What is Velocity in Scrum?
Velocity is the measure of the delivered business value by the scrum development teams. In other words, we can say that velocity is the rate at which developers deliver product value within a specific sprint. It specifies the average number of product backlog items (PBI) that have been marked as Done and converted into an increment during the sprints by a Scrum Team.
In Scrum, the entire work that needs to be completed by the team is segregated into “User Stories”, which majorly focus on a particular functionality of the product as required by the client. The development team calculates the time as well as the effort required to develop and test that particular functionality in form of the points or numerical values for each client. The work that is done is the sum total of these points, for the user stories that have been marked as “Done”.
Velocity is used as a key factor in the Scrum team to estimate the effort and time required by the developers to complete the work during each sprint. We can use sprints instead of weeks or days or hours to measure the work as the developers commit to completing a user story within a specified sprint. When a particular team starts using Agile, they can decide the length of their sprint, which will be dependent on the project size and complexity of the business requirement.
- The purpose of the velocity is to predict the product backlog timeline
- A team that is able to achieve higher velocity means that team is able to deliver greater product value as well as more software functionality.
- Story point estimation will be done in the sprint backlog grooming meeting
- Story points weights are subjective to each individual team
- Velocity is not a productivity metrics
- Velocity should not be compared between the team
Velocity Chart Agile Scrum
The ability of agile project management to increase project flexibility and productivity is proven across industries and not just in software development. Velocity and velocity charts in agile play an important role when talking about software project management. There are numerous tools out there used by big organizations that can be used to ensure that their sprint is successful. The article focuses on discussing velocity chart agile scrum.
The following topics will be discussed here:
- What is Velocity in Scrum?
- Example of Scrum Velocity
- What is Velocity Chart in Agile?
- How to Estimate Velocity?
- Benefits of Agile Velocity Charts
- Limitations of Agile Velocity Charts
- Challenges of Measuring Agile Velocity
Let’s start discussing each of these topics in detail.