{"head":{"title":"What Is Velocity in Agile? Definition and Example | OceanLab","description":"Velocity is how much finished work a team completes per sprint, used to forecast what fits in the time left. How to use it, an example and common mistakes.","canonical":"https://oceanlab.in/glossary/velocity"},"crumbs":[{"name":"Home","path":"/"},{"name":"Glossary","path":"/glossary"},{"name":"velocity","path":"/glossary/velocity"}],"slug":"velocity","term":"Velocity","aka":["sprint velocity","team velocity"],"category":"Running a build","short":"The amount of finished work a team completes in a sprint, used to forecast how much fits in the time left.","body":[["Teams estimate ",{"href":"/glossary/user-story","text":"stories"}," in points or another relative unit, then add up the points of everything that met the ",{"href":"/glossary/definition-of-done","text":"definition of done"}," by the end of each ",{"href":"/glossary/sprint","text":"sprint"},". The average over the last few sprints is the team's velocity."],["It is a planning tool for one team, not a score. Points mean different things in different teams, so velocities cannot be compared across teams."]],"why":["Velocity turns a backlog into a forecast. If the remaining scope is 240 points and the team averages 30 a sprint, the work is about eight sprints away. When scope grows, the same sum shows how much the date moves, which makes trade-offs concrete."],"example":["A team averages 28 points over four sprints. The client wants a launch in six sprints, about 170 points of capacity, but the backlog for launch is 220. The gap is visible early, and the client cuts two features to a later release rather than finding out in the last month."],"inBuild":["When engineers are embedded on a monthly retainer, velocity helps the client see what each month of the team delivers and whether to add or reduce hours."],"mistakes":[["Using velocity to rank teams or engineers. It quickly leads to inflated estimates."],["Counting work that is not finished, which makes the forecast too hopeful."],["Expecting a steady number while the team size or the work type changes."]],"related":[{"href":"/glossary/sprint","label":"Sprint","detail":"A fixed time box, one month or less and often two weeks, in which a team builds and shows a working piece of the product."},{"href":"/glossary/user-story","label":"User story","detail":"A short description of a feature from the point of view of the person who needs it, and why they need it."},{"href":"/glossary/definition-of-done","label":"Definition of done (DoD)","detail":"The shared checklist every piece of work must pass, such as tested, reviewed and deployed, before the team calls it finished."},{"href":"/glossary/backlog","label":"Backlog (product backlog)","detail":"The ordered list of everything still to be built or fixed in a product, with the most important work at the top."}],"tools":[{"href":"/tools/sprint-velocity-calculator","label":"Sprint velocity calculator","detail":"Free tool"},{"href":"/tools/project-timeline-estimator","label":"Project timeline estimator","detail":"Free tool"},{"href":"/tools/team-size-calculator","label":"Team size calculator","detail":"Free tool"}],"links":[{"href":"/embedded-engineers","label":"Embedded engineers","detail":"OceanLab engineers working inside your team."},{"href":"/software","label":"Software by industry","detail":"Systems we build per industry, with guides and tools."}],"sources":[],"legal":false,"updatedAt":"2026-10-25"}