How a Software Company Improved Sprint Velocity by 30%
A 60-engineer software development company transformed their agile process with development-focused time tracking, improving sprint velocity by 30%, estimation accuracy by 25%, and accelerating delivery by 40%.
Company Overview
A fast-growing B2B SaaS company building cloud-based enterprise software. With 60 software engineers organized into 8 scrum teams, the company follows agile methodology with 2-week sprints. The engineering organization includes frontend developers, backend engineers, DevOps specialists, and QA engineers working on a complex microservices architecture.
- Engineering Team
- 60 engineers
- Scrum Teams
- 8 teams
- Sprint Cycle
- 2 weeks
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
The Challenge
Poor Sprint Estimation and Missed Delivery Deadlines
- Inaccurate Sprint Estimations
Engineering teams consistently underestimated story points and task complexity. Sprint commitments were based on gut feeling rather than historical data. The result: 40% of sprints failed to meet commitments, damaging team morale and stakeholder confidence.
- Missed Delivery Deadlines
Major product releases consistently slipped by 2-4 weeks. Sales had to delay customer launches, marketing campaigns missed windows, and the company lost competitive opportunities. Leadership had no visibility into why deadlines were missed or how to prevent it.
- Unclear Productivity Metrics
The VP of Engineering had no objective way to measure team productivity or identify bottlenecks. Were engineers spending too much time in meetings? Was code review slowing down delivery? Were certain types of work taking longer than expected? There was no data to answer these questions.
- Hidden Time Sinks
Engineers spent significant time on non-development activities—meetings, Slack conversations, context switching—but the organization had no visibility into how much productive coding time was actually available. This made capacity planning impossible and sprint commitments unrealistic.
The Solution
Development-Focused Time Tracking with Sprint Integration
The company implemented WorkComposer across all 60 engineers with a focus on improving sprint planning accuracy, measuring actual development time, and identifying productivity bottlenecks without micromanaging individual engineers.
- 1. Sprint-Level Time Tracking
- Engineers tracked time against specific sprint tasks and user stories. Historical data showed how long different types of work actually took—API development, frontend features, bug fixes, code reviews—providing concrete data for future sprint planning instead of guesswork.
- 2. Development Activity Categorization
- Time was automatically categorized into development activities: coding, code review, testing, debugging, meetings, documentation, and research. This revealed that engineers spent only 4.5 hours per day on actual coding, with the rest consumed by meetings and context switching.
- 3. Velocity-Based Sprint Planning
- Engineering managers used historical time data to calibrate story points and sprint capacity. They could see that a "5-point" frontend story actually took 12 hours on average, while a "5-point" backend API story took 18 hours. This data-driven approach transformed sprint planning from guesswork to science.
- 4. Bottleneck Identification
- Time tracking revealed that code review was a major bottleneck—PRs sat for an average of 18 hours before review. The company instituted code review rotation and set time allocation targets, reducing review time to under 4 hours and accelerating the entire development cycle.
Implementation
Gradual Rollout Over Three Sprints
Started with one 8-person scrum team for a full sprint. Engineers tracked time against sprint tasks. Collected feedback on workflow integration and refined categorization rules. Initial data already revealed surprising insights about code review bottlenecks.
Deployed to all 60 engineers across 8 scrum teams. Created templates for common development activities (coding, PR review, testing, debugging). Integrated with Jira for automatic task assignment. Trained engineering managers on using data for sprint planning.
Engineering managers used historical time data for sprint planning. Adjusted story point calibration based on actual time spent. Sprint commitments became more realistic. Teams started consistently meeting commitments for the first time in over a year.
Results
Dramatic Improvements in Velocity and Delivery
- ↑30% Improvement in Sprint Velocity
- Team velocity increased from an average of 85 story points per sprint to 110 story points. Not because engineers worked longer hours, but because better estimation and bottleneck removal made the team more efficient. Sprint predictability improved dramatically.
- ↑25% Better Estimation Accuracy
- Sprint commitment accuracy improved from 60% to 85%. Teams could confidently commit to realistic sprint goals based on historical data. Stakeholders gained confidence in engineering estimates, improving cross-functional planning and reducing tension.
- ↑40% Faster Feature Delivery
- By identifying and removing bottlenecks (especially code review delays), feature cycle time dropped from 6 weeks average to 3.5 weeks. The company shipped features 40% faster without adding headcount, giving them competitive advantage in the market.
- ↓70% Reduction in Meeting Time
- Data revealed engineers spent 3.5 hours per day in meetings. Armed with this evidence, the VP of Engineering implemented "no meeting days" and reduced recurring meetings. Meeting time dropped to 1 hour per day, freeing up 2.5 hours for productive development work.
- ↓Zero Major Release Delays
- After implementation, the company shipped 4 consecutive major releases on schedule—the first time in company history. Sales could confidently commit customer launch dates, and marketing campaigns launched on time, resulting in $2M additional revenue from timely releases.
- ↑85% Engineer Satisfaction
- Engineers appreciated data-driven sprint planning that led to realistic commitments and fewer "crunch time" situations. Team morale improved as sprints became predictable and achievable. Engineering retention improved by 22% year-over-year.
"WorkComposer gave us the engineering metrics we desperately needed. We went from constantly missing deadlines to shipping on schedule. The data revealed bottlenecks we didn't even know existed—like the 18-hour code review delay that was killing our velocity. Now we have objective data for sprint planning, our estimates are accurate, and engineers trust the process because commitments are realistic. This transformed our engineering organization from chaotic to predictable."
Related Solutions
Explore How WorkComposer Can Help Your Engineering Team
Software Development Time Tracking
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Remote Team Time Tracking
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Let’s get you started
Start tracking time, monitoring productivity, and generating insights in just minutes. WorkComposer is designed for ease, speed, and real results.
- ✓ Automatic and manual time tracking
- ✓ Real-time productivity reports
- ✓ Web and app usage monitoring
- ✓ Screenshots and attendance tracking
- ✓ Easy team onboarding
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