Average Velocity

Owned by Natallia_Mendzel@epam.com
Last updated: Aug 28, 2022 by Anastasia Baranouskaya
3 min read

Purpose

Average Velocity shows an amount of value (in story points or items) delivered within 1 - 3 - 6 - 12 months/sprints or 4 - 13 - 26 - 52 weeks.

How metric helps

Average Velocity helps to compare the productivity of a team on a long-term versus a short-term time interval - it reveals if an overall performance improves or degrades. 

Questions it answers:

  • how much work the team can take on/commit to

  • how much effort your team can handle in next Sprints

  • how many items from the product backlog to select for a sprint 

  • how total work is consistent with past sprints

  • what is overall project velocity

  • what is tendency of teams velocity (improvement or degradation)

  • what numbers of SP/items could be used for planning proposes

  • what is the rate at which User Stories are being completed by the team

How metric works

Chart overview

Chart shows a number of items/story points - Axis Y delivered in time  - Axis X  (1 - 3 - 6 - 12 months/sprints or 4 - 13 - 26 - 52 weeks).



On hover over a column, a hint appears with the following information:

  • Period of the calculation;

  • Average Velocity in story points or items;

  • Median velocity in story points or items.

Chart legend shows the latest values for the metric in story points and items.

TOP problems metric identifies 

  1. Changes in a team setup

  2. Dependencies or blockers

    1. Scope cannot be properly estimated

    2. Not ready for development backlog is taken into work

    3. Poor Sprint planning process

    4. Poor dependencies execution

  3. Low productivity due to reduced agility

  • Unexpected blockers or dependencies during Sprint execution

    1. infrastructure issues

    2. hardware problems 

    3. limitations in access rights

    4. blocker with 3rd party service integration 

  • PO is not involved enough into Sprint execution, i.e. no approval for "Done" product increment (if UAT process it requires) or UAT process has changed 

  • Changing priorities during Sprint execution 

    • Production incidents 

    • Unexpected releases 

  • Velocity is weighted by capacity 

  • Load fully matches capacity, no buffer preserved during the planning 

 

Calculation

Velocity calculation

Time period

Units of Measure

Week 

Month

Sprint

Item

Number of items got a 'Done' status before the week end within 4/13/26/52 weeks divided by a number of weeks

Number of items got a 'Done' status before a month end within 1/3/6/12 months divided by a number of months

Number of items got a 'Done' status before a sprint end within 1/3/6/12 sprints divided by a number of sprints

Story Point

Amount of story points for the items got a 'Done' status before the week end within 4/13/26/52 weeks divided by a number of weeks

Amount of story points for the items got a 'Done' status before a month end within 1/3/6/12 months divided by a number of months

Amount of story points for the items got a 'Done' status before a sprint end within 1/3/6/12 sprints divided by a number of sprints



Calculation notes

  • 'Done' status is a status placed in 'Done' bucket in Project Configuration>Data Sources>Task Tracking System>Workflows;

  • a calculation depth value is a value for the setting in Project Configuration>Data Sources>Task Tracking System>Scope Management>Calculation depth for average team velocity estimation;

  • sub items are included into the calculation if "Include sub items into metrics calculation" setting is on.

  • only completed week/months/sprints are shown in the chart;

  • items/story points delivered in already completed weeks/months/sprints are included into the calculation;

  • story point value at the moment of the assignment to a sprint is taken into the calculation;

  • week/month /sprint end is the last day of a week/month/sprint at 23:59:59;

  • end of a week/month is Saturday according to USA calendar.

Data Source

Data for the metric can be collected from a task tracking system (Jira, TFS, Rally, etc.).

See also