Most Scrum teams estimate user stories wrong and don’t prioritize the backlog properly. Use Bang for the Buck Scores!
How Story Points and Value Points help prioritize the Backlog — with the Bang for the Buck Score.
A friend of mine, who is also a Scrum Master, recently asked me how he should handle Story Points. He wants to help a team he coaches move from estimating and planning based on hours to estimating and planning based on Story Points. A short question quickly turned into a long conversation about Story Points, Value Points, Bang for the Buck Scores, Bugs, Estimating, Planning, and Time Boxing.
Story Points and Estimations
People are bad when it comes to absolute estimates. How many kilograms does a pineapple weigh? How many kilometers are there between Berlin and Vienna? How long does it take to build a house? How many billions of dollars in profit does Apple make?
But when it comes to relative estimates, we humans are already better. What is heavier, this apple or this pineapple? And how many apples weigh as much as this pineapple? Two? Three?
The difference in both estimates is complexity. Estimating from a faceless unit like kilometers to a real distance is more…
