Challenges of Measuring Agile Velocity

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....

Example of Scrum Velocity

Let us suppose that the development team has planned to complete three user stories P, Q, and R for finishing work in a specific sprint. The story points of P, Q, and R are  6, 5, and 4 respectively....

What is Velocity Chart in Agile Scrum?

A velocity chart is a graphical representation of the story points plotted on Y-axis against the sprints plotted on X -axis....

How to Estimate Velocity?

Below are the steps to estimate velocity:...

Benefits of Velocity Chart

Estimates time to complete work done efficiently: Scrum velocity helps to estimate how long will it take to finish the entire product backlog items for the scrum team.  Roadmap for a sprint: Scrum Velocity helps the product owner to plan a roadmap/release plan for a sprint. Helps in understanding the limits of team members: Helps the team to understand their limits while defining the amount of scope, that a team can commit for a sprint. Avoid over or under-commitment of the sprint: Velocity can be used as a reference in the sprint planning, to avoid the over-commitment or under-commitment of the sprint goal by the team. Determining the number of iterations to finish work: Calculation of velocity will help the scrum team to determine the number of iterations required to finish the given work in a particular sprint. This will also give us an estimate of the capacity as well as capabilities of the developers in the team. Identifying issues earlier: We will be able to find any problems that the scrum team is facing which are hindering their progress. Identifying their issues at an early stage, helps the teammates to resolve that and ensure it does not get in the way of progress....

Limitations of Velocity Chart

Fluctuation of velocity due to multiple factors: If there is any change in scope or requirements or the number of developers, then the calculation of velocity will be impacted. Velocity cannot be compared between the teams: The velocity of different teams working on different projects cannot be compared, as it depends on the duration of the sprint as well as the size of the project....

Challenges of Measuring Agile Velocity

Sprint Length: Scrum team is seen struggling with the sprint duration, this is due to slow progress on the developer’s side or some mistake in the calculation of sprint length, or some unknown issues in the team. Urgent Bugs: If some urgent bug pops up that hinders the proper working of the product, then that needs to be resolved on higher priority by the developers during a sprint, this gives them less time to complete the user story given to them, leading to issues in the estimation of velocity. Change in the number of team members: In case, new resources join the team or the older ones leave then this will cause the calculated velocity to fluctuate. Sudden Change of requirement: In case of a sudden change in scope or requirement of the product release, velocity will be impacted. Unavailability of Product Owner: If the product owner is not actively participating in the teamwork and giving his inputs properly then the team will not be able to proceed with the release in an appropriate way ....