82
votes
Accepted
Is Planning Poker Bad for Software Development Teams?
Is Planning Poker Bad for Software Development Teams?
This is the wrong question to ask. Planning poker is a tool. Asking if planning poker is bad for software development teams is like asking if a ...
- 15k
53
votes
Accepted
Task estimation for PMs who are not developers
If at all possible, they don't.
They ask developers to estimate it.
Estimates should always be made by the people who will perform the work being estimated. If this is not done, then you run the ...
- 14.8k
37
votes
Accepted
How do you schedule delivery dates in Scrum?
TL; DR
Agile release planning is based on fixed-length, normed-capacity cycles that operate on dynamically-planned and dynamically-scoped features. In Scrum, fixed-date release planning must be ...
- 50.1k
35
votes
Why are developers expected to estimate tasks at all?
You Have an X/Y Problem
Why are developers expected to estimate tasks at all...[when i]n my ideal world, management would simply tell me which task they want me to work on next and then as it ...
- 50.1k
33
votes
How should a Scrum master handle disagreements about story-point estimates in Scrum?
With that much variation in the estimate, it seems like the work as it's currently defined is not ready for estimation yet. Based on that wide spread in estimates, I would say that the team doesn't ...
- 19k
23
votes
How should a Scrum master handle disagreements about story-point estimates in Scrum?
The first thing you should do is encourage the team to bring concrete arguments.
"Things are more complicated than they seem" or "I don't think those complications are valid" are ...
- 508
21
votes
Accepted
Should velocity increase with time?
TL;DR
Should velocity increase with time?
The simplistic answer is that a project's velocity should only increase until the team has developed a stable, predictable cadence that can be maintained ...
- 50.1k
20
votes
Accepted
How to manage story points when several developers work on 1 story?
When estimating user stories, everyone should be estimating the complete effort it will take the team to get the story to Done. So, the back-end dev should not just estimate the effort it will take ...
- 2,760
20
votes
Why are developers expected to estimate tasks at all?
Frame Challenge
Almost everything a developer writes is unique, they have never built that particular thing before. We are not cabinet makers repeating a variation of something we've built hundreds ...
- 542
19
votes
Does the scrum master also estimate user stories?
If you do development work in the sprint, you should estimate. If you don't, then it's better you skip on providing your own story points estimates.
You can help your team with information and advice, ...
- 15k
19
votes
Accepted
At whose expense is the stage of preparing a contract performed?
This depends a lot on how the two companies involved in the contract negotiation operate.
You have to realize that there is always a cost of doing business, and somehow you have to recuperate it from ...
- 15k
19
votes
Accepted
Developer keeps underestimating tasks time
Hat tip to Nvoigt, Nvogel & D. Espina - all good answers, with particular emphasis on D. Espina's "sometimes, knowing one of your team is overly optimistic, you simply add your own margins ...
- 8,728
17
votes
Giving high level estimates to client without commiting to numbers
Slight frame challenge: consider providing your estimates as the wide-end of a cone of uncertainty rather than a discrete number.
"I need a [vague thing], how long would it take?"
"...
- 14.8k
16
votes
Developer keeps underestimating tasks time
In Scrum the team aims to complete the sprint goal by the end of the sprint. It shouldn't be necessary to estimate day-to-day deadlines since the delivery date is always the end of the sprint. I ...
- 6,226
15
votes
Definition of a Story Point
Story points are a relative measure of effort rather than an absolute one. However, each member of the team should have the same understanding of the size of a points estimate. A common understanding ...
- 6,226
15
votes
Accepted
Artificial decomposition in Scrum
It looks like Scrum doesn't address this issue in any way?
No, it doesn't.
Scrum is a guide. Although it prescribes stuff, it doesn't prescribe a lot of stuff. This is one of the things that are left ...
- 15k
13
votes
How can you estimate a spike story?
Two things jump out at me.
First, the end result of a Spike is not a shippable product. Spikes are used to learn, and do research. The end result is an answer to a question or finding some ...
- 19k
13
votes
In scrum, how do you track/estimate points when multiple tickets overlap their work?
Vertical Slicing is a Best Practice, Not a Framework Requirement
Your prerequisite tasks (by definition) must be prioritized over their dependencies, so a separate task or user story for C should be ...
- 50.1k
12
votes
How to make Release Planning more accurate?
Not surprisingly, I hear that question a lot. The basic problem with the question is that Agile disagrees with the fundamental idea of a fixed-scope/fixed-timeline project. In the question you were ...
- 16.9k
12
votes
Accepted
How to estimate a project budget using story points?
TL;DR
For agile projects, a basic formula for estimating budget is:
(totalStoryPoints / velocity * teamHoursPerSprint) + nonLaborCosts = budgetEstimate
The results should be reported as an ...
- 50.1k
12
votes
What needs to be in place to get a Software project estimate within 10%
The software project, already completed (and even then your historical data might be off by more than 10% depending on how you tracked it). Note: this is not a joke.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/...
- 957
12
votes
Definition of a Story Point
Let's be serious, people don't usually care how you do estimates. What they care about is how much it takes and/or how much it costs. Time and money. That's what they want. The estimates is just ...
- 15k
11
votes
Forecasting Story Points in Agile
TL;DR
A common approach is to do a rough initial estimate of the Product Backlog using a sorting method like the bucket system, with variations described by ThoughtWorks or Mountain Goat Software. A ...
- 50.1k
11
votes
Task estimation for PMs who are not developers
Have Task Performers Provide Estimates
In agile frameworks (and even in sensible non-agile frameworks), project managers should never estimate work items themselves. Instead, the people who will ...
- 50.1k
11
votes
Is Planning Poker Bad for Software Development Teams?
Planning Poker isn't the only way to estimate and lots of teams get on well with other methods. More experienced teams may find they can reach a consensus estimate via a quick conversation instead.
...
- 6,226
11
votes
Estimating when my project will be done
Just because you have 150 story points in your backlog now does not mean that work captures the work necessary from your stakeholders' perspectives. Every iteration, you should be evaluating what has ...
- 19k
11
votes
At whose expense is the stage of preparing a contract performed?
My company will sometimes engage into a "discovery" phase where we will spend 20-80 hours detailing the exact requirements of the project and determining the cost. We do this if we believe ...
- 211
11
votes
Artificial decomposition in Scrum
I know there is an accepted answer, but I find it to have a bit of a trap in it, so I want to provide this answer for another view.
I've been practicing Scrum for about 15 years and I have yet to ...
- 16.9k
10
votes
How do you schedule delivery dates in Scrum?
You have historical data about your team
The only tool you have in Scrum to help this situation is your velocity. I believe you know your velocity - how many story points you do in a sprint -, check ...
- 11.9k
10
votes
Developers don't like to estimate. What can I do to improve the process?
This issue is not just limited to developers or agile or even in the IT industry. This cuts across all industries and all types of roles.
Providing estimates is about trying to predict the future ...
- 37.1k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible