Story Points

Golden Stories are a small set of well-understood baseline stories that the team agrees to peg with certain point values. These are used as references for future pointing. As the team estimates new stories, they can compare them to the golden stories which act as an established agreed upon baseline. So when a story “Fix a typo in the main menu” arrives the team can compare the new story directly to the golden Stories: “Is this typo harder or easier than the “Login” golden story?”. The team calibrates the estimate and explores and hidden scope or assumptions. ...

At the start of a project, we haven’t set a precedent baseline of how to estimate our stories. So at our initial estimation meetings we can pick one average story as our Golden Story and give it a number (say 3). And then we compare the other stories to it: simpler might be 1, harder might be 5 or 6. Story points measure relative effort, not hours. They should be roughly linear but stay fuzzy at first. Write the point estimation onto the story. And keep the story brief. Perhaps just a title and a few short notes. ...

Story points are a simple, relative way to size work. We don’t size purely in hours, instead we compare one story to another: is this smaller, about the same, or much larger? Pointing becomes more precise over time. The key is to establish a tight feedback loop. Early estimates are imprecise, and that’s OK. As we work through our iterations we continue to deliver, measure, and recalibrate our point sizing. And that quick adjust-and-learn cycle transforms vagueness into useful predictability. ...