The Problems with Points

Hello!

There has been something missing in my sprints and agile development process so far. That would be story points!

Story point is a arbitrary measure used by Scrum teams. This is used to measure the effort required to implement a story. In simple terms its a number that tells the team how hard the story is. Hard could be related to complexity, Unknowns and effort.

https://agilefaq.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/what-is-a-story-point/

Why have these not been utilised fully so far?

There are a number of reasons why I haven't utilised story points, some more important and pressing than others.

• It's only me.
• I have a decent understanding of how much I can achieve in a 2 week basis and will try not to overload myself making points slightly redundant some times
• Planning times
• When I plan the sprints sometimes I'm going into great unknowns, such as coding or listening to talks on specific topics, which I have no reference points
• Quantified scrum board
• My board gives me a good idea of how much I have left and gives me a good visualisation of what I have achieved in a 2 week sprint
• Time
• Planning using playing poker takes time and as I'm the development team and stake holder in my process I may view it as a waste of time as I know (generally) what I'm capable of

 Will I use story points going forward? Potentially.

We'll see what works as my journey meanders on!

Thanks for reading!

AT