What is Velocity?

Overview

Velocity is a measure of the amount of work a development team can complete within a given timeframe, typically a cycle or iteration. In Agile software development, velocity is used to measure the team's productivity and to help plan future cycles.

Velocity is usually measured in effort points, which are a measure of the effort required to complete a work item. The team determines the story points for each user story, based on factors such as complexity, risk, and effort. Once the team has completed a few cycles, they can use their average velocity to estimate how much work they can complete in future cycles.

For example, if a team completes an average of 20 effort points per cycle, they can estimate that they will complete 60 effort points in a three-cycle release. This information can be used to plan the release and ensure that the team is committing to a realistic amount of work.

Velocity is a measure of the team's capacity to deliver working software based on their past performance. Velocity can fluctuate from cycle to cycle, depending on factors such as team composition, work complexity, and external factors.