Measuring “faster” honestly: what I actually count
Velocity claims are cheap. These are the four numbers I trust and the one I have stopped reporting.
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Lead time for a small change
From decision to production, for something genuinely trivial. It is the cleanest measure of how much friction a system carries, and it is very hard to game.
Change failure rate
Speed that raises this is not speed. Tracking both together stops the conversation collapsing into one number.
What I stopped reporting
Story points per sprint. It measured estimation habits, not delivery, and every team eventually learns to make the line go up.
Count the things that would embarrass you to fake.