Hi,

One of the principles of agile is that you should measure working software:

Working software is the primary measure of progress - 12 principles of Agile

The thing is, while I can measure my software in terms of stories done, bugs squashed or the volume of defect reports decreasing, I'm stuck on how to measure the value of my software.

If I use Mike Cohn as an example and his helping SalesForce.com deliver 500% more value to it's customers compared to the previous year* - how do I measure that increase? How do I measure where I am right now?

Other metrics he uses are the number of features and the number of features per developer. This is something I could work out if my backlog was in good order and the stories were cut up by 'feature', but we're just starting out with Agile, so I need some way of working out what the value is we deliver now, then use a similar metric in say, six months, to see if we've increased our output.

I've heard about measuring value of software by an uptick in revenue, or an increase in customer satisfaction (how would you measure that though?) but those increases could be attributed to anything in the company (sales, accounting, support) and not directly to the work my department is doing.

So, how do you guys measure the value of your software and how did you start?

Thanks,

Mike

*Succeeding With Agile - Mike Cohn