The first time I heard someone talk about “per person story points,” I laughed. Surely, it was a joke. Like someone suggesting we measure teamwork by how many push-ups each person can do while holding a laptop. But no—they were serious. Dead serious. And they weren’t alone.
So let’s get real. If you’re measuring velocity per person, you’re not agile. You’re just dressing up old-school micromanagement in agile jargon. It’s like slapping racing stripes on a horse and calling it a Ferrari.
What Are “Per Person Story Points” (and Why Is This Still Happening)?
It’s when teams track how many story points each individual “delivers” in a sprint. Think of it as a personal leaderboard for who can complete the most abstract units of effort. “Look, boss! I crushed 15 story points this sprint. Can I get a medal now?”
Sometimes, it’s about estimating individual parts of a story and adding them up. Cute. But the real crime is treating velocity like an individual performance stat, as if agile were some twisted RPG game where you grind your way to a promotion.
But here’s the problem: Story points are about team effort, not personal glory. Agile is about collective outcomes, not ego-driven sprints. It’s not “every developer for themselves.” It’s “we build this together, or it crumbles.”
Why Does “Per Person Velocity” Sound Logical (But Isn’t)?
It sounds reasonable if you’re stuck in an outdated, control-obsessed management mindset:
- Old-school thinking: “If we measure hours per person, why not story points per person?”
- Fear-based control: “If I don’t measure individuals, how will I know who’s slacking?”
- Micromanagement addiction: “If I can’t measure it, I can’t manage it.”
But let’s be honest. This isn’t logic. It’s fear. Fear that if you stop measuring people like factory machines, they’ll stop working. Fear that trust is too risky. Fear that without metrics, you’re flying blind.
But: Fear doesn’t build great teams. It builds anxious, competitive, miserable ones.
The Real Risks of This Nonsense (And Why It Always Fails)
Measuring velocity per person isn’t just pointless. It’s toxic. Here’s why:
- It kills collaboration. Why would I help my teammate if it means fewer points for me? Why teach someone else if it risks them catching up on the leaderboard? Congratulations, you’ve gamified selfishness.
- It creates silos. One person owns a story. If they get stuck or sick? Too bad. No one else touches it. The team stalls. Agility dies.
- It burns out your experts. People become gatekeepers. Knowledge gets hoarded. The company becomes dependent on a few, until they burn out and quit—leaving behind a crater-sized knowledge gap.
- It fakes agility. You’re “doing agile” but it’s just the same old waterfall bureaucracy in hipster clothing. Congratulations, you’ve built a modern-looking cage.
Why Do Teams Even Fall for This?
Because it’s comfortable. Because it’s the devil they know. Because it’s easier to stay stuck in survival mode than challenge the system. If you’ve spent years in a culture that rewards personal output and punishes mistakes, you learn to play it safe. You learn to protect yourself.
But here’s the thing: protecting yourself is killing your team’s agility.
How to Break Free (and Actually Be Agile)
Start with brutal honesty:
- Is this actually helping?
- Are we achieving anything, or just creating more reports?
- Are we brave enough to try something better?
Change isn’t about shame. It’s about growth. People do the best they can with what they know. But now? Now you know better.
It’s about dropping the scoreboard mentality and embracing the glorious messiness of real teamwork. It’s about trusting the team, not slicing them into spreadsheets. It’s about focusing on outcomes, not outputs. Because, let’s face it, no one cares if you “delivered 20 story points” if the product sucks.
The Mindset Shift That Actually Works
Here’s what every team needs to hear:
- Trust your experts. If you don’t trust them to estimate, you’ve got bigger problems than story points.
- Relative beats absolute. Estimation isn’t magic. It’s comparison. It’s about patterns, not precision.
- Collaboration is the real power-up. Great products come from shared knowledge and collective effort, not solo acts.
- Team outcomes > individual outputs. Always. Agile is a team sport. If you’re playing for yourself, you’re playing the wrong game.
Final Thought: Stop Gaming the System
If you’re measuring velocity per person, you’re not agile. You’re playing an old game with new words. And you’re missing the entire point.
Agility isn’t about measuring harder. It’s about collaborating better. It’s about building trust and resilience, not control and fear.
So ditch the personal scoreboards. Burn the spreadsheets. Trust your team. Focus on outcomes.
And stop putting lipstick on a process pig. It’s still a pig.