-to-use-them-in-scrums-events/
Another nice introduction by Julie Wyman that I saw at the Music City Agile conference in 2019 - https://www.slideshare.net/JulieWyman3/music-city-agile-2019-measuring-flow-metrics-that-matter
Using FLOW metrics to facilitate a retrospective, Christian Hofstetter - https://medium.com/the-liberators/how-to-do-a-retrospective-using-flow-metrics-612bf48bdeba
Wrapping Up
I’d also highly recommend you read Daniel Vacanti's work on the subject:
Flow is something that you’ll want to understand and leverage in your agile journey. But it’s up to you to discover when and to what degree.
Stay in the Flow and Stay agile my friends,
Bob.