The Value of Velocity

  Agile   Scrum   ProjectsAtWork  

When agile teams misunderstand or abuse the concept of Velocity, tell-tale symptoms arise, from burnout to artificial productivity. Likewise, there are clear signs when teams are properly applying velocity as a measure of delivering business value. Ultimately, it's about working smarter, not harder.

Velocity is a widely used measure for Agile projects. It is also widely misunderstood and abused.

A big part of the problem is that velocity is commonly defined as the measure of how much work is accomplished in a sprint, usually defined in story points. Velocity should not be used to measure the productivity of the team. The team could be working very hard and still not delivering working software. Velocity also should not be used as a "whip" to drive the team to work harder.

Here is an example of a vicious loop teams can get themselves into by misunderstanding how to use Velocity:

Here are some symptoms that you are going down the path of looking at Velocity as a way to measure how much work is accomplished:

> The team is working longer hours to be able to take on more velocity. This impacts the team's ability to sustain quality work. Essentially, the team is in an endless death march from sprint to sprint, leading to burnout, decreased team morale and mistakes due to carelessness.

> The Scrum Master or Product Owner is trying to “…

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