Calculating Sprint Velocity

Boiled down velocity is the measurement of how much work a sprint team gets done in a sprint iteration. It is the measurement of what is actually “completed” in a sprint, not what was committed to in the sprint. I am using story points in my example below, but when calculating your velocity, just replace story points with the unit of measure you are using to estimate the items in your backlog;

Sprint Velocity = Total story points “completed” in an iteration

For example: if the team took on 360 story point in the sprint but only finished 352 story points. Their velocity for that sprint/iteration would be 352 story points

Sprint Average Velocity = Total story points “completed” to date / number of iteration completed

For Example: You Sum up the values for the 10 sprints below to get a value of 3447.
You then divide it by the number of iterations, 10 in our case to get an average velocity of 344.7 story points

Sprint	Story Points
Sprint 1	253
Sprint 2	309
Sprint 3	357
Sprint 4	377
Sprint 5	365
Sprint 6	352
Sprint 7	360
Sprint 8	359
Sprint 9	355
Sprint 10	360
	Total  SP 3447

                         3447 Total Story Points / 10 Sprints = 344.7 is our average Sprint/Iteration velocity

NOTE: Your velocity usually normalizes after 3 to 5 sprints allowing you to use this number to project how much can be done in the next iteration and ideally how much longer a release will take to complete considering the number of estimated stories remaining in the backlog.

Example Velocity Chart

I usually do not worry about the velocity of the first iteration. I like to let a team use the first sprint to take their best shot at determining how many stories they believe they can take on in their time boxed sprint. The team can always take on more stories if they find they are moving faster than they originally estimated or negotiate items out if they are not completing items as quickly as first estimated.