Estimating and Planning Agile User Stories
A 59 Seconds Agile Training Video
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Introduction to Estimating User Stories
A 59 Seconds Agile Article
This article provides an ‘Introduction into Estimating User Stories’ and looks to discuss what a user story is and the methods of estimation and planning within Agile projects.
Estimating User Stories Conclusions
In summary, the aim of estimating points is to provide a baseline for selecting the stories to be included in the next sprint. The total number of story points chosen is a value known as the velocity, that is the speed with which the team works for a sprint.
For the first few sprints, this number will be quite variable, while the team is getting to grips with the project. As the sprints progress, the team will stabilize their velocity, although ideally it should improve for each sprint as the team enhances their processes. This makes it easy to estimate how many stories to include in the Sprint Backlog, the total number of user story points should not exceed the velocity achieved to date.
Although this may seem a new way of project estimation when compared to a traditional project manager, it can be very accurate. It also has an advantage over traditional projects because the whole team are involved and have an intrinsic understanding of the work to be done and its complexity.
“A good plan is one that stakeholders find sufficiently reliable that they can use it as the basis for making decisions.” (Cohn, 2006)
A team should estimate and plan only to the extent that further investment in estimating and planning will lead to different actions.
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Estimating User Stories
A 59 Seconds Agile Video Animation
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User Stories Applied
A 59 Seconds Agile Book Review
User Stories Applied by Mike Cohn is one of our favourite books on Agile User Stories. The book starts with an overview into user stories, and details what a user story is and the different aspects of them. He then discusses how to go about writing a user story, and provides details of the INVEST criteria that can be used to determine if the story is meeting all of its objectives. Next Mike gives an in depth discussion of who user stories are written for and where to begin when gathering the details for them. The book then discusses acceptance testing user stories, including how to go about specifying these criteria and the responsibilities of the development team and customers during this process.
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What is Agile?
A 59 Seconds Agile Infographic
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Agile Scrum Master Training Course
Our Favourite Agile Books
We found these books great for finding out more information on Agile Scrum:
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