Refactor Your Mind » complexity
Another good posting of Tick Tonoli regarding the reoccuring topic of estimating by using abstract storypoints vs hours. I rarely managed to get the point across, maybe his explanation works better:
Another good posting of Tick Tonoli regarding the reoccuring topic of estimating by using abstract storypoints vs hours. I rarely managed to get the point across, maybe his explanation works better:
"During our estimation (still doing hours effort estimation) we were trying to define the tasks necessary for a story to be completed, however the story had a “task A” that would lead to several “task B’s” that were known, however no-one could (and neither should they be expected to) estimate the hours effort on the “task B’s” simply because the input from “task A” was critical to the timing! Now you’re stuck with tasks that are KNOWN, but cannot be TIMED. And then the light went on and I realized why estimation with time was so bad…You may KNOW everything you need to do (the complexity), however you may not necessarily know how LONG everything will take (the effort), in other words, you know COMPLEXITY but you cannot measure the EFFORT. It now makes sense…"
