What is a story point estimation
The User story is an issue category based on user experience. Each user story shouldn't be too complex, it works as the smallest unit of work in Agile.
As a user, I want to be able to log in to my account, so then I will be able to see a history of payments I made.
The User story is always built in the same way. The skeleton of each user story is created by a product owner, the whole team adds up details.
In Agile, you estimate a task by giving it an appropriate number of so-called story points. They rate the effort of work using the following scale 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100.
Before you start estimating, you should double-check that you have all requirements and details of the user story. Within the team, ask yourselves some questions regarding issue details - what would be the likely code effort, do we need any design to be prepared beforehand, does anyone else has experience in similar tasks and can help with estimations.
Why story points estimation should be used
First of all, story points give a more accurate estimation, because they take into consideration aspects like the complexity of a task or the amount of effort each team member has to take in order to complete it. Also, when estimating the number of points for a user story, the team has to sit together and compare their views and opinions. It results in an average estimation of the user story.
Story points help predict release dates more precisely. A certain number of story points does not change with time or person, whereas hours estimation does - the senior developer will need fewer hours to complete a task than junior or mid.
Also, after some sprints, you will be able to reuse story points estimation for similar tasks. They work like a size-based estimation.
How to switch to story points in Redmine
Go to Administration -> Agile. Here you can choose an estimation unit as well as what kind of issue will be tracked with story points.
There are several places in Redmine where story points for each user story are displayed:
- issue list
- filter for issues
- cards field on agile board and version planning board,
- charts that depend on story points