Adjust the Definition of Ready
We like to use the adapted Fibonacci sequence, let’s say on a scale up to 20. The definition of ready says that all stories over 20 have to be split, so the numbers up to 20 are fine. This makes things a bit easier for us.
Use the first story as a benchmark
The first story receives 5 story points. Maybe even 8. Why? Because it doesn’t matter. The first story is just a benchmark.
Compare stories in the first sprint
Any other story in this sprint will be compared to the first story. We ask: Is this story more complex to implement or not? Yes, in this phase it’s all about effort. So the second story is much more elaborate, say 13 story points. This gives us a total of 18 story points. Good.
Determining the implementation effort in time
In a second planning phase, we determine the actual implementation effort in time by creating detailed subtasks and estimating them in hours. This is a truly technical workshop in which we create a concrete implementation plan for this sprint. Let’s say for the first story we had 2 days, for the second 5 days. Since both estimates use different scales, the ratio between the first and second story in both estimates is, of course, not linear. So we have 2 stories with 18 story points and a total of 7 days of effort. Strictly speaking, it is by no means important if you estimate the actual implementation time in the second part of the planning, or if you do so after the sprint per story. The latter would be even more objective. But you’ll need the estimate for a valid commitment anyway, and you won’t have to track the time spent per story during the sprint. Instead you can focus on the remaining time.
Starting the sprint
Now we will use these values to start the sprint.
Repeat the process for a few sprints
In the next sprint we do the same, comparing every story with the first story of the first sprint. In the next sprint we do the same over and over again. At some point, we get to the 5th, 7th, or 10th sprint. Time has passed. Time that teams used to familiarize themselves with technology, to train juniors, to get to know each other, to have retrospectives, to make improvements in the process, etc.
Compare the complexity to the very first story
Now let’s do the same thing again. We take the current story in the 5th, 7th, or 10th sprint and compare it to the first story of the first sprint. But now we ask a different question: “If we had to implement this story in the first sprint – when we were young and beautiful and inexperienced – how long would it have taken us compared to the very first story?
This is where the theory of relativity kicks in, as we have changed over time, but the complexity of the story hasn’t.
The only difference is that we need less time to implement the story today than we did back then. This will be shown in the second phase of planning in which we estimate the exact implementation time. For example, the story also has 5 story points, because back then it would have required the same effort. But today we don’t need 2 days, we only need 1.5. This means that we have become better, our velocity has increased
We can use MoSCoW Theory to calculate story points actually. I will post a discussion on that soon.
Imasha
Yeah as we following for marketrix - I think we can use MoSCow theory for define the proper requirements.