[jpease]

Thank you for the in depth response.

The part I attempted to highlight as nonsense, perhaps unsuccessfully so, is the idea that “velocity” is a measurement of output. It is solely a measurement of estimation accuracy. As such, your example of increasing velocity by 5% each sprint falls into the three problematic scenarios described, right? If not, I’m happy to learn what I’m missing.

As far as the usefulness of story points to talk about time estimates while mitigating some of the human nature you describe, I don’t disagree. However, by masking that points ultimately are placeholders for time, I believe it’s contributed to nonsensical concepts (like Velocity) which would be clear if using plain language.