Cumulative Velocity

[Pineyk]

The Project Management Institute has told me that you are considering using the term "cumulative velocity". As I have explained to PMI, this term is misleading and technically incorrect in the context in which they intend to use it.

Since velocity of measured in terms of story points per iteration, any cumulation must logically and technically use the same units. However, PMI's intent is for of this quantity to provide a measure of cumulative progress measured in terms of story points, to be equivalent to standard Earned Value. The term "cumulative velocity" should be reserved to describe to total velocity in a single iteration due to the contributions of separate initiatives within the same iteration.

I therefore propose to use the term "cumulative progress" instead with the following definition:

“Cumulative progress: The total progress over a given set of intervals. This can be calculated as the sum of the velocity values of each interval over the same period. This quantity represents the earned value of the planned backlog achieved in terms of story points.”

The advantage of the descriptive term (cumulative progress) is that is makes clear what you are measuring rather than how you might calculate it (i.e., by summing individual velocity values).