Velocity is the total story points of the stories a team fully completed in one sprint. Partly finished stories don't count. After a few sprints, the team has a reasonable average that helps it decide how much to take on in the next sprint.
Velocity is a planning tool, not a performance target. If management demands "higher velocity", the easiest response is to inflate estimates, so the numbers rise with no real increase in output. And never compare two teams' velocity, because each team has its own point scale; 30 points for one team may equal 60 for another.
A burndown chart shows remaining work dropping toward zero over time, with an ideal line for comparison. If the actual line sits above the ideal line, the team is behind. A burnup chart draws two lines: completed work rising, and total scope. Its advantage is that it shows added scope clearly: if the scope line jumps up, you know the delay comes from new work being added, not from the team slowing down.
To forecast the remaining sprints, divide the remaining points by the average velocity and round up. Example: 120 points remain in the backlog, and the team's last three sprints delivered 18, 22, and 20 points, so the average = (18 + 22 + 20) ÷ 3 = 20 points. Then 120 ÷ 20 = 6 sprints. With two-week sprints, expect delivery in about 12 weeks, provided the scope doesn't change.
💡 Key points
- Velocity = points of fully completed stories only, per sprint.
- It is a planning tool, not a target, and is never compared across teams.
- Burndown shows what remains; burnup shows what is done and how scope changed.
- Remaining sprints = remaining points ÷ average velocity (rounded up).
🌍 Real-life example
On a school portal project, the burndown chart looked flat for two sprints, and the manager assumed the team had slowed down. But the burnup chart showed the team still finishing about 20 points per sprint as usual, while scope had jumped from 150 to 190 points because of new requests from the school administration. The conversation shifted from "why are you slow?" to "which new requests matter most?"
📖 Key terms
| English | العربية |
|---|---|
| Velocity | السرعة |
| Burndown Chart | مخطط الاحتراق التنازلي |
| Burnup Chart | مخطط الاحتراق التصاعدي |
| Ideal Line | الخط المثالي |
| Forecast | التنبؤ |