[quanticle]

That actually sounds like a really neat process and I'm glad it works for you. One question I have is about how you measure velocity with variable length sprints. My understanding of scrum is that the point of having fixed length sprints is that it lets you easily estimate how much you can deliver in a sprint, since each sprint is the same length.

If you have different length research and implementation sprints, how would you estimate the amount of work (whether in story points or whatever else) that can be done in a given sprint? Is it a matter of making sure to compare "like to like"?