Story Points method | NORTH IT Group

Story Points - A method for estimating the development effort of features within the Scrum methodology.

Let's take a closer look at an estimation method that is designed to make the planning process more flexible and accurate: the so-called Story Points method. The special feature of story points lies in the abstract estimation of the complexity of a task and not in the direct link to the time required.

Advantages of story points

• Abstraction and dimensional analysis. The main feature of story points is the abstract nature of the estimate. Instead of trying to convert the difficulty of a task into a definable number of hours, we focus on how difficult or easy a task is compared to others. The story points method avoids subjective influences and allows us to evaluate the tasks in a more aggregated way.
• Flexibility. Story points offer flexibility in planning. After all, changes in requirements, new technical difficulties and other surprises can occur during the course of a project. The story point system makes it easy to adapt to these changes without having to completely recalculate the schedule.
• Joint evaluation. Evaluation in Story Points is a collaborative process. Each team member contributes by expressing their opinion on the difficulty of the task. This collective approach helps to take different perspectives and aspects into account, which in turn can improve the quality of the evaluation.

Disadvantages of story points

• Peculiarity. A challenge for managers and clients may be that they are not familiar with the use of Story Points as they are used to giving estimates in hours. They need to be sufficiently trained to better understand the abstract nature of Story Points.
• Relativity. It is important to recognize that story points are not directly related to time, which can lead to misunderstandings with clients who expect a certain number of deliverables. Communication is important here to have a common understanding of the estimate.