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 on 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 metric of velocity to forecast the work we can deal with during the Sprint. In addition, many Agile teams use burnup and burndown charts to track progress at any point during the Sprint. In this section, we'll examine these three metric concepts. Let's begin by understanding what velocity is all about.
Calculating team velocity
Velocity is a metric that specifies the average amount of Product Backlog items we can turn into an Increment during a Sprint. Having a sold estimation process, as described in the previous sections of this chapter, is essential in producing reliable...