Metrics, KPIs, & Performance

In project management, success isn’t just about delivering on time and within budget—it’s about measuring progress, performance, and value. That’s where Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) come into play. These metrics offer objective data to help project managers steer projects in the right direction, mitigate risks early, and ensure alignment with strategic goals.

In project management, measuring success is critical—but the how of measurement can differ dramatically depending on your methodology. Traditional (Waterfall) projects and Agile projects operate under different assumptions, timelines, and value delivery models, which means the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) used to track them also diverge.  Understanding these differences can help project managers and PMOs choose the right metrics, foster transparency, and better align performance with business outcomes.

Agile thrives on transparency. Yet too often, organizations treat metrics as reporting artifacts—numbers placed in a deck for leadership consumption. This approach misses the point. Metrics aren’t about status—they’re about learning, adaptation, and continuous improvement.  The challenge isn’t a lack of data—it’s the overabundance of vanity metrics: defect counts without context, test coverage percentages that don’t reflect quality, or lines of code that incentivize the wrong behaviors. None of these tell us if teams are delivering value.  Instead, effective Agile metrics—velocity and burn down charts—highlight whether teams are working sustainably and predictably toward outcomes that matter.

Digital transformation is no longer just a technical initiative—it’s a business imperative. But while the buzzwords fly, executives often ask one critical question: “What’s the ROI?”  Having led enterprise transformation programs in industries from healthcare to finance, I’ve seen the difference between projects that inspire executive confidence—and those that don’t. The key? Measurable outcomes.  In this post, I’ll break down the digital transformation metrics that matter—and how to communicate them to leadership in a language they value.