[Redsquare]

20 'points' (whatever they are) last week has zero bearing on what will be accomplished this week, or next or in 6 months time. Vanity metrics. Your silently forcing them to be a feature factory and act in a consistent robotic fashion no matter what the problem at hand is. I bet your tech debt velocity is increasing weekly.

[latchkey]

This is why velocity is a 3 week average of points and can be overridden in the tool to show people who are out on vacation/sick. The tool dynamically updates to show what stories make it into an iteration as well.

The whole idea is not to force people into a box. It is to just give PM's a way to plan the future. Obviously, things can change so it isn't some forceful thing at all.

Don't knock it until you've tried it. I had an opinion like you and then I went and worked in this system and it totally changed my mind.

[trastentrasten]

I tend to agree. I have found the number of stories to have som utility as a metric, though.