Steps to Successful Story Point Estimation

1. Identify base stories.
2. Talk through the requirements of the story.
3. Discuss and jot down things you want to remember when implementing this story.
4. Some of these questions team ask themselves when they start sizing.
5. Find some point of relative comparison.
6. Reach a consensus among entire team present as to the size of the story as per definition of done.
7. Validate that your estimates are internally consistent among stories as you go along.
8. Periodically ensure that all of the 1′s are about the same, all of the 2′s match, etc.

Agile Estimation Basics

1. Traditional PM methods estimate by activities – Break the scope into activities, estimate the duration of activity, add them up.
2. Agile PM methods estimate by features – First estimate size of features, then estimate duration of features.
3. Estimation of size happens as early and as often as possible.
4. Estimation of duration happens as late and as often as possible.
5. Always be a whole-team activity.
6. Estimates of size: User story or ideal days.
7. Estimate of Duration = [sum of all user stories or all ideal days] / [velocity]

What Is Agile?

First, what does agile really mean?  It’s not considered a methodology, a process, or even a set of procedures.  It’s more of a conceptual development framework which allows our team to iteratively prioritize & plan the work, perform the work, and review the work.  As opposed to the classic waterfall approach, agile acknowledges that we don’t have all the answers at the start of a project. 

1. Agile value individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
2. Agile value working software [or any product] over comprehensive documentation.
3. Agile value customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
4. Agile value responding to change over following a plan.