Executives want to view overall project status with a quick glance. Project managers often create the stop light dashboard as a tool to visually convey this information.
How do we measure progress in Agile projects? According to one of the twelve principles from the Agile Manifesto, working software is the primary measure of progress. Revising the dashboard to reflect actual rather than planned progress may give a better indicator of project progress.
The dashboard consists of multiple stop lights to display status. Each stop light reflects the status for a feature or planned activity of the project. The light is green if the status is “on track”, is yellow if the status is “at risk” with minor issues, and is red if the status is “behind schedule or off track.” Generally, the status is calculated from a planned schedule, budget, and scope.
What colors are the stop lights at the beginning of the project?
In traditional projects, the lights start out “green”. This represents that the project has an approved plan in place. Even though the project has not officially started, everything is “on schedule” according to the plan. Executives tend to feel good about the plan when they see all “green” lights. Most projects eventually see yellow and red lights appear because the schedules are often overly optimistic, and there are risks that are not totally understood or anticipated.
There is no working software at the start of a new project. Maybe we should rethink the meaning of the lights to represent the actual delivery of working software as our measure of progress. Using this Agile principle, the project dashboard should display everything as red at the beginning. As software is worked on and ultimately delivered, the lights can progress from yellow to green.
If work becomes blocked, the stop light can revert back to red showing the work stoppage. When work is delayed, the light can become yellow as a warning that progress has slowed. This is analogous to the stop lights on a road, where green means “go”, red means “stop”, yellow means “slow down or caution.”
It is also possible to add more detail using an odometer and speedometer. The odometer would display accepted user story points and completion percentage for the feature. The speedometer would display the feature velocity, which would be the number of story points for the feature divided by number the sprints in which these stories were worked. The display of this extra information would depend on how much information an executive wants to digest.
This new project dashboard still provides management with the quick glance of project status but gives a focus on what has actually been delivered. After all, working software is the primary measure of progress. Red light, then green light!
