Velocity report


This report type is available with BigPicture Enterprise only.

story-point-chart.png

What does the report show?

Velocity value is presented on the Velocity chart in the form of a trend line.

The average value calculated for a selected sprint.

The velocity value calculated for the last sprint is additionally displayed at the end of the chart.

The report is based on story points

  • Grey column - team capacity in a given period

  • Green column - story points of done tasks

Data breakdown is based on program structure (Box structure). The velocity report shows two columns for each sub-Box (such as Iteration). 

The report is generated per team

Grey column - team capacity calculation

"Planned" value (grey column) = capacity of a team per sub-Box time period

Planned value is taken from the capacity planning tab in the Resources module. This value is always initially calculated based on the availability of team resources in a given period but can be manually overridden in the capacity planning tab of the Board module.

safe-team-alfa-2.png

 

Go to the Board module > capacity planning tab > Highlight changes. Manually adjusted values will be indicated in orange.

If the value was not manually overridden → "Planned" value (grey column) =  Team capacity per day (sum of individual capacities of team members per day) multiplied by the duration of a Box (such as Iteration). 

For example, when:

  • daily capacity of "Team Alfa" = three story points

  • "Iteration 1.2” = 11 workdays

  • Planned capacity for Iteration 1.2 = 11x3 = 33 story points

Green column - done tasks sum

Only tasks in "Done" status are included in the calculation. 

Example:

Iteration 1.1 contains four done tasks assigned to "Team Alfa".

Story point sum = 5 + 3 + 2 + 6 = 16

Scope of the report

When you create a Velocity report :

  • information is broken down to the lowest available Box level

  • a report is created in a particular Box - only sub-Boxes nested under that Box are included

  • all Boxes in the report are from the same level

See examples below.

Case 1 - report created in the main program Box

Report created in "SAFe ART (Smart house)"

Result

Report created in "SAFe ART (Smart house)"

Result

lowest available level 

Iteration (2nd level under the main program Box)

Included Boxes

all Iterations (all are nested under the main program Box)

all on the same level 

All Iterations are on the same level in the Box hierarchy (2nd level under the main program Box)

Resulting report:

Case 2 - report created in a Program Increment

Report created in "Program Increment 1"

Result

Report created in "Program Increment 1"

Result

lowest available level 

Iteration (2nd level under the main program Box)

Included Boxes

3 Iterations (nested under the "Program Increment 1" - Iterations nested under other Program Increments are not included)

all on the same level 

All Iterations are on the same level in the Box hierarchy (2nd level under the main program Box)

Resulting report:

Report configuration

Report configuration/ edit/ delete information can be found on the following page. Report management works the same for all reports. 

Available fields

Element

Description

Element

Description

Name

The report name is displayed in the header of each report.

Show iterations with empty capacity

When selected, Boxes with team capacity = 0 are included in the report

When team capacity = 0?

  • team memberships of all members have ended 

  • individuals in the team have no capacity (for example, if everyone has time-off, team capacity = 0)

Show the velocity line on the chart

checkbox, checked by default

The number of iterations used to calculate velocity

numeric field, integers only, from 1 to 9, default value = 3

Project (conditional field)

This field is available in Portfolio Boxes (more information below). If a Velocity report is added to a Portfolio Box containing multiple projects, you will need to specify which project the report should be generated for.

Team

The report is generated for the selected team.

Conditions 

  • tasks must be assigned to teams

  • tasks must have a "story points" value

  • lower-level sub-Boxes must exist (otherwise, the report will be empty)

  • lower-level sub-Boxes must have their scope type set to "sub-scope" (in most cases, those will be Program Increments and Iterations).

Tasks without a team

Tasks that have not been assigned to a team are not accounted for in the calculation (are ignored).

scope type = sub-scope

The report is based on lower-level Boxes. Their scope type must be set to "sub-scope".

  • Own scope → tasks are added directly to the scope of the Box (such as a program Box)

  • Sub-scope → Box doesn't have its own scope - it simply displays a section of the parent scope (for example. tasks are added to the main project Box and later divided into Program Increments and Iterations). If you add a task to such Box, it is automatically added to its parent.

In most cases, the scope type of Program Increments and Iterations is set to "sub-scope".

Project in a portfolio Box

A Portfolio Box can contain multiple program Boxes, each with its scope.

Portfolio Box scope type must be set to "None".

A Velocity report cannot be generated for multiple separate program Boxes. 

You can create a Velocity report in a Portfolio Box, but you will need to limit the report to one project.

Story Point conversion set to "0"

When a team is still learning to estimate its velocity, the conversion ratio changes from sprint to sprint. You may prefer to show the velocity of future iterations as unknown (=0) and wait for the scrum master to later enter the correct value based on historic data (capacity planning tab of the Board module).

Example:

Story Point conversion = 0

The planned capacity of a team = 0 until manually changed 

Additional use cases - possible mistakes

Case 3 - no lower-level Boxes

Report created in "Iteration 1.1"

Result

Report created in "Iteration 1.1"

Result

lowest available level 

none

Included Boxes

none

all on the same level 

n/a

Iteration 1.1 has no child Boxes:

The Velocity report created in Iteration 1.1 is empty.

Case 4 - Iteration under Iteration

Report created in "SAFe ART (Smart house)"

Result

Report created in "SAFe ART (Smart house)"

Result

lowest available level 

Iteration (3rd level under the main program Box)

Included Boxes

Iteration 1.3.1 (the only 3rd level Box nested under the main program Box)

all on the same level 

Other iterations are on the 2nd level - they won't be included

Depending on the setup, you could create a structure like this:

In this case, Iteration 1.3.1 is the lowest level under SAFe ART (Smart house). The report includes only Boxes on the same level, so all other Iterations are omitted: