Story Points: The Crazy Girlfriend of Agile
Why do we all stick with story points when we know deep down they’re not good for us?
Hey Peeps,
I recently caught an Ask Alli segment, and one of the questions unexpectedly resonated with me.
The anonymous writer's family adore his new girlfriend, but unbeknownst to them, she is psychologically abusive. Her excessive jealousy frequently leads her to suspect him of infidelity, igniting a cascade of irrational arguments and behavior reminiscent of middle school. In due course, she ultimately relents, expresses genuine remorse for her behavior, and asks to spend the night as if nothing ever happened. As one can imagine, given that the underlying problem that sparked the debacle remains unresolved, this vicious cycle persistently recurs.
The boyfriend, although desperate to escape this situation, struggles to end the relationship because of his family and friend’s enamorment with this chick.
I empathize with this situation. I've been in an abusive relationship with story points for over ten years. But when I look to my friends and family in the Agile community for help, the literature is coated with praise for this estimation technique, a technique that has just as much baggage as a crazy significant other.
Raise your hand if:
✋ You've watched two grown-ass adults who make over 100K a year argue whether a story should be 3 or 5 points.
✋ You've watched a room of your peers struggle to estimate work that they cannot possibly understand the complexities of until they begin the work.
✋ Your team has argued over whether to reestimate stories.
Why is it that we're spending so much effort to estimate stories? What value is this providing to our customers?
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. - Agile Manifesto
Before you bring up the Scrum Guide as an alternative to the Agile Manifesto, reread the guide. You'll find no mention of story points, regardless of the version you reference.
I’ve heard others refer to estimation as a 'necessary waste' without being specific about why it's necessary. You might think we require it for Sprint Planning, but you’d be wrong.
It's common for teams to take their average velocity over the last 3-6 sprints and allow that to heavily influence their Sprint Planning. This approach falls victim to the flaw of averages. Even Mike Cohn recognizes this and advocates against using velocity for Sprint Planning.
Plans based on the assumption that average conditions will occur are usually wrong.
I hope the following points are resonating with everyone:
Story points are a waste in that they provide no direct customer value
Story points are not recommended (or even mentioned) in the Scrum Guide
Story points aren't that helpful for planning
If you've followed me thus far, you might still perceive my metaphor for psychological abuse as overly dramatic, but there's more to explore. We haven't yet delved into management's proclivity to misuse story points.
👎 Using velocity as a performance metric leads to decreased transparency in the form of inflated estimates.
👎 Comparing velocities across teams pits them against each other, demoralizing the "low performers.
👎 Calculating the velocity of an individual shifts incentives towards personal achievement, often at the expense of team performance.
👎 Erroneously believing that velocity is a measure of value hampers a team's ability to effectively measure the actual value
Even the guy credited with creating story points regrets what they've become.
I've held my tongue while some friends have dated some real losers. Why do we feel it's okay to stand by and watch those we care about suffer? Isn't some intervention required?
Out of compassion for you and your teams, I am intervening and telling you it's time to break up with story points. If the only thing stopping you is your unwillingness to be alone, give flow metrics a call. You'll find them to be much more logical and actionable.
Cheers,
Miranda Dulin
📖 Currently Reading
When Will It Be Done? by Daniel Vacanti.
Reading to prepare for the Professional Flow Metrics for Scrum certification.
❤️My Favorite Things
📽 Presentation - How Organizations Are Like Slime Molds. Tackles the question of why organizations slow down from an interestingly mathematical perspective. I also found the simple presentation style to be refreshing.
🎬 YouTube Channel - Your Agile Coach. I find this guy helpful and agree with most of his points. If you’ve not checked him out yet, I highly recommend him.
🎙️Podcast - Try Hards: Visibility vs Expertise. Interesting discussion about a personality type I’ve encountered throughout my career, but never had a word for.
📚Book - Why Plans Fail. A fascinating explanation of how cognitive bias affect our ability to plan.
✍️ Quote of the Week
“Story points have set the Agile community back 10 to 20 years because we’re anchored in all of these really bad notions.”
From Drunk Agile: Episode 1 Story Points by Daniel Vacanti.