How to make Team Estimations Happen for Your Team

Part of having a successful team over the long term is eliminating dependencies and silos. Team estimations is the action that will enforce this goal.

In order to make it happen I usually make these steps:

1. Measure a task relative to another

Measuring in time is not optimal. Agile thinkers marked estimation as a non-value producing exercise. We cannot predict the future so why waste so much time doing it?

We do need to have an idea of what to expect in terms of time, people, etc. We get that idea only by comparing future stories with past stories. This will give us a good perspective on how much work there is to be done.

Measuring tasks relative to each other is similar to the meter standard in the metric system, or the foot standard in the imperial system.

2. Create a simple reference system

In practice I use T-shirt sizes, which I later translate to Story points (Fibonacci).

My team usually ends up either with a list or a table. As the team becomes better at working together we start only going for the list.

An example of how this would look like:

• XS (Something tiny we do)

• S (A bit bigger, but still not a lot of effort)

• M (It takes some time to get this done)

• L (Maybe also multiple people)

• XL (All team about 1 Sprint)

• XXL (All team several sprints)

3. Adopt Planning Poker

Planning poker is a great way to do knowledge sharing. It will also remove any known estimation biases.

Rules:

• Everyone raises cards at the same time

• Only highest scoring and lower scoring talk

• No more than 3 estimation rounds

• Always use the reference system

• Take the average/highest estimation

It usually takes about 2 sessions for the team to get comfortable with this exercise. The first 2 sessions expect about 2-5 stories to be estimated. After that you can get as much as 12 stories estimated in a one hour session.

As you can see these techniques are fairly simple to implement. Teams usually don't have a hard time shifting. However each team is different. Tweak the system to fit their way of working, then readjust it to shift more and more towards estimating and working as a team.

Team Estimation Benefits

• Estimations become less subjective

• Continuous improvement actions are reflected in velocity

• Perspectives of all team members are taken into account

• Most uncertainties are clarified quickly

• Risks and dependencies are better identified

• Less risk of “optimistic” estimations