Too many organisations talk about being agile, but they’re still flying blind. Evidence-Based Management (EBM) is a strategy to fix that. It’s not a framework, a methodology, or a tool. It’s a way to stop pretending we’re improving and start proving it.
EBM gives us a structure for inspecting how well we’re delivering value and where to invest next. It’s built around four key areas:
- Current Value – Are we delivering value now, or are we just burning cash? Customer satisfaction, revenue per employee, and product usage give us the truth.
- Time to Market – How fast can we learn, deliver, and respond to change? Cycle time, release frequency, and time spent stabilising releases tell us whether we’re built for speed or for bureaucracy.
- Ability to Innovate – Can we create new value, or are we buried under technical debt and bloated backlogs? Look at innovation rate, feature usage, and how much of the product is actually used.
- Unrealised Value – What’s the opportunity cost of staying the same? If we had fewer constraints, where could we win?
These aren’t vanity metrics. They’re signals that help leaders make real decisions about where to focus, where to invest, and what to stop doing. You don’t need a prescription. You need clarity, direction, and feedback.
EBM enables an empirical approach to strategic improvement. It’s not about tracking everything. It’s about measuring the right things, at the right time, to drive better outcomes. If you’re not using data to improve how you deliver value, then you’re not doing agility. You’re doing theatre.
If you want to move beyond output metrics and start managing for outcomes, EBM gives you the scaffolding to do that, without pretending there’s a silver bullet. It’s messy. It’s iterative. But it works.
The strongest work on Evidence Based Management — ranked by substance, not recency. How this is ranked
The Estimation Trap: How Tracking Accuracy Undermines Trust, Flow, and Value in Software Delivery
Tracking estimation accuracy in software delivery leads to mistrust, fear, and distorted behaviours. Focus on customer value, flow, and …
Stop Hiding Behind Complexity and Start Delivering Continuously
Continuous delivery is achievable for any software, regardless of complexity. Success depends on investment in automation, quality, and …
How to Build for Business Resilience and Continuity
Learn key strategies for building business resilience and continuity, including observability, system decoupling, routine deployments, team …
Building the wrong thing is worse than fixing a bug
Most features don’t deliver value. Short feedback loops and real user input help teams avoid wasted effort by ensuring they build what users …
Metrics that matter with evidence-based management
Explains how evidence-based management uses reliable metrics and KPIs at team and organisational levels to drive better decisions, value …
The Missing Lever in Agile Transformations
Most agile transformations fail by neglecting agency, empowering people and systems to adapt, making true agility possible through autonomy, …
Evidence-Based Management: The Four Key Value Areas in Scrum
Explains Scrum’s four key value areas, current value, unrealised value, ability to innovate, and time to market, for data-driven product and …
How to Measure Your Organization's Ability to Improve Value Through Innovation
Learn how to assess and improve your organisation’s innovation capability using evidence-based management and key metrics like technical …
Mastering Evidence-Based Management for Agile Success
Learn how Evidence-Based Management uses data to guide Agile teams, improve decision-making, track value, and boost innovation, customer …
The Estimation Trap: How Tracking Accuracy Undermines Trust, Flow, and Value in Software Delivery
Tracking estimation accuracy in software delivery leads to mistrust, fear, and distorted behaviours. Focus on customer value, flow, and …
Stop Hiding Behind Complexity and Start Delivering Continuously
Continuous delivery is achievable for any software, regardless of complexity. Success depends on investment in automation, quality, and …
How to Build for Business Resilience and Continuity
Learn key strategies for building business resilience and continuity, including observability, system decoupling, routine deployments, team …
The Missing Lever in Agile Transformations
Most agile transformations fail by neglecting agency, empowering people and systems to adapt, making true agility possible through autonomy, …
Announcing Professional Agile Leadership with Evidence-Based Management Training (PAL-EBM) from Scrum.org
Learn about Scrum.org’s new PAL-EBM training, which helps leaders use evidence-based management and custom metrics to align teams with …
Evidence-based Management: Gathering the metrics
Explains how to gather key metrics for evidence-based management in software organisations, focusing on value delivery, time to market, and …
There is no place like production
Validating product value requires releasing features to real users in production, gathering feedback, and measuring usage, satisfaction, and …
Product Goal is an Intermediate Strategic Goal
Explains how product goals serve as intermediate strategic goals, guiding agile organisations through uncertainty using experimentation, …
What my father taught me about Evidence-based Management (34 years before it was invented!)
Explores how evidence-based management uses data-driven practices to improve organisational agility, value delivery, and decision-making in …
Evidence-Based Management: The Four Key Value Areas in Scrum
Explains Scrum’s four key value areas, current value, unrealised value, ability to innovate, and time to market, for data-driven product and …
How to Measure Your Organization's Ability to Improve Value Through Innovation
Learn how to assess and improve your organisation’s innovation capability using evidence-based management and key metrics like technical …
Mastering Evidence-Based Management for Agile Success
Learn how Evidence-Based Management uses data to guide Agile teams, improve decision-making, track value, and boost innovation, customer …
Unlocking Unrealised Value: The Key to Elevating Your Product Development Strategy
Explains how identifying and validating unrealised value, understanding user needs, and rapid feedback loops can enhance product development …
Mastering Outcomes: How Evidence-Based Management Transforms Your Project Success
Learn how evidence-based management uses clear outcomes and targeted metrics to improve project success, enabling informed decisions and …
Understanding the Difference: Traditional Management vs. Evidence-Based Management
Explains how traditional management relies on authority and intuition, while evidence-based management uses data, analysis, and meaningful …
Mastering Evidence-Based Management in Agile: Inform, Don’t Control
Explains how to use data in Agile management to guide decisions and behaviours, focusing on informed outcomes without letting metrics …
The Importance of Validation in Product Development: A Strategic Approach
Explains why validating product features is essential, highlighting hypothesis-driven development, data collection, and evidence-based …
Harnessing Evidence-Based Management: Transform Your Decision-Making with Data-Driven Insights
Learn how evidence-based management uses data and purposeful metrics to inform decisions, shape behaviours, and drive continuous improvement …
The Evidence-Based Management Guide 2020: Improving Value Delivery under Conditions of Uncertainty
Evidence-Based Portfolio Management
34 resources, newest first
The Estimation Trap: How Tracking Accuracy Undermines Trust, Flow, and Value in Software Delivery
Tracking estimation accuracy in software delivery leads to mistrust, fear, and distorted behaviours. Focus on customer value, flow, and …
The Missing Lever in Agile Transformations
Most agile transformations fail by neglecting agency, empowering people and systems to adapt, making true agility possible through autonomy, …
How to Build for Business Resilience and Continuity
Learn key strategies for building business resilience and continuity, including observability, system decoupling, routine deployments, team …
Building the wrong thing is worse than fixing a bug
Most features don’t deliver value. Short feedback loops and real user input help teams avoid wasted effort by ensuring they build what users …
Stop Hiding Behind Complexity and Start Delivering Continuously
Continuous delivery is achievable for any software, regardless of complexity. Success depends on investment in automation, quality, and …
Unlocking Unrealised Value: The Key to Elevating Your Product Development Strategy
Explains how identifying and validating unrealised value, understanding user needs, and rapid feedback loops can enhance product development …
Mastering Evidence-Based Management for Agile Success
Learn how Evidence-Based Management uses data to guide Agile teams, improve decision-making, track value, and boost innovation, customer …
Evidence-Based Management: The Four Key Value Areas in Scrum
Explains Scrum’s four key value areas, current value, unrealised value, ability to innovate, and time to market, for data-driven product and …
Mastering Outcomes: How Evidence-Based Management Transforms Your Project Success
Learn how evidence-based management uses clear outcomes and targeted metrics to improve project success, enabling informed decisions and …
Understanding the Difference: Traditional Management vs. Evidence-Based Management
Explains how traditional management relies on authority and intuition, while evidence-based management uses data, analysis, and meaningful …
Mastering Evidence-Based Management in Agile: Inform, Don’t Control
Explains how to use data in Agile management to guide decisions and behaviours, focusing on informed outcomes without letting metrics …
The Importance of Validation in Product Development: A Strategic Approach
Explains why validating product features is essential, highlighting hypothesis-driven development, data collection, and evidence-based …
Harnessing Evidence-Based Management: Transform Your Decision-Making with Data-Driven Insights
Learn how evidence-based management uses data and purposeful metrics to inform decisions, shape behaviours, and drive continuous improvement …
The Strategic Imperative: Empowering Teams with Vision, Goals, and Direction
Explores how clear vision, goals, and evidence-based management empower teams, improve alignment, and foster autonomy, engagement, and …
Mastering Evidence-Based Management (EBM) for Product Owners: Maximizing Value Delivery
Learn how product owners use Evidence-Based Management (EBM) to make data-driven decisions, track key value metrics, and maximise product …
The Power of Metrics: Why PAL-EBM is Essential for Your Organization
Learn how evidence-based metrics drive organisational success, avoid negative behaviours, and enable transparent, data-driven decisions for …
How Do You Know How Long It Takes to Deliver Value?
Explains how Agile teams can measure and improve Time to Market using key metrics like lead time, cycle time, and time to fix to deliver …
Evidence-Based Management: The Key to Agile Success
Evidence-based management uses data-driven decisions to help organisations achieve business outcomes, adapt to market changes, and maximise …
How to Measure Your Organization's Ability to Improve Value Through Innovation
Learn how to assess and improve your organisation’s innovation capability using evidence-based management and key metrics like technical …
Unlocking Business Value: The Power of Evidence-Based Management for Effective Leadership
Explains how evidence-based management uses data-driven decisions and tailored metrics to boost business value, leadership effectiveness, …
How to Discover Unrealized Value in Your Product
Learn how to identify and measure unrealised value in your product using Evidence-Based Management, key metrics, and actionable steps to …
How Do You Know the Value Currently Delivered in Your Organization?
Learn how Evidence-Based Management helps organisations measure delivered value using key metrics like customer satisfaction, employee …
The Importance of Evidence-Based Management in Agile Environments
Explains how evidence-based management helps Agile teams use data and key metrics to measure progress, make informed decisions, and drive …
Say-Do Metrics: Avoiding Agile Banditry in Your Organization
Explains the risks of using say-do metrics in Agile, highlighting how they encourage vanity metrics, harm psychological safety, and shift …
Transform Your Leadership: The Power of Evidence-Based Management in Agile
Discover how evidence-based management empowers Agile leaders to make data-driven decisions, foster continuous improvement, and boost team …
Harnessing Your Entrepreneurial Spirit: Key Strategies for Product Owners to Drive Team Success
Learn how product owners can boost team success by connecting work to value, making evidence-based decisions, and improving time to market …
Announcing Professional Agile Leadership with Evidence-Based Management Training (PAL-EBM) from Scrum.org
Learn about Scrum.org’s new PAL-EBM training, which helps leaders use evidence-based management and custom metrics to align teams with …
Evidence-based Management: Gathering the metrics
Explains how to gather key metrics for evidence-based management in software organisations, focusing on value delivery, time to market, and …
There is no place like production
Validating product value requires releasing features to real users in production, gathering feedback, and measuring usage, satisfaction, and …
Product Goal is an Intermediate Strategic Goal
Explains how product goals serve as intermediate strategic goals, guiding agile organisations through uncertainty using experimentation, …