At the end of each iteration, the team adds their individual effort estimates associated with user story that was completed during that iteration. This total is called velocity. It’s so easy. 🙄
Table of Contents
We need only to do a math story problem to understand the how (no trains involved).
A Development Team is currently working on three User Stories: A, B, and C. Using a regular number system, the team assigned the stories 3 points, 2 points, and 3 points, respectively.
However, our team could only complete User Story A and B. They were able to get about 70% of User Story C completed. Because the velocity calculations only care if a task is done (100%), we can’t include User Story C. It’s all or nothin’
Taking our completed task’s points, A was 3 points and B was 2 points, and adding them up, we have 5 points completed during this sprint/iteration. Our current velocity is 5.
We now estimate that we can complete about 5 story points per sprint/iteration. Our backlog shows we have 25 points worth of estimated work remaining.
<aside> ✏️ 25 points remain, and we can complete 5 points in a single iteration. Math it: $25/5=5$
</aside>
As each sprint comes to an end, the process should be repeated to calculate the team’s current velocity. If there seems to be a drastic swing either up or down, consider the following:
There are different ways to estimate the size of your story. Here are two common ways it’s done. It doesn’t matter what you use, so long as it agrees with what each estimation “point” represents (difficulty, unknowns, time, etc.).
While the t-shirt method is easy to use, inexperienced teams may have difficulty determining how to represent their estimation(s) in sizing. That said, practice makes perfect. The longer the team uses it or works together, the more relatable the sizing will be with the actual tasks. The sizing, with their number represented for velocity purposes, are:
Much like the above, we’re relating our choices to the amount of work based on how complex, unknown, time, etc., the task(s) will be. You can use any number system you want. However, I recommend sticking with single digits or their x10 equivalents. For example,