How to Estimate Stories in Scrum: Tips for Beginners

The first planning session for a junior developer can be intimidating. It is common to feel afraid of making a mistake, not understanding enough about the project, or not being able to meet expectations. But don't worry, young apprentice! The goal of this text is to make your experience of estimating stories more peaceful and conscious from a professional point of view.

Scoring is a fundamental process for estimating the effort required to complete a story during a sprint. It serves as a metric for the team to evaluate progress and decide which stories should enter the backlog to achieve the sprint goal. There are several tools available for scoring stories, but today we will focus on poker planning, which uses the Fibonacci sequence.

The Fibonacci Sequence:

The Fibonacci sequence is a numerical series in which each subsequent number is the sum of the two previous numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, and so on. In poker planning, we usually use numbers 1 through 13 to score stories. In exceptional cases, the number 21 can be used.

What to consider when scoring:

It's important to remember that scoring is not an exact measure, but rather an estimate, and naturally varies from person to person. To estimate correctly, it's necessary to take into account some factors, such as:

• Technical difficulties: evaluating if the task will require more advanced technical knowledge;

• Familiarity with the project: considering if the story involves knowledge about an unknown project or technology;

• Available time: amount of meetings, holidays, and other events that may affect the sprint progress; Business understanding of the project: knowing if the junior professional fully understands the project's context and objectives;

• Amount of necessary testing: evaluating if the story requires many tests or if there are already tests ready.

  
  

Poker Planning:

During planning, the Scrum Master or Product Owner usually presents the stories, and everyone has to vote on what they believe the complexity of the story is. To do this, the team uses Poker Planning, which is a collaborative and playful effort estimation technique. Each team member receives a set of cards with point values from the Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21), and after the story is presented, each person chooses the card that best represents their guess about the effort needed to complete it.

If there is no consensus on the score, people are invited to explain why they gave the score, and a new vote can be taken or the parties can come to an agreement during the argumentation session. Poker Planning is interesting because it stimulates healthy debate since the scoring is done secretly, with the points each person gave being revealed at the same time. This avoids the influence of opinions and biases on the effort needed for a story.

Golden Tip: Observing the Estimates of More Experienced Developers

A valuable tip for junior developers is to observe the estimates of more experienced developers. A possible estimation series could be:

1: change a color 2: style bug 3: code bug 5: front-end or back-end feature (with tests) 8: more complex feature in front-end or back-end with many tests 13: work on front-end and back-end (may need to be split into more than one story) 21: needs to be divided into smaller stories

Conclusion:

Don't worry if you're a junior professional and are afraid of estimating stories incorrectly. Remember that scoring is just an estimate, and it's okay if you estimate above or below the actual effort of that story. With time and practice, your estimates will only improve. Keep in mind the tips presented here and use them as a guide during planning. Also, remember to observe the estimates of more experienced professionals and actively participate in healthy debate during poker planning. Good luck and success in your work with Scrum!