View and understand the velocity chart

The velocity chart displays the average amount of work a scrum team completes during a sprint. Teams can use velocity to predict how quickly they can work through the backlog because the report tracks the forecasted and completed work over several sprints. The more sprints, the more accurate the forecast.

Learn more about velocity at our Agile Coach site.

To view the velocity chart:

1. If not already there, navigate to your company-managed software project.

2. From your project’s sidebar, select Reports > Velocity Chart.

The Velocity Chart will be displayed, showing the last seven sprints completed by the team.

How to read the report

1. Estimation statistic: The y-axis displays the statistic used for estimating stories. Read more about configuring estimation and tracking. Estimates can be based on:

   • Story points, as shown in the example above

   • Original time (minutes, hours, days or weeks)

   • Issue count

   • Any numeric custom field in your Jira system.

2. Commitment: The gray bar for each sprint shows the total estimate of all issues in the sprint when it begins. After the sprint has started, any stories added to the sprint, or any changes made to estimates, will not be included in this total. 

3. Completed: The green bar in each sprint shows the total completed estimates when the sprint ends. Any scope changes made after the sprint started are included in this total.

4. Sprints: The x-axis displays the last 7 sprints completed by the team. This data is used to calculate velocity. 

Other things to note about the Velocity Chart:

• It's board-specific, which means it'll only include issues that match your board's saved filter.

• It's based on your board's column mapping. An issue is considered to be 'To Do' when it is in a status that has been mapped to the left-most column of your board. Similarly, an issue is considered to be 'Done' when it is in a status that has been mapped to the right-most column of your board. Read more about configuring columns.

Calculating velocity

A team's recent velocity can be useful in helping to predict how much work can be completed by the team in a future sprint. Velocity is calculated by taking the average of the total completed estimates over the last several sprints. So in the chart above, the team's velocity is (17.5 + 13.5 + 38.5 + 18 + 33 + 28) / 6 = 24.75 (we've ignored the zero story point sprint). This means that the team can be expected to complete around 24.75 story points worth of work in the next sprint.

This value should become more accurate and reliable over time, as more data becomes available and the team gets better at estimating issues.

Estimates from sub-tasks are not included in the Velocity Chart's calculation. (Only estimates from parent tasks are included.)