Velocity
Track your team's average story-point delivery per sprint and use it to make reliable capacity commitments.
Reading the Velocity chart
- Bars — story points completed per sprint (Done stories only — not In Progress at sprint close)
- Rolling average line — the average of the last N sprints (configurable: 3, 5, or 8). Use this as your planning benchmark, not the most recent sprint
- Commitment line — what was planned for each sprint. The gap between planned and completed is your sprint over/under-commitment
Using velocity for planning
The rolling average is the most reliable predictor of what the team can deliver next sprint. Add 15—20% buffer for unplanned work. Use this figure as the upper limit when planning.
💡 Velocity is only meaningful after 3+ sprints. Don't use a single sprint's result as a planning benchmark.
Velocity vs. capacity
Velocity (historical) and Capacity (forward-looking) are related but distinct:
- Capacity = team members — sprint days — points per day = theoretical maximum
- Velocity = actual story points completed per sprint = realistic throughput
Use velocity for sprint planning commitments. Use capacity to identify headroom and model the impact of team composition changes.