Estimation (Story Sizing)

“How long will that take?”

It seems like such a simple question, yet it is one of the hardest for software developers to accurately answer. Inconveniently, it is also one of the most important. This session combines an interactive exercise, the Team Estimation Game, with a bit of agile theory to teach participants how to quickly create estimates for their user stories.

The Team Estimation Game

The Team Estimation Game, created by Steve Bockman, helps teams that are new to estimating quickly grasp the concept of relative sizing. Here’s how Alan Shalloway et al described the game when they included it in their book, Lean Agile Software Development:Achieving Enterprise Agility:

“It works because people find it easier to compare the complexity of one feature or story with another even if they do not yet know all aspects of that story. This game is fast, easy, and fun. It helps people avoid getting bogged down in too many details, which is always a risk during estimation exercises.”