What is velocity and how is it used?

Velocity (team speed) is a Scrum metric that shows how many Story Points the team completes in one sprint. It measures not the speed of work, but the team's actual throughput.

#Why it is needed

• helps plan the next sprint - the team knows how many tasks it can take on without overloading;
• allows estimating project timelines and forecasting how many sprints are needed;
• shows the dynamics of effectiveness: whether productivity is growing and whether the team is stable.

#How it is calculated

After a sprint ends, the Story Points of all done tasks (meeting the Definition of Done) are summed up. For example: the team completed 28 SP → velocity = 28. The average of several sprints gives a realistic "working speed".

#Application

If the average velocity is 30 SP, and the backlog has 120 SP worth of tasks, the team estimates the timeline: about 4 sprints. Important: velocity is an internal team metric and is not compared between different projects.

Summary: Velocity helps plan and forecast work based on facts, not assumptions.