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How do I verify Team Velocity report data?


Carmen L (1133) | asked Sep 20 '13, 12:21 p.m.
Hi,

I have created a Team Velocity report using the RTC template but I cannot seem to calculate the same amount of 'closed/achieved' story points for the iterations as a form of verification.

Eg. Team Velocity chart says Sprint 44 = 23 points.
I have tried manually counting the sum total for closed Story items (Closed = Done, Deferred, Invalid) in the 'Work Breakdown' view (I get 33 points) and 'Ranked List' view (I get 21 points).

I  have also tried running my own query (I get 20 points) using the following variables:
  • Story Points is not '0'
  • Type is 'story'
  • Implemented For 'Sprint 44'
  • Status is 'Deferred, Done, Invalid (user story workflow)'
Is there anything else missing in my calculation to get the same 23 story points that RTC gives me?

Thanks heaps in advance,

Regards,
Carmen

2 answers



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Kevin Ramer (4.5k8183200) | answered Sep 20 '13, 3:13 p.m.
edited Sep 20 '13, 3:16 p.m.
This may or may not help:
Has the complexity enumeration been altered from the out of the box configuration ?  I ask because it may appear that a story has some point value, but because of how enumeration values are kept in the configuration and that the complexity enumeration is treated special, the actual value will not evaluate to an integer.

In the Project Configuration Source, the complexity enumeration for an OOTB Scrum project looks like this:

                <enumeration attributeTypeId="complexity" name="complexity">
                    <literal default="true" id="0" name="0 pts"/>
                    <literal id="1" name="1 pt"/>
                    <literal id="2" name="2 pts"/>
                    <literal id="3" name="3 pts"/>
                    <literal id="5" name="5 pts"/>
                    <literal id="8" name="8 pts"/>
                    <literal id="13" name="13 pts"/>
                    <literal id="20" name="20 pts"/>
                    <literal id="40" name="40 pts"/>
                    <literal id="100" name="100 pts"/>
                </enumeration>

If one new value is added it will look like this:

                <enumeration attributeTypeId="complexity" name="complexity">
                    <literal default="true" id="0" name="0 pts"/>
                    <literal id="1" name="1 pt"/>
                    <literal id="2" name="2 pts"/>
                    <literal id="3" name="3 pts"/>
                    <literal id="5" name="5 pts"/>
                    <literal id="8" name="8 pts"/>
                    <literal id="13" name="13 pts"/>
                    <literal id="20" name="20 pts"/>
                    <literal id="40" name="40 pts"/>
                    <literal id="100" name="100 pts"/>
                    <literal id="complexity.literal.l4" name="110 pts"/>
                </enumeration>

This one thing to check, especially if estimates are low w/o any other explaination.

If you find this, it cannot be corrected by simply editing the process source.  You'll have to create a new one in the XML with the desired numeric value as id="NNN", reassign all the work items with the old, to the new.  For example:

                <enumeration attributeTypeId="complexity" name="complexity">
                    <literal default="true" id="0" name="0 pts"/>
                    <literal id="1" name="1 pt"/>
                    <literal id="2" name="2 pts"/>
                    <literal id="3" name="3 pts"/>
                    <literal id="5" name="5 pts"/>
                    <literal id="8" name="8 pts"/>
                    <literal id="13" name="13 pts"/>
                    <literal id="20" name="20 pts"/>
                    <literal id="40" name="40 pts"/>
                    <literal id="100" name="100 pts"/>
                    <literal id="complexity.literal.l4" name="NOT 110 pts"/>
                    <literal id="110" name="110 pts"/>
                </enumeration>


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Carmen L (1133) | answered Sep 24 '13, 5:45 a.m.

Hi Kevin,

Thanks a lot for your reply. I checked the 'Project Configuration Source' and it looks like this:

<enumeration attributeTypeId="complexity" name="complexity">
     <literal default="true" id="0" name="0 pts"/>
     <literal id="1" name="1 pt"/>
     <literal id="2" name="2 pts"/>
     <literal id="3" name="3 pts"/>
     <literal id="5" name="5 pts"/>
     <literal id="8" name="8 pts"/>
     <literal id="13" name="13 pts"/>
     <literal id="20" name="21 pts"/>
     <literal id="40" name="40 pts"/>
     <literal id="100" name="100 pts"/>
</enumeration>

I can see that the name has been changed for the default id so a story 21 pts is really 20 points.

Rather than adding a new value to the list (like "110"), can I replace one of the default values with another? (ie.change the id="20" to "21")

Thanks-


Comments
Kevin Ramer commented Sep 24 '13, 8:19 a.m.

One question:  Do you want the point value to be 20 or 21 ? If the value is to be 20, just change the name="21 pts" to name="20 pts". 

If 21 is the desired value, the change is a bit more complicated.  If you simply change the id="20" to id="21" there will be numerous work items with an invalid value for that particular attribute.  To prevent that from happening is why the "original" is modified in the name= part, a new entry added with the correct id= (not  id="complexity.literal.lX").  Then all work items that show the undesired value are changed to the newly created value.

However, in this case as the only difference between an out-of-the box configuration is the name="21 pts" I'd really consider just changing its name to "20 pts".



Carmen L commented Sep 24 '13, 10:10 a.m. | edited Sep 24 '13, 7:20 p.m.

The project must of changed the OOTB configuration of "20" to "21" since they want to use 21 and have been.

Although when it comes to the introduction to reporting now, the figures will not quite match up. I'm not sure if there are any more causes to the figures not adding up but at least now I know this is one.

I will have to look into to see if the "original" can be modified.

Thanks for your help

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