Advanced Sprint Metrics: Rollover, Scope Change, Added Work and Other Metrics You Need To Track

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We all need a health check from time to time. But you’ll probably get puzzled if the only tool the doctor uses is a thermometer. Yet, many companies still use two basic metrics for their sprint check-ups: Initial Commitment and Completed Work.

We found this out after talking to 170+ customers, ranging from small dev teams to massive enterprises with lots of cross-team interactions.

That’s why we've decided to give a brief guide on sprint metrics that are crucial to improving any company's sprint analysis.

10 Advanced Sprint Metrics to Check Your Sprint Health

1. Rollover

Have you ever started a sprint feeling like you’re already behind? Rollover metrics can tell you exactly how much of your last sprint’s workload is moving to the current one. Tracking this can help your team understand whether they're overcommitting and where adjustments might be needed to keep things manageable.

2. Initial Commitment

At the beginning of each sprint, teams set their goals, but how often do those goals truly reflect achievable targets? The initial commitment metric gives you a clear baseline of what was planned before the sprint chaos kicks in.

3. Final Commitment

Things change—that's a given in Agile environments. The final commitment metric reflects the actual commitment affected by scope changes during the sprint. It’s a great way to see how the team's actual scope deviates from the initially planned one.

4. Total Scope Change

The total scope change metric captures the overall alterations made to the sprint’s scope—both additions, subtractions, and estimate changes. It’s crucial to understand the quality of planning, the amount of unpredictable work creeping in, and ensure that the scope is kept under control.

5. Added Work

Added work shows the extra work that was thrown into the mix after the sprint started. It's normal for new requirements to pop up, but tracking them can help you assess whether your project is changing direction or simply refining its focus.

6. Removed Work

Conversely, removed work highlights what work was deemed unnecessary and removed from the sprint. This metric can indicate a sharpening of project focus or a pivot in strategy, helping teams stay aligned with the most crucial project objectives.

7. Estimation Change

If your initial estimations often turn out to be off, tracking estimation changes can offer insights into your team’s estimation process. It helps identify whether the amount of work is consistently underestimated or overestimated, which can profoundly impact your sprint planning and resource allocation.

8. Not Completed Work

Not all work makes it to the finish line during the intended sprint. This metric sheds light on what’s left undone, helping you understand whether it’s a matter of unrealistic planning, shifting priorities, or perhaps something else.

9. Completed Work (Initial)

This metric is about celebrating wins! It measures the work that was completed as initially planned, offering a clear view of how effective your sprint planning was and how well the team stuck to the plan.

10. Completed Work

Lastly, the overall completed work metric sums up everything your team managed to finish during the sprint. It’s a powerful indicator of your team’s productivity and a critical measure for evaluating the overall success of the sprint.

We found that after introducing the advanced sprint metrics in the Agile Velocity Chart Gadget to our clients, the majority started using them all right away, together with the breakdown, for more clarity (we'll dive deeper into this feature in our next post, but here's a sneak peek 👇).

Do you see how you can use these metrics in your company? Or would you prefer to stick with the traditional Initial Commitment vs. Completed Work?

Give advanced metrics a chance with the Agile Reports and Gadgets or the Agile Velocity Chart Gadget by Broken Build.