What It Means
StoryUser storyA short description of something a product should do, written from the point of view of the person who needs it, often in the form "As a, I want, so that." See more points are a unit agileAgileA way of working, set out in the 2001 Agile Manifesto, that delivers in small pieces, gets feedback early and adjusts the plan as it learns. See more teams use to estimate how much effort a piece of work will take compared with other pieces. Atlassian defines them as a measure of the overall effort needed to fully implement a backlogProduct backlogIn Scrum, the ordered list of everything needed to improve a product, and the single source of work for the Scrum Team. See more item, weighing the amount of work, its complexity, and its risk or uncertainty. A team scores items against each other, so an 8 is a bigger job than a 3 for that team, with no fixed number of hours behind either one.
Try It: Slide Along a Fibonacci Story Point Scale
Many teams estimate on the Fibonacci sequence, as Atlassian describes. Slide along it and watch the gaps widen.
Small and well understood. Neighboring numbers sit close together, so the team can tell them apart.
Medium. The gaps are growing, because bigger work carries more unknowns.
Large. At this size the uncertainty is high. Buhata's own suggestion: split the item before planning it.
How People Say It
- "I'd call that a five."
- "Why are you at thirteen when everyone else says three?"
- "That's too big to point, let's split it."
The Breakdown
How a team estimates in story points
- Pick a small, well-understood item everyone knows and agree its score, such as a 2. That's your reference.
- Take the next item and compare it with the reference: about the same, bigger or smaller?
- Weigh how much work it is, how complex it is and how much is unknown.
- Everyone picks a number from the scale at the same time, so nobody anchors on the first voice.
- Talk through the highest and lowest picks, then settle on a number.
- Split anything that lands at the top of the scale into smaller items.
Steps 1, 4 and 6 are Buhata's own suggestions for getting started.
The Fibonacci scale many teams use (per Atlassian)
| Score | Next number up | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 5 | 2 |
| 5 | 8 | 3 |
| 8 | 13 | 5 |
| 13 | 21 | 8 |
Atlassian explains that the widening gaps match the way uncertainty grows with bigger work, so a team isn't asked to split hairs between large items.
Where It Comes From
ScrumScrumA lightweight framework, defined in the Scrum Guide, in which a small team delivers work in fixed-length Sprints of one month or less and adjusts after each one. See more.org's articles describe story points, along with velocity, as practices that came into agile teams from other methods, mainly Extreme Programming. They were never part of the Scrum framework itself.
Good to Know
The 2020 Scrum Guide doesn't mention story points and doesn't require any particular way of estimating. It does say the Developers who will do the work are responsible for sizing it, so points should come from them. Scores only compare within one team: one team's 5 and another team's 5 aren't the same amount of work, so a points total says nothing useful when set against another team's.
FAQ
What do story points measure?
The relative effort of a piece of work, weighing the amount of work, its complexity, and its risk or uncertainty, per Atlassian. They compare items with each other rather than counting hours.
Why do teams use the Fibonacci sequence for story points?
The numbers (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21) spread further apart as they grow. Atlassian explains this mirrors how uncertainty increases with bigger work, so teams make rough calls on large items instead of false precise ones.
Are story points part of Scrum?
No. The Scrum Guide doesn't include them, and Scrum.org describes them as a complementary practice from other agile methods. Many Scrum teamsScrum teamThe small, self-managing group that does the work in Scrum: one Product Owner, one Scrum Master and the Developers, typically 10 or fewer people. See more still choose to use them.
Do It in Buhata
Tasks and Team Space
Put each backlog item in Tasks in your Team Space with its agreed story points in the title, and split any item that scores at the top of your scale into smaller tasks.
Open BuhataRelated Terms and Categories
- User story
A short description of something a product should do, written from the point of view of the person who needs it, often in the form "As a, I want, so that."
- Backlog refinement
The ongoing Scrum activity of splitting Product Backlog items into smaller, clearer ones and adding details such as a description, order and size.
- Burndown chart
A chart of the work left in a sprint or project against time, showing whether a team is on pace to finish by the end date.
- Product backlog
In Scrum, the ordered list of everything needed to improve a product, and the single source of work for the Scrum Team.
- Sprint planning
The Scrum event that starts each Sprint, where the whole Scrum Team agrees why the Sprint is valuable, what can be done in it and how the work will get done.
Sources
Atlassian, "What are story points in Agile and how do you estimate them?"; Atlassian, "Fibonacci Story Points"; Scrum.org, "Why do we use Story Points for Estimating?"; Scrum.org, "Story Points & Velocity are a Sign of an Unsuccessful Team"; Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, The 2020 Scrum Guide (scrumguides.org)
- www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/estimation
- www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/fibonacci-story-points
- www.scrum.org/resources/blog/why-do-we-use-story-points-estimating
- www.scrum.org/resources/blog/story-points-velocity-are-sign-unsuccessful-team
- scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html
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