You are reviewing the Velocity Chart for your team and notice that they completed more story points than they committed in their last sprint. You are definitely the only person who can add issues to sprints in your project. How did your learn complete more story points than they committed?

The Velocity Chart's "Commitment" bar represents a snapshot of the total story points for all issues at the exact moment the sprint begins. The "Completed" bar sums the story points of issues finished during the sprint, using their value at the time of completion. If an issue's estimate is increased after the sprint has started (e.g., from 5 to 8 points due to discovered complexity), the initial commitment remains recorded at 5 points. However, upon completion, the issue contributes 8 points to the "Completed" total. This discrepancy is a common reason for completed points to exceed the initial commitment without any scope change.

A. Completing a sprint early impacts the timeline but does not inherently change the story point totals for committed versus completed work.
B. Epics are issue containers; their own story point estimates (if used) are not counted towards a sprint's velocity calculation.
D. Sub-tasks do not contribute story points to velocity, and an unmapped status only affects board visualization, not point calculation.
E. Creating new sub-tasks does not add story points to the sprint's velocity; only the parent issue's estimate is counted.

1. Atlassian. "View and understand the velocity chart". Jira Software Cloud documentation.

Section: "How the chart is calculated"

Reference: The documentation states, "The Commitment bar represents the total story points your team committed to at the start of the sprint." It also clarifies that the completed value is based on the work finished. The chart reflects changes in estimates mid-sprint, where the commitment value is fixed at the start, but the completed value uses the final estimate, causing the observed discrepancy.

2. Atlassian. "Velocity Chart". Jira Software Server 8.20 documentation.

Section: "Understanding the Velocity Chart"

Reference: This document explains, "The grey bar for each sprint shows the total estimate of all issues in the sprint when it begins." It further notes that changes in estimates after the sprint starts will be reflected in the chart's data, leading to potential differences between the initial commitment and the final completed values.