Misusing Velocity measures in Scrum can lead to several negative behaviours. For instance, when management uses Velocity to judge a team’s effectiveness, it may encourage teams to inflate their estimates to appear more productive. This inflation makes the estimates less useful for planning purposes and can lead to misinformed decisions about product and Release schedules.
Teams might also spend excessive time on accurate estimation to avoid being judged on incorrect estimates, diverting resources away from actual product development. Additionally, presenting incomplete work as Done to achieve Velocity targets can mislead stakeholders about the true progress, reducing transparency and predictability. This erosion of trust can undermine the entire shift towards a Scrum-based empirical approach, highlighting the need for balanced use of measures.
