Jira reporting data is incorrect

Question

When attempting to pull together some metrics per sprint, I have noticed an anomaly with the source of the data Jira is using for reports.

Example - Sprint 9:

From the Sprint report (in story points)

* 187 completed
* 70 not completed

Total story points 257

From the Velocity chart

* Commitment - 220
* Completed  - 187

Why is there a difference in story points between the sum of completed and not completed (257) and the commitment (220) ?

Where does Jira pull its data sources from for these reports?

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Looking at the Velocity chart, the bar for Completed shows you accurately the amount of work completed in the sprint. As you noted, your sprint report and your velocity chart both showed the same number of story points completed for the sprint.

Velocity is about how much work is completed when you are at the end of the sprint. It is not about how the volume of potential/actual work changed during the sprint. It ultimately doesn't matter if the work was committed to at the start of the sprint or added during the sprint while other work was removed. Velocity is intended to help you forecast how much total work your team can get done in a sprint based on how much work your team has gotten done during sprints in the past.

The Commitment value is there to help you understand what your team thinks it can get done in the sprint when they are planning the sprint, and how that compares to how much work actually got done.

The Velocity chart doesn't give you information about the change in story points during the sprint (values changed, items added/removed). That is not the purpose of the Velocity chart.

Tracking how the story points change during a sprint is an entirely different metric. That information is available in the Sprint Report.

Lizzie Jack · Answer

If the velocity chart is only showing the number of story points at the time the sprint was started, then how do I know what the teams velocity is with story points that were committed to at the start, plus any additional story points that were added (or removed) mid sprint?

The velocity chart isn't a source of truth, and in fact there is no source of absolute truth as Jira doesn't provide a report or a view of all points/stories/issues in one sprint.

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @Lizzie Jack

Referring to the documentation for the Velocity Chart

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/view-and-understand-the-velocity-chart/

...and Atlassian documentation on Agile Metrics

https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/metrics

...the purpose of the Velocity report is to show how much work is being completed in sprints so that you will be able to predict how much work can get done in future sprints and forecast how long it will take to work through your entire backlog.

The Commitment value is there only to give you perspective on how much work you thought you were going to be able to complete when you were planning your sprint.

What are you actually trying to measure when you say you want the "true velocity throughout the sprint"? And what question are you trying to answer with that metric?