Estimating Agily

Made my first pass through the re-estimation and I tried to follow the story point method as detailed in the Agile Estimation and Planning book.  I waded through the spec and identifed all of the features that I could identify (not tasks or actions, but features, because ultimately this is what the end user is concerned with).

I then arbitrarily gave what I viewed to be the smallest feature a point value of 1.  Anything very difficult I gave a 9.  I then added point values to each other feature between 1 and 9 based on how they compare with other features.

This gave me a total point value.  Now the trick is to assign what a point value of 1 means:  1 FTE for 1 Day?  2 days?  1 week?  Right now I’m guessing 1 point = 1 FTE for 3 days. 

Using this I can then come up with an estimate (which should be defined as a probability not a commitment) to work with.

I’ve passed these on to the team for review.  Now we have something to work with.  We can adjust weightings (is feature A really 5 times the weight of feature B for example) and this will adjust our estimate accordingly.