Agile monitoring using the line of balance

There is a need to collect, measure, and present progress information in all projects, and Agile projects are no exception. In this article, the authors show how the Line of Balance, a relatively obscure indicator, can be used to gain insights into the progress of projects not provided by burn down charts or cumulative flow diagrams, two of the most common indicators used to track and report progress in agile projects. The authors also propose to replace the original plan-based control point lead-time calculations with dynamic information extracted from a version control system and introduce the concept of the ideal plan to measure progress relative to both, end of iteration milestones and project completion date.