Velocity

Velocity refers to the measure of the work a Scrum Team gets Done during a single Sprint. Typically represented by the sum of story points or a count of Product Backlog items, velocity provides an averaged metric of the team’s output over time. It’s used to forecast how much work the Scrum Team can likely achieve in future Sprints based on past performance.

The Developers typically assign story points based on their collective knowledge and experience. Each Product Backlog item is assigned a story point value representing the effort required to complete it relative to other Product Backlog items. The point score is numerically close such that something labelled a two is expected to take twice the work/time to complete as something labelled a 1.

Story points are not intended to be highly accurate measures of the time required to complete a Product Backlog item.

If a team completes 30 story points in one Sprint and 35 in the next, their velocity for these Sprints would be 30 and 35, respectively. This information helps the team gauge their capacity for future Sprints, which can help them forecast work in Sprint Planning.

Measuring velocity over many Sprints provides a Scrum Team with an understanding of their average pace of delivery, helping them make less inaccurate plans and set more realistic expectations with stakeholders. While it’s a useful metric, it’s also essential that it’s not viewed as a measure of the team’s worth or productivity in isolation but rather as a tool to aid in adaptive planning.

Velocity reflects a Scrum Team’s unique dynamics, capabilities, and context, making it a tool for that team’s self-assessment and planning. It is not a suitable metric for comparing different Scrum Teams or individual Developers.

Velocity may be heavily influenced by factors outside the Scrum Team’s control, such as changes in requirements or external dependencies. This can make it difficult to predict future performance based solely on past velocity data.