3 Critical Reasons I Stopped Using Story Points

Transcript

1. 3 Critical Reasons I Stopped Using Story Points
2. ASIA EDGE TECHNOLOGY. PTD. LTE What are Story Points • Story Points are units of measurement of estimation in Agile methodology. • They consider the uncertainty, complexity, and different skill levels among developers in their estimations for software development. • They can measure velocity, which is the speed of software development, and the development team can use it for continuous improvement.
3. ASIA EDGE TECHNOLOGY. PTD. LTE 3 Flaws of Story Points 1. Story Points do not support decision-making which is the ultimate purpose of estimation. 2. Story Points are inconsistent in two aspects: inconsistent measurement from other events and inconsistent among teams. 3. Velocity does not matter, but deadline and completion matter in software development.
4. ASIA EDGE TECHNOLOGY. PTD. LTE 1. Not Supporting Decision-Making • The purpose of the estimation is to support decision-making. • The Product Owner, responsible for decision-making, decides based on three-element tradeoffs: scope, resources, and time. Estimation relates to the time element. However, the Product Owner cannot decide based on Story Points because it is incompatible with time. • Converting Story Points into time is regarded as an anti-pattern.
5. ASIA EDGE TECHNOLOGY. PTD. LTE 2. Inconsistency in Two Aspects Inconsistent Measurement All Scrum events are defined to be timeboxed with universal units such as minutes, hours, days, or months. For example, “Sprint Planning is timeboxed to a maximum of eight hours for a one-month Sprint.” It causes disorganization and confusion in management. Inconsistency among teams Story Points are inconsistent among teams. This means the same number of Story Points can represent different estimations across different projects. For example, Even if Team X predicts that the 50-point task will be completed within a two-week Sprint, the same task might take more than two weeks for Team Y to complete. It becomes problematic when Agile is scaled into multiple teams because each team cannot share estimation knowledge and experience.
6. ASIA EDGE TECHNOLOGY. PTD. LTE 3. Uselessness of Velocity • Velocity, the speed of software development, is a useless metric because no one cares about it and is delighted to hear that. What matters are always deadline and velocity. • There is no concept of velocity in the business, and no business professionals care about it. What matters is when a task will be completed. • For example, this month’s velocity of software development was 500 pt, and we will achieve 600 pt next month. As a business professional, are you delighted to hear that?
7. ASIA EDGE TECHNOLOGY. PTD. LTE Bottom Line • Although Story Points are widely used in Agile development, they have three critical flaws in real software development. • The first flaw is that Story Points do not support decision-making which is the ultimate purpose of estimation. • The second flaw is inconsistency in terms of the unit of measurement and cross-team management. • The third flaw is that the velocity is a useless metric. Deadline and completion are always important. • Because of these flaws, Story Points do not enhance collaboration between business professionals and software engineers in order to maximize product value.