Forecasting with velocity and burn charts
We can’t really create any kind of plan without forecasting the impact of our work. For instance, during Sprint Planning, we are called to decide how many Product Backlog items we can work on during the Sprint. This is impossible to do without having some prior knowledge of our team’s capacity or ability to deliver work. We usually employ the measure of velocity to forecast the work we can deal with during the Sprint. In addition, many agile teams use burn-up and burn-down charts to track progress at any point during the Sprint. In this section, we’ll examine these three concepts. Let’s begin by understanding what velocity is about.
Calculating team velocity
Velocity is an indicator of the average amount of Product Backlog items we can turn into an Increment during a Sprint. Having a solid estimation process, as described in the previous sections of this chapter, is essential in producing reliable velocity...