video

Avoiding Agile Banditry: Why Story Points and Velocity Are Misleading Metrics

Published on
5 minute read

Introduction to Agile Metrics: The Pitfall of Story Points and Velocity

When it comes to Agile teams, many fall into the trap of focusing on story points and velocity as key metrics for success. While they may seem helpful, they often lead to inefficiency and distraction from what truly matters—delivering value to customers.

In my years of experience working with Agile teams, I’ve rarely seen a team that benefited from using these metrics. In fact, most teams end up prioritizing the wrong things—like trying to “win” at accumulating points instead of creating valuable products. Let’s dive deeper into why story points and velocity are misleading, and what you should be focusing on instead.

The Downside of Story Points: Measuring the Wrong Things

Why Do Teams Focus on Points?

Many teams fall into the trap of focusing on points for a variety of reasons:

Unfortunately, these behaviors lead to a situation where the point becomes the point. Teams become more concerned with meeting point expectations than solving customer problems. This creates unnecessary tension and, ultimately, takes the team away from what really matters—delivering value.

💡 Pro tip: Instead of obsessing over points, focus on value-based discussions about what the team knows, doesn’t know, and what assumptions they need to test.

Focus on Throughput and Cycle Time

Rather than relying on story points and velocity, Agile teams should shift their focus to throughput and cycle time. These metrics provide a much clearer picture of how effectively the team is delivering real value to the customer. Here’s why:

Both of these metrics emphasize flow rather than estimation, ensuring the team remains focused on delivering tangible outcomes. Story points and velocity, on the other hand, often lead to a false sense of productivity and, as I’ve seen in many teams, very little benefit in the long run.

A Case Study: The Danger of Story Points in Contracts

I recently encountered a client who had one of the most extreme examples of Agile Banditry I’ve ever seen: story points written into the contract with a customer. Yes, you read that right. The team had to estimate story points upfront and provide those to the customer. Not only that, but the team would be penalized if they didn’t deliver within a specific range of points.

What Went Wrong?

This is the opposite of what Agile is about. It promotes deception rather than collaboration. If you’re in a situation where story points are written into contracts, it’s time to ditch the story points. They don’t belong outside the team, and they certainly don’t belong in a contract!

🚨 Lesson learned: Never, under any circumstances, include story points in contracts. You’re setting your team up for failure, and you’re not promoting transparency or honest conversations.

Best Practices for Agile Teams: Ditch the Story Points

When Story Points Can Be Useful

Story points aren’t inherently evil. In the right context, they can be helpful, but only if used correctly:

However, at the end of the planning session, delete the data. The story points have served their purpose, which was to facilitate conversation and understanding. Once that’s done, they no longer hold value.

⚠️ Caution: Story points should not be used as a performance measure by product owners or stakeholders. If your product owner is using velocity to monitor team performance, you’re on the path to Agile Banditry.

What Should Agile Teams Focus On?

If story points aren’t the answer, what is? Here’s a list of more objective metrics you should consider:

By focusing on these flow-based metrics, you’re setting your team up for success. You’re measuring the things that actually matter, rather than arbitrary numbers that don’t correlate with customer value.

🚀 Pro tip: Start tracking cycle time and throughput, and you’ll see an immediate shift in team focus towards value delivery rather than point accumulation.

Conclusion: Avoid Agile Banditry and Focus on What Matters

In summary, if your Agile team is spending more time worrying about story points and velocity than delivering value, you might be falling victim to Agile Banditry. Remember:

Use story points for team discussions only, then delete the data once the conversation has served its purpose.

video Agile Scrum agile project management agile product development agile product management project management product development product management professional scrum trainer scrum training scrum certification scrum.org DevOps consultant DevOps coach DevOps engineer agile coach agile consultant agile trainer scrum framework scrum methodology scrum approach agile leadership leadership.

Connect with Martin Hinshelwood

If you've made it this far, it's worth connecting with our principal consultant and coach, Martin Hinshelwood, for a 30-minute 'ask me anything' call.

Our Happy Clients​

We partner with businesses across diverse industries, including finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology, engineering, transportation, hospitality, entertainment, legal, government, and military sectors.​

Ericson Logo
MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd. Logo
SuperControl Logo
Boeing Logo
DFDS Logo
Kongsberg Maritime Logo
Higher Education Statistics Agency Logo
Slaughter and May Logo
ALS Life Sciences Logo
YearUp.org Logo
Genus Breeding Ltd Logo
Teleplan Logo

CR2

Freadom Logo
Schlumberger Logo
Lean SA Logo
Qualco Logo
Emerson Process Management Logo
Washington Department of Enterprise Services Logo
Royal Air Force Logo
Ghana Police Service Logo
Washington Department of Transport Logo
Nottingham County Council Logo
New Hampshire Supreme Court Logo
Emerson Process Management Logo
Bistech Logo
Milliman Logo

NIT A/S

Ericson Logo
Kongsberg Maritime Logo