Team velocity, a critical component in Agile project management, is influenced by numerous factors and is subject to fluctuation. Various elements can directly or indirectly impact your team’s velocity. In this blog post, I aim to elaborate on some vital lessons I have gleaned throughout my career regarding team velocity and its influencing factors.
- Comparing team velocities is not feasible if teams employ different methods for assigning story points.
- Relying solely on the input of the most senior team member for setting story points is a mistake. Gather feedback from everyone and aim for a consensus.
- The team faced domain knowledge or technical knowledge gaps if sprint goals were not consistently met.
- Imperfect sprints, where goals are not reached, are expected and should be accepted.
- When planning, account for the human factor, such as illnesses, production incidents, misunderstandings, etc.
- Reserve some story points for handling production incidents. If none arise, use the available time to enhance documentation.
- Allocate time for testing, as development is not solely about completing the code.
- Ensure that all team members share a common understanding of “Done.” Ensuring everyone knows that “Done” encompasses coding, testing, and deploying to production.
- Avoid postponing testing until the end of the sprint.
- If numerous items are pending in PR review or QA, address this during daily meetings and encourage team members to assist with QA or PR review tasks.
