PEO Enterprise’s LACE helps programs implement consistent Agile metrics

As U.S. Army Program Executive Office (PEO) Enterprise strives to enhance the speed and efficiency of its Agile software development practices, the acquisition organization’s Lean Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) is supporting the PEO’s portfolio of programs with a consistent set of metrics. 

In late January 2025, following a period of collaboration by a metrics working group, PEO Enterprise’s LACE announced its recommendations for Agile team-level metrics. The proposed metrics include benchmarks like velocity, cycle time and sprint burndown and are designed to track the broader categories of workflow, quality, predictability, value and continuous improvement.  

One of the LACE leaders involved with the development of the metrics program, Agile coach Scott Sinclair, explained the benefit of consolidating on metrics across the enterprise.  

“We are starting to align the PEO on recommended metrics, so we can better understand how to help the programs as they see impediments and blockers to achieving value delivery,” said Sinclair.  

PEO Enterprise’s focus on metrics aligns with guidance provided last spring by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. In an April 2024 memorandum on software metrics and management policy, ASA(ALT) directed all Army acquisition programs executing on the Software Acquisition Pathway and the Defense Business Systems Pathway and other software-intensive programs to “collect and store software development and release metrics at a quarterly frequency in a PEO or Project Manager-defined location.” 

To help programs implement the policy — which they have three years to do — the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Data, Engineering and Software (DASA-DES) issued a playbook identifying required Agile metrics and recommending how to capture them. In exchange, PEO Enterprise has been sharing its own metrics with DASA-DES, said Sinclair. 

PEO Enterprise expects to be done implementing metrics “well ahead of schedule,” he said.  

In mid-February, the organization’s LACE shared its implementation plan for team-level metrics with PEO Enterprise programs. The plan foresees a gradual rollout of Agile metrics, starting with velocity and sprint burndown by the end of the second quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2025. All the metrics will be rolled out by the first quarter of FY 2026. 

Some PEO Enterprise programs are already ahead of the game in tracking these metrics. The Accessions Information Enterprise (AIE) product office, part of the Integrated Personnel and Pay System – Army portfolio, has had little difficulty adhering to the LACE recommendations because they already track velocity and sprint burndown.  

“Instead of mostly focusing on format and visualization, it is critical that the underlying data is clean, and Agile best practices are followed,” said Valarie Tran, product lead for AIE. “This means ensuring that every team member either closes or moves user stories at the end of each sprint. Without this simple step, velocity and other metrics can be corrupted. We believe that without disciplined Agile, metrics are flawed, no matter how pretty they look.” 

Moving forward, PEO Enterprise’s LACE plans to expand its metrics initiative. The center’s Agile experts are currently focused on program-level metrics and are hoping to consolidate them in a single dashboard to be built by the PEO’s Chief Information Office. The data would be reviewed at quarterly system review board meetings led by PEO Enterprise’s new assistant PEO for digital transformation, Aric Sherwood. 

“As we continue on our Agile journey, capturing, reporting and analyzing Agile metrics is critical to seeing ourselves and making corrections more quickly,” said Sherwood. “In the end, that will enable us to better deliver valuable software to the Soldier.”