What is
“velocity”? As we all know, it’s the speed of something in given direction.
Right? If you are driving a car, we says that it’s running e.g. 60 Km/h towards
north. What it means? That means your car has specific speed and specific
direction, yes it has velocity.
Similar fundamentals applies to software projects too. Each project must
have some speed and some direction which exactly means that each project must run with some velocity.
While saying this, velocity means project team must work towards requirements
within pre-decided schedule.
Project completion is the function of accuracy of original
estimation and progress you have made! Measuring only schedule progress is not
enough. If you are running feature based project, best method to calculate
progress is how many features are there in the project, how many features your
team has implemented, quality of the implemented features, and how many
features pending.
But how to measure progress? Big question. For
features based project, Velocity Chart is the best indicator.
Velocity chart gives you an idea about how much progress is made till now and
how much work has left.
If you
observe above figure, which is a velocity chart, it is very simple to
understand. Following is the process to create velocity chart:
- X- axis is number of features
- Y-axis is date (Can be milestone dates/ delivery dates etc.)
- Now you can add up number of features against expected date as your total features of project
- As and when team completes a feature, you can increase 1 number in graph against completed. In a similar way you can remove one from pending.(This can be optional)
- If you want to add more features during the project, you can do the same
- Ultimate aim is completed features = total number of features or pending features = 0
Velocity
charts, measures three things requirements, completed work and duration. It is
based on agile methodology, as people can track team’s progress for sprints. In
a way, Velocity Chart is your friend! Use it!
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