Introduction to Agile Estimation & Planning

1. Plans are nothing; planning is everything. Dwight D. Eisenhower

2. Introduction to Estimating and Planning in Agile Natasha Hill & Amaad Qureshi

3. About us Natasha Hill • Scrum Master • Agile Coach • Agile Enthusiast • Organiser – Psychology of Agile Scrum Meet-up Group Amaad Qureshi • Business Development Manager • Certified ScrumMaster • Certified Scrum Product Owner • Organiser – Agile Connexions Meet-up Group • Co-organiser – Agile 101, AppsJuction Meet-up Groups

4. Agenda • Planning in Agile • Story points vs ideal days • Estimating techniques • Velocity

5. What is Estimation in Agile? Estimation in Agile is a method of measuring how long it will take to complete a user story or a task.

6. What is a Story Point? Story point is a relative measure of effort.

7. How tall are these buildings? Great Pyramid CN Tower The Shard Giza Paris Toronto Kuala Lumpur London Dubai 139.5m 324m 828m 553m 452m Eiffel Tower Petronas Towers Burj Khalifa How tall are these buildings? Relative vs absolute estimating 2 309m

8. Story Points • Most popular in Agile • Relative measures of effort • Usually assigned using:  Fibonacci ( 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, ...)  Modified Fibonacci ( 0, ½, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100, ...)  Powers of 2 ( 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, ...) • Basic math properties apply 5+5=10=5+3+2

9. How long?

10. We can estimate in: • Story points • Ideal days (without any disruptions) • Hours • T-shirt sizes • Beer sizes • Custom sizes

11. We recommend estimating Tasks TasksTasks Tasks Tasks Tasks Tasks TasksTasks Tasks Tasks Tasks Tasks TasksTasks Tasks Tasks Tasks In T-shirt sizes In Story Points In Hours Less detail More detail

12. Product Backlog Less detail More detail Rowan Bunning @2013

13. How do we estimate? Planning Poker®- an iterative approach to estimating Steps: • Each estimator has a deck of cards with estimates on them • A story is read and discussed briefly • Each estimator selects a card that’s his or her estimate • Cards are turned over so all can see them • Discuss differences • Re-estimate if necessary • Each card deck has: too large, break and ‘?’

14. Example ?

15. Planning poker®

16. Challenge: estimate the size of the animals in a zoo in story points • Lion • Kangaroo • Rhinoceros • Bear • Giraffe • Gorilla • Hippopotamus • Tiger

17. Other estimation techniques • Gut feeling • Triangulation • Relative estimation • Disaggregation • Three, two, one... 4 2 Large = 3 1 2 3 1 2 = 12 2

18. When do we estimate? Release planning Iteration or sprint Daily Planning Refinement Iteration Planning

19. Velocity • Units of work per iteration • Can be planned and observed • Takes a few iterations to stabilise • Should not be used to measure progress or to compare teams Iteration 1 1 3 1 3 1 2 Iterations Velocity is measured in the units you use to estimate your user stories

20. Iteration planning or iteration

21. Challenge: plan each iteration 1. Lion 20 2. Kangaroo 13 3. Rhinoceros 30 4. Koala Bear 5 5. Giraffe 40 6. Gorilla 20 7. Hippopotamus 30 8. Tiger 20 Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 Iteration 5 Iteration 6 Priority Story points

22. Capacity Capacity = Number of people in the project x hours on the project i.e. take away: holidays, meetings, client’s issues, etc.

23. Iteration planning • Whole team • Look at historic velocity • Calculate capacity • Pick story by story, discuss • Commit to the right amount of work Iteration Units of work 1 13 2 15 3 14 4 16 5 0 6 30 7 16 8 15 9 6 10 25 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 10 20 30 40 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The more you estimate, the more accurate you will get! velocity velocityiterations iterations

24. Retrospective

25. Free Resources • Trello.com – Free organizing tool, great for backlogs and story boards • Planning Poker.com • Pointingpoker.com • Mountaingoatsoftware.com • Romanpichler.com

27. QA Natasha_hill@hotmail.com Amaad@learningconnexions.com