Agility as a concept, when implemented successfully, reduces the strain that goes into planning and beginning new projects. As a result, goods and services are moved along the supply chain faster and then to the customer. When organizations neglect to implement hybrid or agile leadership methods, the returns on the lack of innovation are consistent. In this context, Agile Velocity is a metric that is used to gauge the successful implementation of the new leadership style.
What is Agile Velocity?
To measure agile teams’ success, Velocity acts as a formula or a tool of measurement to understand how much work is done by a team within a certain/predetermined period of time. The formula is the number of hours against the number of business activities completed within the decided timeframe.
Origin
The concept of Velocity first appeared in Extreme Programming. It was a concept implemented to replace a dated principle “Load Factor”. Both terms refer to the time taken for the allocated work to be completed by an individual.
In 2002, the Scrum community incorporated the concept and adapted the term to Agile leadership development.
Benefits
With an Agile mindset, the final results are measured at either 100% successful completion or not completed. When you add “Velocity” as a factor into the workspace, partially completed projects are not considered valid. Understanding the time it took to complete a project within a given period of time successfully will offer perspective into the team’s efficiency and effectiveness.
Additionally, Velocity also allows for future projects to be planned with pinpoint precision in terms of start and end dates. It serves as almost a way to regulate and understand performance and where it needs to be improved.
Velocity in Kanban and Scrum
Scrum and Kanban are two popular frameworks used to implement agile software development.
When using “velocity” in reference to Scrum teams, it describes the number of “story points” accomplished by a person within a short frame of time (also referred to as a sprint). Velocity in Kanban is measured based on the number of tasks completed within a day.
Understanding velocities and understanding the average rates of output can help to complete a project successfully.
How to use Velocity?
Velocity offers an understanding of productivity rates, which allows organizations to assess how a team or department is operating. While it may not pinpoint exact reasons for turnover, it can help identify issues in productivity levels.
- Velocity as a business tool allows a strong measure of output for the long term projects within an organization. When teams have been working for extended periods of time together, their patterns of behavior are easier to track and, as a result, easier to improve on. Absenteeism or consistently changing teams will not produce accurate results.
- Velocity may not be an accurate measure in cases where successful completion of projects is not mapped out or understood in terms of the employee and timeframe. Understanding behavior patterns works best when the information is complete and can help you understand customer expectations and their needs. This information could lead to anticipating client needs and creating better relationships.
- In terms of planning, Velocity helps understand how much time would be needed to complete a project. Velocity can be measured within any time frame for any project (as long as the data is consistent). This might help organizations to give more accurate timelines to clients, and they can get a clear understanding of the timeframes it would take from the back end to complete a project.
How Does Velocity in Agile Help Measure Efficiency?
Velocity, as a concept, may offer figures when truly dissected. However, the true measure of Velocity is to gauge efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is not only understood through project completion but also based on the quality of the work produced.
A fixation on velocity numbers within teams could cause doubt and pressure in an unexpected way within teams. If the number goes down, the fear of being considered someone who works less hard would push numbers down further. Velocity numbers should be an indication of something that needs to be addressed as opposed to being fixed.
Budgets and timelines, when being assessed through the Velocity metric, could entirely ruin production goals. It would be ideal in some corporate environments to allow for lower Velocity yield, with longer timelines but better work.
Factoring in realistic goals and turnover while understanding the Velocity formula could prevent a tool of growth from becoming a tool of destruction.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Velocity
The main advantage of the concept of Velocity in a business environment is offering firmer planning and timelines. Teams are now able to understand their workflows and can now set educated expectations on rates of delivery. Project managers and leaders can understand the way teams work through long term data mapping velocity.
On the negative side, Velocity cannot be the only measure for a department’s performance as multiple other factors contribute to the success of both employees and projects. Velocity should be used with caution to assess and enable and not to put pressure on teams.
Final Thoughts
Velocity as a performance metric works as part of Agile leadership modules and their success. The formula works to measure the time taken by individuals to complete business processes. While this helps to indicate productivity and offer more accurate timelines, only certified Agile professionals would be able to use “Velocity” to grow their business properly.
That’s it, guys! We have reached the end of this article. Finally, some of the popular Agile Certification Courses that help in Agile transformation are:
- CSM Certification Training
- CSPO Online Training
- SAFe Scrum Master Certification Training
- Agile Scrum Foundation Certification Training
- Agile Scrum Master Certification Training
- PRINCE2 Agile Foundation Certification Training
