Description
Velocity is a historical definition of a given team’s ability to deliver value during a consistent sprint duration.
Velocity is used by agile teams for sprint and capacity planning, and to predict whether teams will successfully meet their sprint forecast.
Velocity is team and duration specific, meaning that as a team changes, they cannot expect its velocity (value delivered) to remain constant. Any change to the team or sprint duration will affect the team’s ability to deliver.
During sprint planning, an agile team will set a velocity objective for the sprint based on historical data. A burn down (or burn up) is used to depict a team’s actual velocity during a sprint or release.
Typical Roles
Agile Team
Scrum Master
Product Owner
Desired Behaviors
- 1.
Depend on velocity for sprint planning if the team and duration remain constant.
- 2.
Do not attempt to normalize velocity or story-point values across multiple teams.
- 3.
Do not attempt to assign hours or days to story points. The usefulness of velocity is based on its unit of measure being value, not time.