{"id":5003367,"date":"2015-12-17T00:20:42","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T08:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aadev22.local\/?post_type=aa_glossary&p=5003367"},"modified":"2022-08-30T12:17:28","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T19:17:28","slug":"velocity","status":"publish","type":"aa_glossary","link":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/glossary\/velocity\/","title":{"rendered":"Velocity"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of each iteration, the team adds up effort\u00a0estimates<\/a>\u00a0associated with\u00a0user stories<\/a>\u00a0that were\u00a0completed<\/a>\u00a0during that iteration. This total is called velocity.<\/p>\n

Knowing velocity, the team can compute (or revise) an estimate of how long the project will take to complete, based on the estimates associated with remaining user stories and assuming that velocity over the remaining iterations will remain approximately the same. This is generally an accurate prediction, even though rarely a precise one.<\/p>\n

Expected Benefits<\/h2>\n

\u201cWorked example:\u201d an agile team has started work on an iteration, planning to complete stories A and B, estimated at 2 points each, and story C, estimated at 3 points. At the end of the iteration, stories A and B are 100% complete but C is only 80% complete.<\/p>\n

Agile teams generally acknowledge only two levels of completion, 0% done or 100% done. Therefore, C is not counted toward velocity, and velocity as of that iteration is 4 points.<\/p>\n

Suppose the user stories remaining represent a total of 40 points; the team\u2019s forecast of the remaining effort for the project is then 10 iterations.<\/p>\n

Velocity is also used to limit the amount of work taken on in further iterations. In our example, the team would be well advised to plan for only 4 points worth of stories in the next iteration. This doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it will complete only that much; in fact, completing story C in the next iteration might mean that the team\u2019s velocity will, on the contrary, be much higher.<\/p>\n

Agile teams consider both kinds of events a warning sign: failing to bring a story to completion \u201cor\u201d seeing their velocity \u201csee-sawing\u201d. The expected response is to seek a finer-grained decomposition of stories.<\/p>\n

Velocity thus serves in a few different ways as a regulation mechanism.<\/p>\n

Common Pitfalls<\/h2>\n

The above definition of velocity has a few further consequences:<\/p>\n