Agile fundamentals for teams

In this video, we’re going to explore how a Scrum team can calculate its velocity to help them plan. Understanding your velocity means you can consider what's achievable. This is beneficial as it reduces the risk of the team overcommitting. 

To understand velocity and how to calculate it, let’s start with an analogy. 

Think of velocity like taking a journey in a car. When you drive, you measure how fast you’re moving in miles per hour. That gives you a sense of how far you’ll go in a given amount of time. 

In Scrum, velocity works in a similar way. But instead of miles, we measure it in story points. And for time, instead of hours, we use sprints. So, your velocity is the average number of story points you can deliver during each sprint. 

To calculate this, track the number of story points you complete in each sprint.  

This chart shows how you can visualise this. 

On the x-axis, we have the sprint number, and on the y-axis, the number of story points completed. Each bar represents the story points delivered in a sprint. The rolling average line shows the velocity. It's the average number of story points completed over many sprints. 

In the example, the team's velocity is 15. 

Now that you know your velocity, let’s see how you can use it to plan your next sprint. You start by setting your sprint goal—what you want to achieve during the sprint. 

First, you’ll choose the highest-priority items from your backlog that will help you meet this goal. The items chosen add up to 6 story points. That means you still have 9 story points left. 

You continue to do this until you've planned enough work, without exceeding your velocity. This prevents you overcommitting. 

But what about Task F, which has an estimate of 20 story points? This is a problem because your velocity is only 15. Taking this on and overcommitting may lead to rushed work or incomplete tasks. 

Instead of trying to tackle the entire item, you should break it down into smaller chunks. You'll then prioritise and estimate these. You can then spread the work across many sprints. This reduces risk, whilst still allowing you to make steady progress toward your goal. 

Tracking your velocity and using it to plan, can enable you to working at a sustainable pace.