Going Faster vs Delivering Sooner
This is a true story.
Transformation office: "... and in the new quarter, we are aiming for an increase in velocity by 20%."
[2 weeks later]
Scrum Team: "... and we're excited to report that the team has aligned itself to Org's goals and increased velocity by 100%."
Transformation office: "AMAZING! How did you do it? Can you please create a wiki so other teams can do the same?"
Scrum Team: "... we considered the goal in the sprint review... it was quite simple at the end... we just doubled our estimations... 1 to 3, 3 to 5 and so on..."
In most instances, when we talk about increasing velocity, we want to get things done "faster".
Faster means: Pushing through more stories each sprint.
What really delivers value is "sooner".
Sooner means: Doing the smallest possible chunk of what is most valuable first and putting it in the hands of real users.
It doesn't matter how many stories it takes to do it.
As Scrum Masters or Product Owners:
When there is a conversation about going "faster";
Switch to a conversation about delivering "sooner".
Your turn: In your team, does everyone understand ‘why’ they are using story points and measuring velocity?