Project Management

Story Points are Good AND Evil with Ryan Ripley

From the The Reluctant Agilist Blog
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A few weeks ago while I was teaching a CSM class, I got a Slack message from Ron Quartel pointing me to a tweet by Ryan Ripley. The tweet said “If you are sitting in a Scrum Training class and the trainer starts teaching Story Points, you should 1. Get up. 2. Demand Your Money Back, and 3. Walk out. You're wasting your time. 

Here is a link to the tweet: https://bit.ly/3XsfPAP

I should mention I was just about to cover Story Points and I used Ryan's tweet in class as part of our conversation.

As soon as I saw Ryan's tweet, I DM'd him asking if we could do a podcast about it. I did this because A) I have a lot of respect for Ryan and value his opinion, B) earlier in my career I spent about 4 years fighting against Story Points, C) I do teach them in class because I believe that (used properly) they can be incredibly valuable to a Scrum Team, and D) I love getting into debates on topics I feel strongly about with really smart people who might be able to change my mind

So this podcast is Ryan and I talking through his reason for throwing shade on Story Points, my reasons for standing up for them, and the reasons I feel comfortable saying that we are aligned about why Story Points are good AND evil.

Contacting Ryan:
Web: https://AgileforHumans.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AgileforHumans
Fixing Your Scrum by Ryan Ripley and Todd Miller: https://amzn.to/3Qyjs5S
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanripley/

Posted on: January 12, 2023 12:12 AM | Permalink

Comments (1)

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Talking about the value of story points reminds me of Eisenhower's "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything."

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