…mistake. 9) What Are Story Points? Story points are perhaps the most misunderstood topic in agile. Story points are not based on just one factor—such as complexity, as is often mistakenly claimed. Instead, story points are based on a combination of factors. 8) Advice on How to Split Reporting User…

…size given in the Points row. The first set of data is for one-point stories, the second set of data is for two-point stories and so on. Looking at the one-point data, we see that the median number of hours to complete a one-point story (at this company) was 21…

…teams were using task points to estimate their sprint backlog items in conjunction with story points for the product backlog items. This was intriguing. By then, I had already become a proponent of story points—I’ve since become even much more of a proponent because of the advantages that story points…

…velocity told a different story. The cause of this sudden and dramatic increase was story-point inflation. Or, more generally, estimate inflation, because the problem can happen with estimating units other than just story points. Estimate inflation is when the estimates assigned to product backlog items (usually a user stories) increase…

When estimating with story points, most teams use a predefined set of values that doesn’t include every possible number. For example, teams commonly use powers of two (1, 2, 4, 8, 16,...) or a Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, …) By intentionally leaving some numbers out of…

…will be delivered. Putting story points on product backlog items during sprint planning is simply too late for those benefits to accrue. There are other problems with assigning story points during sprint planning but assigning them that late does not allow the product owner to take advantage of the new…

…this. To be clear, points are relative, and it's hard to compare teams, but if a team builds project A, then is about to start project B, we can use their A velocities to predict B as long as the points are consistent across projects. If a 5-point story on…

…that is estimating in story points ever re-estimate? This is a question I'm commonly asked and would like to address here. Most people have a natural feeling that re-estimating is somehow wrong but they can't quite say why. I'll encourage those individuals to stick to their hunches, and hopefully I…

Story points are a unit of measure for expressing an estimate of the overall effort that will be required to fully implement a product backlog item or any other piece of work. When we estimate with story points, we assign a point value to each item. The raw values we…

…like they’ve made two points of progress on a five-point story but also have discovered that there are eight points remaining. In re-estimating partially finished work, it is entirely possible for the new estimate to exceed the original. But should a team re-estimate at all? Reasons to Re-Estimate There are…

…on the original, larger story. No. Part of the reason for splitting the stories is to understand them better. Team members discuss the story with the product owner. As a product owner clarifies a user story, the team will know more about the work they are to do. That improved…

…and how to use Story Points in estimating. Overview To estimate or not to estimate. There are many different views on the matter. It’s important then to start with why. Why would we spend time estimating in the first place? What is the benefit of that effort? Do all Agile…

…proponent of estimating in story points. (You can get a full overview of how to use story points from reading What Are Story Points.) In all of my training and writing about story points, user stories, planning poker, and agile estimating, I’ve been quite adamant that story points are about…

…face when estimating with story points. We aren’t charging for the training and it will be available until Wednesday, November 24 at 9 p.m. Pacific. To watch all three videos now, sign up here. In this series so far, we’ve looked at solving the following problems: Video #1: Equating Points…

…value” on each user story. They usually do this for either or both of two reasons: to be able to measure the amount of “business value” delivered to the organization, usually graphing this sprint by sprint to be able to prioritize user stories by comparing the business value of each…