> I’m here to argue that development velocity (whatever that means) and launch throughput are entirely the wrong optimizations. Development velocity is pretty

> I’m here to argue that development velocity (whatever that means) and launch throughput are entirely the wrong optimizations. Development velocity is pretty well defined in agile. The fact that the author starts of with admitting no understanding of what it means and then goes on to say that it is a wrong optimization, just seems off. When I worked at Pivotal Labs, velocity was king. It was controlled entirely by the development team as we would the point stories and do the work. Velocity (points added up from a weeks worth of stories finished and then averaged over time) was tracked very closely and easy to measure. Since everything was team and pair based, there were no pointing fingers at individuals... you had to complete things together. It was a very simple and easily computed metric that really showed output and allowed for great long term project estimates. We would always hit our expected run rate because of it. PM's could tell, in advance, when features were going to land. It really made for an excellent working environment where we could get into work in the morning and leave at the end of the day, without having to ever stay late to finish expectations.