We report direct measurements of local grain orientation and residual strain in polycrystalline,C-axis oriented thin YBa2Cu3O7−δ superconducting films using polarized Raman spectroscopy. Strain dependence of the Ag Raman active mode at 335 cm−1 was calibrated and used to measure local strain in the films. Our data showed that high quality films are associated with the connected path of uniform grain orientation (single crystal-like) across the film and uniform residual strain in the range of −0.3%. Nonuniform grain orientation or high angle grain boundaries and nonuniform local strains were associated with low quality films.