Learn how Points and Iterations fit together to run effective sprints.
We use Shortcut’s reporting features to determine how many Story points our team completed during our 2-week Iterations. After about 3 Iterations, the team found out they were doing around 40 points per Iteration (for a team of 6 developers, with varying levels of experience). To easily find your average look at a history of points and remove the highest and lowest points and then average the rest.
At the start of each Iteration, we measure the team’s capacity for that Iteration (remove any out-of-office days, vacation days, etc). We then assign a proportional amount of points to the Iteration based on the team’s capacity. For example, if the squad's capacity is 70% for an Iteration, then we would assign 28 points for that Iteration (70% of the 40 total points).
The team will go through the last Iteration and move any stories that were incomplete to the upcoming Iteration and assess if any others were complete that were not already marked as Done. Then Stories are assigned to the Iteration based on points and capacity. Any Stories that were not added to the upcoming Iteration will be moved to the next and reassessed at the next pointing/Iteration planning meeting.
Adding a table to your Iterations as seen below is a nice way to keep track of past capacity and goals. Copy and paste this markdown into an Iteration to create one yourself.
| No Dev | Capacity | Points Goal|Points Delivered || ----------- | ----------- |----------- |----------- || x|xx% | xx |xx |
