Strategic long-term estimation in Agile Scrum (step-by-step)
Andrew SoswaTechnology leader| Leading global financial institutionElk Grove Village, Il, United States
Please poke holes in this process that I practices to perfection.
Backlog Refinement:
1. PO prioritize user stories to be refined (before Backlog Refinement starts)
2. Team refines user stories to get DOD with PO direction/guidance
3. Immediately after refining user story, team starts story point estimating (without PO)
4. The end result of Backlog Refinement is set of (a) prioritized (b) refined (c) estimated user stories
Sprint Planning:
1. PO prioritize user stories what needs to be done first
2. Each team member takes set of user stories (only those from Backlog that are refined and estimated)
3. Each team member on their own estimates ONLY THEIR user stories by hours
4. IF team member is short, then ask for more user stories, if over in 40hrs/week then negotiates to give user story back or trade.
5. When everyone is fully allocated, Sprint Planning is completed and work starts....
Why estimates by story points? To long-term plan work in Agile way.
1. PO gathers each sprint's total user stories to see the team's velocity.
2. If team refines enough user stories during Backlog Refinement for several sprints, then good PO using simple math formula can estimate velocity per sprint and determine when product can be delivered to customer. Saving Changes...
