DV-12
Sprint Overcommitment
Discipline
Default severity: medium
ProcessMetricsQuality
What it detects
Total story points committed to a sprint at planning time exceed the team\'s configured capacity or exceed the historical velocity by more than the configured buffer. committed_sp = SUM(sp, issues IN sprint AT sprint.start_date)
Detection formula
capacity = config.discipline.sprint_capacity_sp\[team\] // configurable per team buffer = config.discipline.sprint_overcommit_buffer // default: 1.2 (20% above capacity) IF committed_sp > capacity * buffer THEN FLAG IF config.discipline.use_velocity_for_capacity = true: IF committed_sp > rolling_avg_velocity * buffer THEN FLAGExamples in practice
- Assignee, field, hierarchy, or sprint hygiene rules are violated on active work.
- Issues miss mandatory fields or ownership while still in progress.
- A team shows total story points committed to a sprint at planning time exceed the team\'s configured capacity or exceed the historical velocity by more than the configured buffer while sprint capacity sp is set to 1.2 (2.
Suggested response
Enforce assignee, field, hierarchy, and sprint hygiene rules your team agreed on.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
Total story points committed to a sprint at planning time exceed the team\'s configured capacity or exceed the historical velocity by more than the configured buffer. committed_sp = SUM(sp, issues IN sprint AT sprint.start_date)
Why it matters
When "Sprint Overcommitment" keeps appearing, the team is signalling a repeatable process gap. Left unexamined, the pattern hides where work really stalls and makes improvement metrics harder to trust.
What you can achieve
Enforce assignee, field, hierarchy, and sprint hygiene rules your team agreed on.
Facilitation questions
- What system change would stop "Sprint Overcommitment" from firing again?
- What do the cited issues have in common — same root cause or same workaround?
- Who owns the two-week experiment and how will we verify on the next import?
Run this rule against your own tracker data with Flow Analyzer.