story points - number that tells the team a lot more … · 2020-06-08 · what are story points?...

STORY POINTS - NUMBER THAT TELLS THE TEAM A LOT MORE THEN JUST SIZEEDITED BY SHIRLY RONEN – HAREL

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WHAT ARE STORY POINTS?

Story Point: is an abstract measure of effortrequired to implement a user story. In simpleterms, it is a number that tells the team aboutthe difficulty level of the story.

• In most cases a story point uses one of the following scales for sizing:

- 1,2,4,8,16

- X-Small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra-Large

- Fibonacci sequence: 1,2,3,5,8,13,21

HOW TO ESTIMATE STORY POINTS IN AGILE? - MOHIT TYAGI 2

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WHAT DO STORY POINTS REPRESENT?Story Points represent the effort required to put a PBI(Product Backlog Item = user story) live. Each StoryPoint represents a normal distribution of time.

What are the benefits of using Story Points?

• Quickly estimate issues

• Estimate without giving a specific time commitment.

• Embrace the uncertainty that comes with estimation.

• Accurate enough to plan sprints ahead

12 COMMON MISTAKES MADE WHEN USING STORY POINTS - MAARTEN DALMIJN 3

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What Goes Into a Story Point?

The Amount of Work to Do

4WHAT ARE STORY POINTS? - MIKE COHN

Because story points representthe effort to develop a story, ateam’s estimate must includeeverything that can affect theeffort. That could include:

•The amount of work to do•The complexity of the work•Any risk or uncertainty in doingthe work

Certainly, if there is more to doof something, the estimate ofeffort should be larger. Considerthe case of developing two webpages. The first page has onlyone field and a label asking toenter a name. The second pagehas 100 fields to also simply befilled with a bit of text.

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Risk and Uncertainty Complexity

5WHAT ARE STORY POINTS? - MIKE COHN

The amount of risk anduncertainty in a product backlogitem should affect the storypoint estimate given to the item.If a team is asked to estimate aproduct backlog item and thestakeholder asking for it isunclear about what will beneeded, that uncertainty shouldbe reflected in the estimate.

Complexity should also beconsidered when providing astory point estimate.

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Consider All Factors Consider Everything in the Definition of Done

6WHAT ARE STORY POINTS? - MIKE COHN

It may seem impossible tocombine three factors into onenumber and provide that as anestimate. It’s possible, though,because effort is the unifyingfactor. Estimators consider howmuch effort will be required todo the amount of workdescribed by a product backlogitem.

A story point estimate mustinclude everything involved ingetting a product backlog itemall the way to done. If a team’sdefinition of done includescreating automated tests tovalidate the story, the effort tocreate those tests should beincluded in the story pointestimate

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Story Points

A story point is a high-level estimation ofcomplexity involved inthe user stories, usuallydone before sprintplanning or duringrelease planning.

Hours

The hour basedestimation, is a low-level estimation used torepresent the actualeffort in man hoursneeded to complete allthe tasks involved in auser story.

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STORY POINTS VS HOURS

HOW TO ESTIMATE STORY POINTS IN AGILE? - MOHIT TYAGI

WHY STORY POINTS ARE BETTER THAN HOURS IN 2019?

Story Points offer three main advantages over man-hours:

• No correlation with skills andexperience of the estimator

• Velocity is Tracked

• No Re-Estimation if Velocity Changes(Flexibility)

8STORY POINTS VS HOURS: 3 REASONS TO ESTIMATE WITH STORY POINTS - ANASTASIYA V.

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MAN-HOURS: WHAT ARE THEY AND WHY DON’T THEY WORK FOR US?

• Some tasks are difficult to estimateprecisely.

• If one developer estimates a project butanother completes the task, the estimatebecomes invalid.

• People generally underestimate obstaclesthey might face and consider only thebest-case scenario.

STORY POINTS VS HOURS: 3 REASONS TO ESTIMATE WITH STORY POINTS - ANASTASIYA V. 9

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Story Points Ideal Days

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PICKING A SIDE IN THESTORY POINTS VS. IDEALDAYS DEBATE

PICKING A SIDE IN THE STORY POINTS VS. IDEAL DAYS DEBATE – BASE 36

Story points are measurementunits that help estimate theamount of effort needed todevelop a feature. Each storypoint is assigned a relative value,and these values together givethe size of the user story.

The length of time it wouldtake you to finish a project, ifyou didn’t have to worryabout all of these additionalthings, are ideal days.

Story Points Ideal Days

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ADVANTAGES

PICKING A SIDE IN THE STORY POINTS VS. IDEAL DAYS DEBATE – BASE 36

• Story points play to thestrengths of humans.

• Story points account fordifferences in teamexperience, as they aremeasurements of size.

• Story points are abstract, asthey are measurements ofrelative size.

• By estimating in size, you canignore the variations of teammembers’ productivity.

• Managers and outsidestakeholders have a betteridea of ideal days thanstory points.

• Ideal days are moreintuitive, and, as a result,may make the team morecomfortable with projectscope estimation.

Story Points Ideal Days

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DISADVANTAGES

PICKING A SIDE IN THE STORY POINTS VS. IDEAL DAYS DEBATE – BASE 36

• If your team is new to storypoints, they may not feelcomfortable estimatingprojects this way.

• Though the relative nature ofstory points makes it hard formanagers to confuse storypoints with a timed reality, itis also difficult to understandwhat a story point is ingeneral

• Each part of the teamestimates how long their‘part’ of the project willtake, and the estimates areadded together

• When estimating in idealdays, teams often forgetto take into considerationthe team’s experiencewith the project or specifictechnologies

HOW TO SIZE (ESTIMATE) WITH STORY POINTS IN AGILE

While this type of estimation might not be the easiest, estimating with Story Points inAgile offers benefits to both app developers and clients.

14HOW TO ESTIMATE WITH STORY POINTS IN AGILE- ANASTASIYA V.

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Sizing is beneficial as it:

• Gives us an overviewof the scope of work

• Uses multipleperspectives todetermine the size ofwork

• Clears out that wecan’t be exact

• Rectifies falseassumptions

Sizing is done considering:

• The amount of work to do

• The complexity of the work

• Risk or uncertainty in doing the work

• Time / Duration

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HOW TO ESTIMATE STORY POINTS IN AGILE?

HOW TO ESTIMATE STORY POINTS IN AGILE? - MOHIT TYAGI

THE RELATIVE SIZING PROCESS - OPTION 1

1. Identify the base story

2. Create a Matrix for Estimation

3. Size the stories - Planning Poker Estimation Process

4. Plan the Sprint 16HOW TO ESTIMATE WITH STORY POINTS IN AGILE- ANASTASIYA V.

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STEP 1 — IDENTIFY A BASE STORY

17HOW TO ESTIMATE WITH STORY POINTS IN AGILE- ANASTASIYA V.

STEP 2 — CREATE A MATRIX FOR ESTIMATION

18HOW TO ESTIMATE WITH STORY POINTS IN AGILE- ANASTASIYA V.

PLANNING POKER ESTIMATION PROCESS

19HOW TO ESTIMATE WITH STORY POINTS IN AGILE- ANASTASIYA V.

• Each estimator gets a set of cards;• All estimators select backlog items,

discuss features, and ask questions;• When a feature has been fully discussed,

each estimator privately chooses a cardto represent his or her estimate;

• When all estimators have made theirestimates, they reveal their cards at thesame time. If all estimates match,estimators select another backlog itemand repeat the same process.

STEP 4 — PLANNING THE SPRINT

20HOW TO ESTIMATE WITH STORY POINTS IN AGILE- ANASTASIYA V.

We can’t do thisuntil the firstsprint iscompleted. Whilethe first sprint isin progress wecan track theteam’s velocity.

As soon as thesprint is finished,we’ll know howmany Story Points ateam can completeper sprint. We usethese numbers toforecast the team'sperformance forthe next sprints.

When we have allbacklog tasksestimated in termsof Story Points, wecan understand howmany sprints we’regoing to need tocomplete theproject.

THE RELATIVE SIZING PROCESS - OPTION 2

1. List all the stories to be sized

2. Put them in order from smallest to largest

3. Size the stories

21HOW TO ESTIMATE STORY POINTS IN AGILE? - MOHIT TYAGI

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Step 1: Get user stories from Product Owner

Step 2: Select reference stories

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DONE-RELATED STORYESTIMATION

DONE-RELATED STORY ESTIMATION- MARC BLESS

The estimations

were based on and

related to known

done-stories of

former sprints. The

method is very

simple and

contains only fivesteps.

Step 3: Sort user stories Step 4: Show story points

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DONE-RELATED STORYESTIMATION

DONE-RELATED STORY ESTIMATION- MARC BLESS

The estimations

were based on and

related to known

done-stories of

former sprints. The

method is very

simple and

contains only fivesteps.

Step 5: Adjust stories and story points

24

DONE-RELATED STORYESTIMATION

DONE-RELATED STORY ESTIMATION- MARC BLESS

The estimations

were based on and

related to known

done-stories of

former sprints. The

method is very

simple and

contains only fivesteps.

12 COMMON MISTAKES MADE WHEN USING STORY POINTS

• Equating Story Points to just complexity,uncertainty or value.

• Translating Story Points to hours

• Averaging Story Points

• Adjusting Story Point estimates of issues duringsprint.

• Never Story Pointing bugs.

• Adding Story Points to small tasks

2512 COMMON MISTAKES MADE WHEN USING STORY POINTS - MAARTEN DALMIJN

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12 COMMON MISTAKES MADE WHEN USING STORY POINTS

• Adjusting reference PBI’s each sprint.

• Story Pointing unfinished issues again

• Adjusting Story Point estimate because aspecific developer will work on it.

• Never adjusting reference PBI’s.

• Conforming to the expert in the room.

• Not discussing incorrectly Story-Pointed issuesin retrospective.

2612 COMMON MISTAKES MADE WHEN USING STORY POINTS - MAARTEN DALMIJN

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CHEAT SHEET FOR STORY POINT SIZING

• Teams should also understand "Why" should theysize relatively before going into the detailed "How"and "What" part.

• As a definition, STORY POINT is a unitlessmeasurement of the size that encompasses the 3parameters of a user story - COMPLEXITY,UNCERTAINTY and EFFORT.

• Once teams start estimating user Story Pointestimation through Poker Planning, anotherobservation is that too much discussion happenswhen the scores are not in consensus.

CHEAT SHEET FOR STORY POINT SIZING - NEERAJ BACHANI 27

MYTH: STORY POINTS ARE REQUIRED IN SCRUM

• Scrum is intended as a simple, yet sufficientframework for complex product delivery.

• Scrum is not a one-size-fits-all solution, a silverbullet or a complete methodology.

• Instead, Scrum provides the minimal boundarieswithin which teams can self-organize to solve acomplex problem using an empirical approach.

MYTH: STORY POINTS ARE REQUIRED IN SCRUM - CHRISTIAAN VERWIJS 29

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MYTH: STORY POINTS ARE REQUIRED IN SCRUM

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Busting the Myth

The purpose of estimation in Scrum

Scrum Guide

• “Work may be of varying size, or estimated effort”, it does not prescribe how thisestimation should be done.

• The Scrum Guide does remind us to use an approach that respects the complexityof software development and to not let estimation replace the importance ofempiricism itself.

• The primary purpose of estimates in Scrum is to giveDevelopment Teams a rough sense of the amount of workthey can pull into a Sprint.

• Use the empirical process of Scrum to capitalize on changerather than control against it.

Accurate estimates are imposibleAn estimate can’t be a guaranteeThe time we spend on estimation is a form of waste

Myth: Story Points are required in Scrum - Christiaan Verwijs

OTHER WAYS TO ESTIMATE

• Use the number of items per Sprint as a guideto select a doable amount of work for a Sprint.

• Use size buckets as a guide, where theDevelopment Team classifies items in terms ofsize

• Simply use the combined gut feeling of theDevelopment Team to determine if enoughwork was selected for the Sprint

31Myth: Story Points are required in Scrum - Christiaan Verwijs

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TIPS

• Whatever you do in terms of estimation, make sureto do it with the entire Development Team.

• Some teams want to stick to hour-based estimatesbecause it feels ‘more real’ or easier to estimate forthem.

• Explore different techniques and determine whatworks best for your Development Team, andrequires as little effort and time as possible

MYTH: STORY POINTS ARE REQUIRED IN SCRUM - CHRISTIAAN VERWIJS 32

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REFERENCES

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1) How to Estimate Story Points in Agile? - MohitTyagi

2) Story Points vs Hours: 3 Reasons to Estimate withStory Points - Anastasiya V.

3) How to Estimate with Story Points in Agile-Anastasiya V.

4) Done-Related Story Estimation- Marc Bless

5) 12 common mistakes made when using StoryPoints - Maarten Dalmijn

6) Cheat Sheet for Story Point Sizing - Neeraj Bachani

7) What Are Story Points? - Mike Cohn

8) Myth: Story Points are required in Scrum -Christiaan Verwijs

9) Picking A Side in the Story Points vs. Ideal DaysDebate – Base 36

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THANK YOU

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