Instead, it is easy for teams to fall in the trap of tracking progress by counting story points or the number of defects. These metrics do a good job of sizing and measuring the movement of work, however, they are agnostic of the underlying impact on user experience and business operations. As a result, a team of engineers may deliver the story points as planned in a given sprint, but the “contributing value” of the body of work towards meeting the business metrics could easily fall short. Worst, many programs do not even define the business metrics until after completion of the technology implementation. A test plan that successfully measures and closes all “critical” and “high” priority defects may be rendered useless if the team has not invested in performing periodic usability tests with real users to assess the design and engineering outcomes. > A clear definition of business metrics at the onset of the program serves as a “true north” for the cross-functional teams to prioritize decisions and measure meaningful progress.