In Agile Scrum, velocity is a measure of how much work a team can complete during a single Sprint. It helps teams estimate how quickly they can deliver future work based on past performance.
✅ What Is Velocity?
Velocity is usually expressed in terms of:
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Story points (a common estimation unit for user stories), or
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Number of completed user stories or tasks
For example, if a team completes 30 story points in Sprint 1, 28 in Sprint 2, and 32 in Sprint 3, their average velocity is:
(30 + 28 + 32) / 3 = 30 story points per Sprint
📏 How to Find Velocity
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Estimate the effort of each user story (usually during Sprint Planning), typically using story points.
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Track the number of story points completed (fully done and accepted) by the end of the Sprint.
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Calculate velocity as the sum of completed story points.
💡 Example:
| Sprint | Story Points Completed |
|---|---|
| 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 30 |
| 3 | 28 |
Average Velocity = (25 + 30 + 28) / 3 = 27.67
🔍 Why Velocity Matters:
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Helps with predicting future Sprints (e.g., if your Product Backlog has 100 points and your velocity is 25, it will take ~4 Sprints).
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Useful for capacity planning and forecasting releases.
⚠️ Note: Velocity is a team-specific metric. It should not be used to compare different teams or judge productivity. It’s for internal planning only.