STORY POINT: Measuring Life in Good Deeds

A story point estimates the effort required to implement a piece of work.

It is a concept worth internalizing.

You usually measure a work item in time units; for instance, preparing this piece will (likely) take three days, and that one—five. However, for new things, your estimation is always a guess.

Also, as we discussed, we have no objective sense of these three or five days. When people agree that something new will take three days, they express more hope or wish than the estimate.

With story points, you fill a particular time box (e.g., one month) with the points of the work. The benefit of such an approach is the realization of time spent and a better understanding of the work at hand—to attach points, you must understand it.

If you do not, group members can help. The estimation is done in a group, and you can use its collective intelligence. Each member's perspective and expertise can make the estimation process more accurate and reliable. Moreover, the more you estimate together, the better your estimates become.

{GUESSWORK, SUBJECTIVITY, DELAY, EXPLORE AND EXPLOIT, COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLES}