9 Key Metrics of a Mature High-performing Team

A mature Scrum team or a team in the performing stage of group development has developed high efficiency, effectiveness, and cohesion in executing the Scrum framework.

Notice that the qualitative signs and quantitative metrics are a reference and great opportunities to celebrate. However, it might be difficult for a team to outperform in all these areas at the same time.

This topic is covered in SCRUM UNLOCKED book:

Qualitative signs

Qualitative signs that a Scrum team is mature include:

1.????Customer Focus: The team has a strong customer focus, understanding the needs and requirements of the customer and delivering a product that meets or exceeds their expectations.

2.????Self-Managing: The team has developed the ability to self-organize and determine how to best accomplish their goals without needing external guidance or direction.

3.????Collaborative: The team has developed a culture of collaboration and trust where team members openly share ideas, concerns, and feedback. The team embodies and lives the Scrum Values.

4.????Continuous Improvement: The team actively seeks to identify areas for improvement and makes incremental changes to its processes and practices to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

5.????Autonomy: The team makes decisions and takes ownership of their work without needing micromanagement or oversight.

6.????High Productivity: The team consistently delivers high-quality products that meet customer needs and business goals within the agreed-upon timeframes.

7.????Adaptable: The team has the ability to adapt quickly to changing requirements or circumstances and can pivot their approach to ensure they are delivering the most value. The team is focused on meeting goals and can adapt the scope as necessary to meet them on time.

8.????Clear Accountabilities and Responsibilities: The team members clearly understand their roles and responsibilities within the team and can work together seamlessly to achieve their goals.

9.????Empowered: The team feels empowered to make decisions and take actions that will contribute to the product’s success and the organization as a whole.

10.?Continuous Learning: The team is committed to ongoing learning and development and regularly seeks new knowledge and skills to improve performance.

Quantitative metrics

Several quantitative metrics can indicate that a Scrum Team has matured:

1.????Consistent Velocity: The team consistently delivers a predictable amount of work each Sprint, indicating a high level of understanding and ability to estimate accurately.

2.????Reduced Cycle Time: The time it takes to complete a user story or feature decreases over time, indicating that the team is becoming more efficient and effective at their work. The Lead time is decreasing. The mean time to repair and Time to Restore Service is decreasing.

3.????Increase commitment to improvements: The number of improvements selected from the Retrospective vs. the improvements implemented per Sprint is increasing. As a result, the time to remove Impediments decreases.

4.????Increased Throughput: The number of Product Backlog items or features completed per Sprint increases over time, indicating that the team can handle more work and is becoming more productive.

5.????Improved Quality: The number of bugs or defects found after a Sprint decreases over time, indicating that the team is becoming more skilled at producing high-quality work. The team regularly adapts the Definition of Done to increase the quality standards. The production incident count is decreasing. Technical Debt decreases. Change Failure Rate decreases.

6.????High Team Morale: Team members are happy, motivated, and engaged in their work, indicating a positive team culture and high levels of collaboration and communication. Low turnover rate, Positive feedback, Low absenteeism, etc.

7.????High rate of meeting the Sprint Goal: Increase the number of times the Scrum Team meets the Sprint Goal. This can be measured by tracking the percentage of Sprints where the Sprint Goal was met or exceeded.

8.????Release frequency increases: The percentage or number of Sprints that the Scrum Team delivers at least one Increment with one or more valuable features to the users every Sprint increased. The Scrum Team can release an increment at any time, or the release or deployment frequency increases. Active product code branches are decreasing. Time spent switching contexts is decreasing. The innovation rate is increasing. Build and Integration Frequency increases.

9.????Rise in customer satisfaction: The Customer Satisfaction metrics are increasing. These metrics will indicate if they are providing value through the product. The Customer satisfaction gap is decreasing. The Customer usage index is increasing. The Desired customer experience gap is decreasing.

It's important to note that these metrics should be used with qualitative assessments of the team's performance and should not be the sole measure of a team's maturity.

Source: Scrum Unlocked