Story Pointing, Explained.
By: Product Mindset
Tags: Product Management, Product Development, Agile Methodology, Agile, Product Manager

🎲. Agile emphasis estimating a story in Story Point instead of hours.

What is a Story Point?

Story points represent the relative sizing of the user story. It is a unit of estimation used by Agile teams to estimate User Stories.

When the product manager wants some features to be developed he/she desires to know how soon the team can complete the features and how many resources it will take to complete the work. From the developer’s perspective, it’s next to impossible to predict the exact time in which he/she can complete the work. The person can, however, give a rough estimate in terms of how much time it might take to complete the work. Note that instead of “will” the developer chose to use “might” because he/she is not absolutely “sure” about the time factor but “feels” it might take that much time. This is user story estimation in a nutshell.

You don’t give an exact number explaining how complex the story is and how long it’ll take to develop — you give a rough “estimate”.

We are good at comparing size, so estimating a story using a Fibonacci series sequence (0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21, etc) gives more clarity of its complexity and relative sizing in terms of development. It is helpful to have a set of stories nearby to make a comparison and recommendation to set priority.

While estimating stories, Consider :

Complexity: Consider the complexity of the story.

Consider the complexity of the story. Risk: Consider the team’s inexperience with developing this story.

Consider the team’s inexperience with developing this story. Implementation: Consider the implementation factors.

Consider the implementation factors. Deployment: Consider the deployment requirements.

Consider the deployment requirements. Interdependencies: Consider other outside issues.

Advantages of using story points for estimating work

Story points are a measure of relative size and complexity.

Story points are unitless, meaning as a scale, they are only valuable to compare against each other within the same team.

Estimating in story points allows/encourages everyone, including business people to participate in the estimation process (using Planning Poker).

Estimating story points is fast and easy.

Story points initiate high-level discussions about everything that is involved in a project.

Earned points can be used to generate the teams’ velocity which can be used to predict future work capacity.

Story point estimation Cheatsheet

5 Steps to estimate stories

For each story to be sized, do the following as a team

1. Identify base stories

Identify one or multiple bases or reference stories against which you would do relative sizing of the backlog. This story is picked from the current product backlog or a different story that we have done earlier. But what is important is the understanding of this story is the same among everyone on the team. The team should be confident of this base story.

2. Talk through the detailed requirements

The product manager will answer questions and provide an explanation about what exactly this story entails.

3. Discuss and note down points

These can be bullet points on the story card or text in the “notes” section of a tool. This is best done by Scrum Master who can add these details as and when discussions are on.

4. Raise questions if any

During the discussion, the question may arise and must be clarified at the same time, Such as:

Requirement: Any doubt about the story requirement? Raise an alert. Ask the product manager to give more clarity.

Any doubt about the story requirement? Raise an alert. Ask the product manager to give more clarity. Technical Feasibility: Can a story be delivered using current technology? Any unforeseen technical challenges must be surfaced.

Can a story be delivered using current technology? Any unforeseen technical challenges must be surfaced. Acceptance Criteria: Team must clarify the checklist to be fulfilled to mark the story as accepted.

Team must clarify the checklist to be fulfilled to mark the story as accepted. Dependency: Does this story have external dependencies? If yes, that must be understood and resolved quickly.

Does this story have external dependencies? If yes, that must be understood and resolved quickly. Expertise: Do we have enough skills to deliver the story? The team must have internal skills to deliver the story otherwise delivery might be delayed or not done properly.

5. Agree upon the estimated size

Every team member must agree upon the estimated size decided on a story.

Story Estimation Methods

Planning poker is an agile estimation technique that makes use of story points to estimate the difficulty of the task at hand. Based on the Fibonacci sequence, the story point values that can be assigned are 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21, etc. Each of these represents a different level of complexity for the overall project.

is an agile estimation technique that makes use of story points to estimate the difficulty of the task at hand. Based on the Fibonacci sequence, the story point values that can be assigned are 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21, etc. Each of these represents a different level of complexity for the overall project. T-Shirt Sizes If you think about T-shirts, there are multiple sizes to choose from. More specifically — there is extra-small (XS), small (S), medium (M), large (L), and extra-large (XL). This technique uses these sizes as story points for the size of the project, and it is a useful way of thinking when estimation needs to occur.

If you think about T-shirts, there are multiple sizes to choose from. More specifically — there is extra-small (XS), small (S), medium (M), large (L), and extra-large (XL). This technique uses these sizes as story points for the size of the project, and it is a useful way of thinking when estimation needs to occur. Dot Voting sometimes it can be hard to order the items in the product backlog. This ranking method enables you to sort these items from highest to lowest priority, so you know where to focus your efforts. To do this, you need to select the most important user stories.

sometimes it can be hard to order the items in the product backlog. This ranking method enables you to sort these items from highest to lowest priority, so you know where to focus your efforts. To do this, you need to select the most important user stories. The Bucket System this method relies on placing different values on a table. We call the placements ‘buckets’, but you can just use cards. The values are generally 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21, etc — although these can be expanded if necessary.

this method relies on placing different values on a table. We call the placements ‘buckets’, but you can just use cards. The values are generally 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21, etc — although these can be expanded if necessary. Affinity Mapping firstly, silent relative sizing needs to occur. To prepare for this, place two cards on opposite sides of a wall. One should say ‘small’ and the other should say ‘large’. The leader (or product owner) needs to provide each estimator with a subset of items and should remain present during the process to clarify anything. Estimators then place the items on the wall, relative to each item’s perceived size. The size depends on the effort expected to complete them. There is no discussion at this point.

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