Comments on: Scrum Effort Estimation and Story Points http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-effort-estimation-and-story-points/ Learn the Scrum Methodology Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:19:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Scrum, a beginners experience http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-effort-estimation-and-story-points/comment-page-1/#comment-114422 Scrum, a beginners experience Thu, 24 Nov 2011 02:16:11 +0000 http://scrummethodology.com/?p=56#comment-114422 [...] Story sizing consists of all team members sitting around a table with a hand of sizing cards (numbered 1, 2, 3, 5, 8).  A member of the team reads out a story, team members are then asked to ‘play’ a sizing card.  The card indicates a measurement of effort that is not classified in time but by a proportional comparison.  For example if the first story is sized as a 3 (or medium) then a story that is larger and will consist of more tasks may be sized as a 5 or 8.  If a team member’s sizing differs dramatically from other team members the team member will then explain why they consider the story to be larger or smaller and after a discussion a consensus is reached.  Sizing of stories informs the decision as to how many stories will be undertaken during the upcoming sprint. [...] [...] Story sizing consists of all team members sitting around a table with a hand of sizing cards (numbered 1, 2, 3, 5, 8).  A member of the team reads out a story, team members are then asked to ‘play’ a sizing card.  The card indicates a measurement of effort that is not classified in time but by a proportional comparison.  For example if the first story is sized as a 3 (or medium) then a story that is larger and will consist of more tasks may be sized as a 5 or 8.  If a team member’s sizing differs dramatically from other team members the team member will then explain why they consider the story to be larger or smaller and after a discussion a consensus is reached.  Sizing of stories informs the decision as to how many stories will be undertaken during the upcoming sprint. [...]

]]> By: it is not the destination that matters, but the journey you take. « kellrodney http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-effort-estimation-and-story-points/comment-page-1/#comment-114273 it is not the destination that matters, but the journey you take. « kellrodney Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:11:59 +0000 http://scrummethodology.com/?p=56#comment-114273 [...] team has started estimating effort points and this is awesome for me to get an idea of the scope of work required on a task. Trouble is, our [...] [...] team has started estimating effort points and this is awesome for me to get an idea of the scope of work required on a task. Trouble is, our [...]

]]> By: Adnan http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-effort-estimation-and-story-points/comment-page-1/#comment-106474 Adnan Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:11:22 +0000 http://scrummethodology.com/?p=56#comment-106474 great article! great article!

]]> By: Assembla Tries To Bully Users That Don’t Like Their Product » Absolutely No Machete Juggling http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-effort-estimation-and-story-points/comment-page-1/#comment-97541 Assembla Tries To Bully Users That Don’t Like Their Product » Absolutely No Machete Juggling Fri, 09 Sep 2011 05:32:17 +0000 http://scrummethodology.com/?p=56#comment-97541 [...] A clock? To represent cumulative story points? This re-enforces one of the most common mistakes Scrum teams make, treating points as units of time. Story Points are unitless, not a measure of time. [...] [...] A clock? To represent cumulative story points? This re-enforces one of the most common mistakes Scrum teams make, treating points as units of time. Story Points are unitless, not a measure of time. [...]

]]> By: Rick http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-effort-estimation-and-story-points/comment-page-1/#comment-55315 Rick Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:31:38 +0000 http://scrummethodology.com/?p=56#comment-55315 So I get the notion of estimating using abstract units. But I run a dev organization that has 14 scrum teams of various sizes (5-9 developers). Many of these teams can get assigned to work on one of the major applications at the same time and as such will be working from the same PBL. How do I forecast my manpower requirements when every team has its own notion of what a story point is? Capacity/Manpower planning requires getting some sort of consistent forward looking idea about work velocity, but Story points/ Sprint doesn’t work with multiple teams. How do you get an average effort (speed/distance) when some teams are giving MPH, others KPH and still others using units like furlongs per fortnight? Without having some sort of common conversion unit, or canonical standard, story points are pretty useless for large dev organizations. All of the examples I’ve read seem focused on single teams assigned to a single PBL. (Easy… I get it) But there must be someone who has faced this challenge in a larger organization and come up with a method to get consistent sizing from disparate teams.. Any guidance you might have would be appreciated.. So I get the notion of estimating using abstract units. But I run a dev organization that has 14 scrum teams of various sizes (5-9 developers). Many of these teams can get assigned to work on one of the major applications at the same time and as such will be working from the same PBL. How do I forecast my manpower requirements when every team has its own notion of what a story point is?

Capacity/Manpower planning requires getting some sort of consistent forward looking idea about work velocity, but Story points/ Sprint doesn’t work with multiple teams. How do you get an average effort (speed/distance) when some teams are giving MPH, others KPH and still others using units like furlongs per fortnight? Without having some sort of common conversion unit, or canonical standard, story points are pretty useless for large dev organizations.

All of the examples I’ve read seem focused on single teams assigned to a single PBL. (Easy… I get it) But there must be someone who has faced this challenge in a larger organization and come up with a method to get consistent sizing from disparate teams..

Any guidance you might have would be appreciated..

]]> By: Madhu http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-effort-estimation-and-story-points/comment-page-1/#comment-52308 Madhu Thu, 27 Jan 2011 06:12:49 +0000 http://scrummethodology.com/?p=56#comment-52308 I think the high level estimates must be made before the sprint planning meeting itself. This gives product owner the ability prioritize and take decisions better and at the same time reduce time taken during sprint planning meetings on what needs to go into the sprint backlog from the product backlog. This also ensures that the requirements are as per INVEST criteria. In short, have estimates for the finer product backlog items and not just on the sprint backlog items - just in case you want to replace a story with another story half way through the sprint, the impact is lesser if the stories are of comparable sizes. I think the high level estimates must be made before the sprint planning meeting itself. This gives product owner the ability prioritize and take decisions better and at the same time reduce time taken during sprint planning meetings on what needs to go into the sprint backlog from the product backlog. This also ensures that the requirements are as per INVEST criteria. In short, have estimates for the finer product backlog items and not just on the sprint backlog items – just in case you want to replace a story with another story half way through the sprint, the impact is lesser if the stories are of comparable sizes.

]]> By: Scrum-ptious Applications « Matt Jukes http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-effort-estimation-and-story-points/comment-page-1/#comment-16883 Scrum-ptious Applications « Matt Jukes Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:10:18 +0000 http://scrummethodology.com/?p=56#comment-16883 [...] for the coming sprint (I’m not going to explain estimating etc for Scrum here – lots of articles about it out there..) This should speed up the process considerably with discussions taking place [...] [...] for the coming sprint (I’m not going to explain estimating etc for Scrum here – lots of articles about it out there..) This should speed up the process considerably with discussions taking place [...]

]]> By: admin http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-effort-estimation-and-story-points/comment-page-1/#comment-12566 admin Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:16:26 +0000 http://scrummethodology.com/?p=56#comment-12566 don't estimate PBIs in hours! See these great blog posts by Danube about it here: http://blogs.danube.com/story-points-as-spiciness-using-rsp-to-estimate-story-points http://blogs.danube.com/estimate-by-proxy-not-in-scrum http://blogs.danube.com/estimation-game http://blogs.danube.com/story-point-estimates-under-estimating-large-items don’t estimate PBIs in hours! See these great blog posts by Danube about it here:

http://blogs.danube.com/story-points-as-spiciness-using-rsp-to-estimate-story-points
http://blogs.danube.com/estimate-by-proxy-not-in-scrum
http://blogs.danube.com/estimation-game
http://blogs.danube.com/story-point-estimates-under-estimating-large-items

]]> By: Aidil http://scrummethodology.com/scrum-effort-estimation-and-story-points/comment-page-1/#comment-11090 Aidil Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:24:54 +0000 http://scrummethodology.com/?p=56#comment-11090 I never understood how to estimate, until the third sprint went off the charts... Now that we're in our fourth sprint, we're still using estimates based on hours, not on effort. I'm thinking when we're done with this sprint, we'll need to rethink and run our estimates based on effort. Thanks, your article has helped shed light :) I never understood how to estimate, until the third sprint went off the charts…

Now that we’re in our fourth sprint, we’re still using estimates based on hours, not on effort.

I’m thinking when we’re done with this sprint, we’ll need to rethink and run our estimates based on effort.

Thanks, your article has helped shed light :)

]]>