Story Points Completed
Story Points Completed tracks the number of estimation points successfully delivered within a given time period. It provides a velocity-like view of team throughput, reflecting how much estimated work is shipped to production during a sprint, week, or month.
Calculation
To compute this metric, sum the story point values for all work items that have reached a done or shipped status within the selected time frame. Only items marked as completed (e.g. "Done", "Closed", or "Deployed") should be included.
story points completed = sum(points) for all completed tickets
Goals
Story Points Completed is designed to quantify delivery throughput and help engineering leaders understand team pacing and capacity. It supports the following decision areas:
- Are we consistently delivering value over time?
- Can we forecast upcoming work with realistic point-based projections?
- Are team velocity trends stable, growing, or erratic?
This metric is often used to validate sprint planning and detect slowdowns, interruptions, or underestimation issues. When used alongside scope or Sprint Rollover Rate, it helps highlight overcommitment or delivery blockers.
Variations
Depending on process structure and tooling, teams may calculate Story Points Completed in different ways:
- By sprint – Tally points completed within a defined sprint boundary
- By week or month – Track throughput for longer-term trend analysis
- By epic or feature – Sum completed points associated with larger initiatives
- By contributor or team – Useful for capacity planning across squads
- Committed vs. completed – Comparing planned vs. delivered points helps quantify planning accuracy
Some teams use Velocity as a synonym for this metric, while others define velocity as a multi-sprint average of completed points. It's important to clarify naming conventions when comparing teams.
Limitations
Story Points Completed is a throughput metric, not a proxy for business value or effort quality. High point totals do not always equate to meaningful impact.
It also assumes story points are assigned consistently. Without a shared understanding of estimation practices, comparisons across teams or time periods may be misleading.
Complementary metrics help close these visibility gaps:
| Complementary Metric | What It Helps Explain |
|---|---|
| Velocity | Smooths out delivery patterns by aggregating point completions across multiple sprints |
| Sprint Rollover Rate | Shows how much of the sprint commitment carries over, signaling estimation or execution misalignment |
| Flow Efficiency | Provides deeper insight into whether story points flow continuously or are blocked during execution |
Optimization
To improve Story Points Completed without distorting quality or focus:
Align on estimation standards. Use a shared Planning Poker or Fibonacci scale and calibrate across team members regularly to ensure consistent sizing.
Limit work in progress. Apply WIP Limits to reduce context switching and increase the flow of completed stories.
Prioritize delivery clarity. Break work into well-scoped, testable increments that can complete within a sprint.
Watch for scope creep. Avoid mid-sprint point inflation by adhering to a clear Work Intake Process and limiting unplanned additions.
Focus on sustainable pace. Use Story Points Completed to guide capacity planning rather than chase inflated numbers.
When used responsibly, this metric helps anchor forecasts in historical capacity while encouraging steady and sustainable delivery.
