Velocity's popularity increased from 38 percent in 2019 to 45 percent in the 2021 survey results. As far back as 2008, velocity was ranked 11th, indicated by 58 percent of respondents, in the same report when asked, "What do you employ with your agile methods?"
Sometimes, the eighth Agile Principle asserting "sustainable pace" is re-imagined as sustainable and faster. The rise in the slope of velocity over time becomes an expectation of maturing self-organized teams, tempting them to minimally give the appearance of higher output. Senior leadership may attempt to compare team velocities in search of "best agile practices" to be adopted by lower velocity teams. While such practices are prevalent, they need to be resisted.
The question that never seems to go away, "How long do you need to complete the entire backlog?" ignores not only the variation in velocity but also the unceasing changes to the product backlog, as intended with the second Agile Principle. Sadly, velocity can be misused as the sole predictor of story points to be completed in upcoming sprints. Trying to predict an "end date" using story points remaining in the product backlog mischaracterizes the relationship between story points and hours as a derivation rather than what it is, a correlation.
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