By the end of an hour, the sprint had twenty-seven points. The team’s historical velocity was twenty-two.

They picked the refactor first. Then payment retry. Then the compliance field.

“Okay,” said Priya, the tech lead. “Let’s size them.”

“We need to get the payment retry logic in,” she said. “Business says failed payments are the top drop-off point.”

Then Priya did something unexpected. She closed her laptop.