DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports
Events Video Library
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
View Events Video Library
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks

Migrate, Modernize and Build Java Web Apps on Azure: This live workshop will cover methods to enhance Java application development workflow.

Modern Digital Website Security: Prepare to face any form of malicious web activity and enable your sites to optimally serve your customers.

Kubernetes in the Enterprise: The latest expert insights on scaling, serverless, Kubernetes-powered AI, cluster security, FinOps, and more.

E-Commerce Development Essentials: Considering starting or working on an e-commerce business? Learn how to create a backend that scales.

Related

  • 5 Steps To Tame Unplanned Work
  • Non-Traditional Project Planning
  • Sprint Goals: How to Write, Manage, and Achieve
  • Compatibility Testing: Checklists and Crucial Things You Need to Know About It

Trending

  • An In-Depth Exploration of REST, gRPC, and GraphQL in Web Projects
  • JPA Criteria With Pagination
  • Apply Strangler Pattern To Decompose Legacy System Into Microservices: Part 1
  • Legacy App Migration: How Discovery Phase Speeds up Project Delivery
  1. DZone
  2. Culture and Methodologies
  3. Agile
  4. Importance of KVI in Agile Projects

Importance of KVI in Agile Projects

If you feel like your Key Performance Indicators are no longer cutting it, read on to learn about a new system of estimating value.

Arijit Sarbagna user avatar by
Arijit Sarbagna
·
Aug. 10, 17 · Opinion
Like (2)
Save
Tweet
Share
10.7K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

Image title

More often than not you must have been through a phase in your Agile Software delivery life cycle, where people have questioned you about the KPI (Key Performance Indicators) and how you managed them. Well, they still exist - just the way "Scrum-Butt" also exists. Though the world has moved ahead, we realized that the questions posed by businesses are still the same (e.g. how to engage more customers, how to create better customer satisfaction, which segment needs to be pushed, how to deliver more with less etc. etc.) and hence we should still use the same age old KPIs. Dreadful - isn't it?So, it is high time that we wake up and realize that "Performance Indicators" don't necessarily deliver "Value." For example, if a team is delivering high (or huge) lines of codes, it doesn't necessarily mean they are delivering loads of business functionalities. From a different angle, if a team is not communicating the results of measurement and analysis activities to all relevant stakeholders, it doesn't necessarily mean they are not delivering value (perhaps they are just aiming at delivering a working piece of software)! And that is why the focus should shift to "Key Value Indicators," i.e. KVI.

What Is KVI?

As the name indicates, it stands for "Key Value Indicators." What does it mean actually? It simply refers to the parameters which, if measured, show how we are delivering better value our customers. For example, instead of measuring LoC (which doesn't add any value to the customer) within the KPI system, use "Build Stability" as a KVI (because a stable build indicates readiness for deployment, i.e. faster TTM). So, let's take an Agile Software Delivery Project for example. If we are working on this project, instead of measuring only the standard set of parameters like Burndown, Acceptance Ratio, etc., consider a holistic view and include items like:

  1. Release Burn Down Chart

  2. Sprint Burn Down Chart/Velocity

  3. User Story Acceptance Ratio (i.e. committed SP vs accepted SP)

  4. Build Quality Index

  5. Release Frequency

  6. Agile Practice Maturity

  7. Innovation Quotient

So What Exactly Changed?

If you noticed, we are changing the name to shift the focus from using a measure to understand what is happening (i.e. KPI), to a direction of identifying a means of improving value creation (i.e. KVI) for our customers. This is, essentially, the whole purpose of Agile Software Delivery - isn't it?

KVI Key Value Areas Objective
Release Burn Down Forecast and Planning Understand how to improve timeline.
Sprint Burn Down Forecast and Planning Understand how to improve timeline.
Story Acceptance Ratio Forecast and Planning;
Collaboration
How to improve communication and improve quality.
Build Quality TTM (Time to Market) Ensure stable build is available for quick release.
Release Frequency TTM (Time to Market)
Quicker Feedback Loop
Ensure integrated product could be released in quick intervals and customer feedback could be collected.


KPIs tend to get used in a Command and Control environment. I have seen many instances where it is not the case and they have my absolute respect! But otherwise, we should look for KVIs, which are more meaningful to our customers. 

At the end of the day, winners don't do different things,. they do things differently! 

agile Sprint (software development)

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Related

  • 5 Steps To Tame Unplanned Work
  • Non-Traditional Project Planning
  • Sprint Goals: How to Write, Manage, and Achieve
  • Compatibility Testing: Checklists and Crucial Things You Need to Know About It

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Core Program
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 3343 Perimeter Hill Drive
  • Suite 100
  • Nashville, TN 37211
  • support@dzone.com

Let's be friends: