What is Velocity in Scrum?
Answer
Velocity is the amount of work a Scrum Team completes during a Sprint, measured in story points (or other estimation units). It is calculated as the sum of story points for all completed (Done) Product Backlog Items in a Sprint. For example, if a team completes items totaling 34 story points in a Sprint, their velocity for that Sprint is 34. Velocity is used for forecasting: if a team has an average velocity of 30 points/sprint and the remaining backlog has 120 points, they can forecast approximately 4 more sprints to complete it. Velocity stabilizes after a few sprints and becomes a useful planning tool. Important caveats: velocity is a planning tool, not a performance metric — comparing velocities between teams is meaningless (different definitions of story points). Velocity naturally varies ±20%; trends are more meaningful than individual sprint numbers.