Lesson243 words
Metrics and queries for project planning
Metrics and queries for project planning
The planning questions
| Question | Metric |
|---|---|
| Will we finish by the date? | Burndown, velocity |
| Is scope growing? | Scope change / added work |
| How much can we take on? | Velocity over several iterations |
| Where is work stuck? | Cumulative flow diagram |
Velocity honestly
Velocity is a planning input, not a performance score. The moment it becomes a target, estimates inflate and the number stops predicting anything — the measure has been optimised instead of the outcome.
Use several iterations, not one. A single sprint's velocity is noise.
Cumulative flow
A cumulative flow diagram shows how many items sit in each state over time. A widening band means work is entering a state faster than it leaves — the queue is growing, and the widening band names exactly which state to look at.
Queries
Azure Boards queries come in three shapes:
| Query type | Returns |
|---|---|
| Flat list | Matching work items |
| Work items and direct links | Items plus their immediate links |
| Tree of work items | Parent–child hierarchy |
Charts are built on queries, so a dashboard is only as good as the query beneath it — and a query that silently drops a work item type will show a chart that is confidently wrong.
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