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5 Easy Ways to Improve Sprint Velocity in Scrum Teams

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Jay Davis
5 Easy Ways to Improve Sprint Velocity in Scrum Teams

Increasing sprint velocity is often a top priority of scrum masters, product owners, and CEOs. However, higher velocity does not necessarily mean greater productivity. Focusing only on increasing velocity can be damaging to teams. An alternative is to focus on improving sprint velocity.

Improving velocity includes building consistency and increasing quality of work within sprints, as opposed to just increasing speed. In this article, you’ll learn what sprint velocity measures. You’ll also gain five tips for improving the velocity and productivity of your team.

What Is Sprint Velocity?

Sprint velocity measures the amount of work completed in a sprint. Work completed includes any finished tasks, such as features, user stories, requirements, and backlog items. It does not include partially completed items. The amount of work is based on assigned point values of items, work hours, or ideal days.

Point values are determined by how large and complex an item is. More complex items count for more points. For points and work completed to be meaningful, teams must consistently assign values. To develop a reliable system, you should start with your simplest item and assign it a point value of one. You can then assign a value to the rest of your tasks according to this baseline case.

How to Use Sprint Velocity

Sprint velocity is useful for predicting how soon features can be delivered, how many items can be delivered in each sprint, and for sprint(s) planning. This metric is more reliable as you accumulate more data. In general, you should base your planning on the average of your last three to four sprints.

 

Read the full article at Orangescrum Blog

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