How to use the sprint velocity calculator
Velocity is the number of story points a team actually finishes in a sprint. The arithmetic is simply total completed points divided by sprints averaged, but how you read that number decides whether your forecast holds up.
Pick how many sprints to include, enter the completed points for each, and the average appears next to the lowest and highest sprint in the set. Spread matters more than the mean. An average of 28 built from a low of 14 and a high of 42 describes a team whose delivery date is close to unforecastable, while the same average of 28 with a range of 25 to 31 is a schedule you can commit to. That is why all three are shown together rather than the average alone.
Enter the points remaining in your backlog and the tool divides by the average velocity to show how many more sprints are needed. Because a sprint cannot be run in fractions the figure is rounded up, and the label says so only when rounding actually happened. Story points are a relative unit with meaning inside one team only, so resist the temptation to compare velocities across teams.
Frequently asked questions
Three at minimum. One or two data points swing wildly on vacations, incidents and onboarding. The minimum and maximum are shown alongside the average precisely so a single outlier does not quietly drive your forecast.
A sprint cannot be run in fractions, so 2.3 sprints really means three. The label says rounded up only when the division did not come out even, so it never claims an adjustment that did not happen.
The arithmetic works with any consistent unit. Keep in mind that story points are a relative unit that only means something inside one team, so velocity should never be used to compare one team against another.