"In the beginning there was a tweet", great way to start a story. Within our organisation we had been doing story point estimations. After a team had been in place for 6 months I went to JIRA and exported dates from the stories and did a little analysis. The story point estimations and duration that tasks took to complete had very little correlation. The average 1 point stories were completed quicker than the average 5 point story, but some of the longest stories were 3 points, and some 4 day tasks had been estimated as 1,2 and 5 points. After reading Daniel Vacanti's When will it be done, and moving to a new team, I've tried moving away from story points to just counting stories. So far I there has been no downside. The only thing I like about story point estimations is that it allows everyone to quickly vote on how complex a story is. If there is a difference of opinion it should be highlighted quickly and gives the team a chance for a discussion.
I've had a similar experience, and I think we're saving a lot of time by not estimating. "Why do you think this is a 2?" "5 is too high, it's only a few variables", I would not miss those discussions which don't bring any value. It's just easier for humans to try to have the smallest size of story possible, and to see how many you can deliver per sprint, than trying to estimate.
Hi guys. You are both doing absolutely awesome with your podcasts. I see you guys as great mentors. Keep up the good job. Hopefully we get to talk to you on one and one pretty soon. 👍 I have this two questions for you. 1.HOW IMPORTANT ARE STORY POINTS AND ARE DO THEY HELP THE TEAM. 2. HOW DOES A SCRUM MASTER CONVINCE THE DEVELOPERS THAT ALL CEREMONIES ARE IMPORTANT, BUT FOR SOME REASONS SOME OF THEM FIND THE DAILY STAND UP MEETINGS EXTREMELY BORING? 3 HOW CAN A SCRUM MASTER DRAW A LINE IN DISCHARGING HER DUTIES THAT SHE HAS NOT GONE BEYOND BOARD? 4. WHAT ARE THE MOST 5 CRUCIAL AND IMPORTANT REPEATED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS THAT A SCRUM MASTER CAN NOT AFFORD NOT TO ANSWER DURING AN INTERVIEW SESSIONS. THANKS Angel
After years of trying to get teams to understand and use velocity and story points, I think I would love to get that cat back in the bag. I don't think I would recommend to introduce this to a team who is new to scrum in 2021. Counting the number of stories without estimating them is much easier and intuitive for newcomers.
Music to my ears, 'velocity and story points are some of the most destructive things in organisations', I agree 100% and have seen it soooo many times. And as you say Ron Jeffries apologised for them a few years back as they have been misused so badly. For me the #NoEstimates means stop using story points but it doesn't mean stop discussing the work and breaking it down and it doesn't mean don't forecast - we should definitely forecast but do it using a more data driven approach such as Monte Carlo - and it's so easy to do - I think people maybe get put off as it's a new term they're not familiar with. Anyway great discussion as always guys 🙂
Working in it ;) looking to transition from esimating to forecasting, but not the most important at the moment as the team has great conversations and consensus of their way of sizing,. Other things seem more important for now, empiricism, values, theory, and embracing for transitioning to scrum. Focus on the team first. Great question. Thanks RR+TM 🌟
No estimates means "no estimates", therefore you don't estimate to forecast. You simply look at how many stories you usually can deliver per sprint and plan from there.
Umm…. I think the leaders in my previous organization would have flipped a lid if there were no estimates. There was already growing frustration, with the software developer’s lack of planning. We also needed estimates to request the appropriate level of funding. We couldn’t go to the person spending the money and say, “we don’t know how much functionality we are going to give you in a year, but we need millions of dollars. We will let you know what you are getting for your money 12 months from now.” That said, we all kind of knew that the estimated required funds, for software development, were magical numbers that we pulled out of thin air aka SWAG. Although I doubt there was much scientific about the estimates. The flow metrics really would have helped us forecast much better. My current organization seems more relaxed although I could be wrong in my perception. I am playing with a couple of flow metrics, but it is on a super small effort.
Does scrum masters have "authority"? i understand that scrum master have accountability over processes, but when it comes to a disagreeing team, does the scrum master have the final say?
Hi, I believe scrum masters don't have authority in the sense of org hierarchy. The authority a scrum master can leverage is knowledge and empirical data. Facts are our best friends
Well I think it all depends on the Scrum Master how the story points is being used with in the environment. If properly used then its a really powerful and fun idea of opening and uncovering the complexities of any PBI. It also helps the developers take the ownership of Sprint Planning knowing their velocity and how much work they can bring it into the Sprint. I also dont understand what you guys think of SIZING mentioned in Scrum Guide?
"Well I think it all depends on the Scrum Master how the story points is being used with in the environment" I strongly disagree. The team owns the sizing, they decide how they estimate, and it's the role of the Scrum Master to provide them with the best practices. If you're pushing only Story Points in 2021, you're omitting the latest best practices that the team should know about.
@@frednobel303 Dude I havent said that Scrum Master owns it, what I am saying is that if story points is negatively being used in an organization then its the Scrum Masters job to remove that. So it doesn’t mean its a bad practice, as a Scrum Master you just need to explain the purpose of Story point and making sure team and the management understands it. In my opinion Story point is the best sizing method, can you give an example of any sizing method better than this?
@@humanityisislam I didn't understand your first sentence to mean this, so it makes more sense to me now. But I do think that in 2021 as a Scrum Master you also need to explain the ideas behind #noestimates and that there are other ways to forecast that they could use, and perhaps should, if they think it's better. There's too much that has come out in the last few years that, yes, point towards this being a bad practice. I see many that are disregarding #noestimates and that keep pushing one way of doing things, and my opinion is that they are not fulfilling they role as a Scrum Master. The reality today is that the community is on the fence on this one. Re: Sizing, go read Ian Vellosa's comment on this video. I would have posted the same thing as I have had the same experience.
What do you think about #NoEstimates? Let’s us know in the comments!
"In the beginning there was a tweet", great way to start a story.
Within our organisation we had been doing story point estimations. After a team had been in place for 6 months I went to JIRA and exported dates from the stories and did a little analysis. The story point estimations and duration that tasks took to complete had very little correlation. The average 1 point stories were completed quicker than the average 5 point story, but some of the longest stories were 3 points, and some 4 day tasks had been estimated as 1,2 and 5 points.
After reading Daniel Vacanti's When will it be done, and moving to a new team, I've tried moving away from story points to just counting stories. So far I there has been no downside. The only thing I like about story point estimations is that it allows everyone to quickly vote on how complex a story is. If there is a difference of opinion it should be highlighted quickly and gives the team a chance for a discussion.
I've had a similar experience, and I think we're saving a lot of time by not estimating. "Why do you think this is a 2?" "5 is too high, it's only a few variables", I would not miss those discussions which don't bring any value. It's just easier for humans to try to have the smallest size of story possible, and to see how many you can deliver per sprint, than trying to estimate.
Hi guys. You are both doing absolutely awesome with your podcasts. I see you guys as great mentors. Keep up the good job. Hopefully we get to talk to you on one and one pretty soon. 👍
I have this two questions for you.
1.HOW IMPORTANT ARE STORY POINTS AND ARE DO THEY HELP THE TEAM.
2. HOW DOES A SCRUM MASTER CONVINCE THE DEVELOPERS THAT ALL CEREMONIES ARE IMPORTANT, BUT FOR SOME REASONS SOME OF THEM FIND THE DAILY STAND UP MEETINGS EXTREMELY BORING?
3 HOW CAN A SCRUM MASTER DRAW A LINE IN DISCHARGING HER DUTIES THAT SHE HAS NOT GONE BEYOND BOARD?
4. WHAT ARE THE MOST 5 CRUCIAL AND IMPORTANT REPEATED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS THAT A SCRUM MASTER CAN NOT AFFORD NOT TO ANSWER DURING AN INTERVIEW SESSIONS.
THANKS
Angel
After years of trying to get teams to understand and use velocity and story points, I think I would love to get that cat back in the bag. I don't think I would recommend to introduce this to a team who is new to scrum in 2021. Counting the number of stories without estimating them is much easier and intuitive for newcomers.
Music to my ears, 'velocity and story points are some of the most destructive things in organisations', I agree 100% and have seen it soooo many times. And as you say Ron Jeffries apologised for them a few years back as they have been misused so badly. For me the #NoEstimates means stop using story points but it doesn't mean stop discussing the work and breaking it down and it doesn't mean don't forecast - we should definitely forecast but do it using a more data driven approach such as Monte Carlo - and it's so easy to do - I think people maybe get put off as it's a new term they're not familiar with. Anyway great discussion as always guys 🙂
Working in it ;) looking to transition from esimating to forecasting, but not the most important at the moment as the team has great conversations and consensus of their way of sizing,. Other things seem more important for now, empiricism, values, theory, and embracing for transitioning to scrum. Focus on the team first.
Great question. Thanks RR+TM 🌟
So, Baby Yoda is reading from a book about Star Wars that is standing on top of a laptop.
Cool!
Grogu really likes to stay busy. Big time reader he is.
This is great.I have been asking, why estimate?
What was the name of the book you were refering for forecasting?
When Will It Be Done by Daniel Vacanti
How to forecast without estimation ? if we need to estimate then what we shall use instead of story points ?
No estimates means "no estimates", therefore you don't estimate to forecast. You simply look at how many stories you usually can deliver per sprint and plan from there.
Flow metrics. :-)
@@AgileforHumans can you elaborate more ?
Umm…. I think the leaders in my previous organization would have flipped a lid if there were no estimates. There was already growing frustration, with the software developer’s lack of planning. We also needed estimates to request the appropriate level of funding. We couldn’t go to the person spending the money and say, “we don’t know how much functionality we are going to give you in a year, but we need millions of dollars. We will let you know what you are getting for your money 12 months from now.”
That said, we all kind of knew that the estimated required funds, for software development, were magical numbers that we pulled out of thin air aka SWAG. Although I doubt there was much scientific about the estimates. The flow metrics really would have helped us forecast much better.
My current organization seems more relaxed although I could be wrong in my perception. I am playing with a couple of flow metrics, but it is on a super small effort.
Does scrum masters have "authority"? i understand that scrum master have accountability over processes, but when it comes to a disagreeing team, does the scrum master have the final say?
Hi, I believe scrum masters don't have authority in the sense of org hierarchy. The authority a scrum master can leverage is knowledge and empirical data. Facts are our best friends
Well I think it all depends on the Scrum Master how the story points is being used with in the environment. If properly used then its a really powerful and fun idea of opening and uncovering the complexities of any PBI. It also helps the developers take the ownership of Sprint Planning knowing their velocity and how much work they can bring it into the Sprint. I also dont understand what you guys think of SIZING mentioned in Scrum Guide?
"Well I think it all depends on the Scrum Master how the story points is being used with in the environment" I strongly disagree. The team owns the sizing, they decide how they estimate, and it's the role of the Scrum Master to provide them with the best practices. If you're pushing only Story Points in 2021, you're omitting the latest best practices that the team should know about.
@@frednobel303 Dude I havent said that Scrum Master owns it, what I am saying is that if story points is negatively being used in an organization then its the Scrum Masters job to remove that. So it doesn’t mean its a bad practice, as a Scrum Master you just need to explain the purpose of Story point and making sure team and the management understands it. In my opinion Story point is the best sizing method, can you give an example of any sizing method better than this?
@@humanityisislam I didn't understand your first sentence to mean this, so it makes more sense to me now. But I do think that in 2021 as a Scrum Master you also need to explain the ideas behind #noestimates and that there are other ways to forecast that they could use, and perhaps should, if they think it's better. There's too much that has come out in the last few years that, yes, point towards this being a bad practice. I see many that are disregarding #noestimates and that keep pushing one way of doing things, and my opinion is that they are not fulfilling they role as a Scrum Master. The reality today is that the community is on the fence on this one.
Re: Sizing, go read Ian Vellosa's comment on this video. I would have posted the same thing as I have had the same experience.
How do teams make their work transparent when working remotely?
What is it you want to be transparent? What isn't transparent working remotely what is transparent when working at the office?
Hi guys , Will be expecting a feedback as soon as possible
Thanks
Angel
We will do our level best. 👍
Hmmm. Well, it can. It can also not. As every tool.
Uff, for a second, I thought you would be going straight with the extremist crowd. Not disappointed.💪