That's not a problem with Scrum, it's a problem with your team. If you're doing a bug bash every sprint, then your velocity is already including the time spent on bug bashes. If it's not in every sprint, you can reduce the forecast for sprints where you do them to account for it (similar to what you do when someone is off etc).
If you're competing within the team to complete as many story points as possible that's pretty weird. Is someone using story points as a metric of anything other than forecasting?
> Is someone using story points as a metric of anything other than forecasting?
Very nearly every company I've worked at that uses Scrum uses story points, velocity, etc., as a means of measuring how good you or your team are. Forecasting is a secondary purpose.
Yes. But many Sr. Leaders just see a number so it must also be a metric you can use for measurement. They do not understand it’s real use.
I picture a construction company counting the total inches / centimeters each employee measured every day. Then at the end of the year firing the bottom 20% of employees measured in total units measured in the last 12 months.
> That's not a problem with Scrum, it's a problem with your team.
I've seen that justification time and again, and it feels disingenuous every time it's said. (Feels like a corrolary to No True Scotsman.)
I've also seen scrum used regularly, and everywhere I've seen it has been broken in some fashion. Enough anecdata tells me that indeed Scrum, as stated, is inherently broken.
If you're competing within the team to complete as many story points as possible that's pretty weird. Is someone using story points as a metric of anything other than forecasting?