Scrum Institute, Scrum Framework Episode #10

Scrum Institute, Scrum Framework Episode #10 has been proudly brought to you by International Scrum Institute, https://www.scrum-institute.org You can also listen Scrum Institute’s Podcast from Apple, Spotify, Castbox and Google Play. Listen to Scrum Institute Podcast on AppleListen to Scrum Institute Podcast on Google PlayListen to Scrum Institute Podcast on SpotifyListen to Scrum Institute Podcast on Listen NotesListen to Scrum Institute Podcast on Castbox What Is User Story In The Scrum Framework? This Might Surprise You! The entries in the Scrum Product Backlog are often written in the form of User Stories. A User Story tells a short story about the requirements of someone while he or she is using the software product we are building.  It has a name, a brief narrative, and acceptance criteria for the story to be counted as completed. The advantage of user stories is that they precisely focus on what the user needs and wants without going into the details on how to achieve them. How to achieve them will be the job of the Scrum team as a later stage,  There are different recommendations on how to define User stories. A well known and reliable template is:  As an [actor], I [want|must] [action] so that [achievement]  Or in a shorter version:As an [actor], I [want|must] [achievement]  The Actor is the owner of the user story. That is often a user, but it is advisable to be more specific. By using particular actors such as an administrator, logged in customer, or unauthenticated visitor or so on, user stories become distinctive. So they set requirements into a proper context everyone can understand. The Action is what the Actor wants to do. If it is a mandatory requirement, it can be prefixed as must. Otherwise, it’s prefixed as want. The Achievement is what the Actor wants to achieve by performing the Action. That’s the Actor’s envisioned business result or a functional technical component that emerges once the Action is completed. How To Estimate Effort For Stories In The Scrum Framework? This Might Surprise You! All user stories within the Scrum Product Backlog have to be estimated to allow the Scrum Product Owner to prioritize them and plan releases. That means the Scrum Product Owner needs a reliable assessment of how much the delivery of each user story will take.  Nevertheless, it is recommended that the Scrum Product Owner does not interfere with the estimations that the Scrum Team performs. So the Scrum Team delivers its estimates without feeling any pressure from the Scrum Product Owner. The Scrum Framework itself does not prescribe a way for the Scrum Teams to estimate their work. The teams who rely on the Scrum Framework do not deliver their estimates of user stories based on time or person-day units. Instead, they provide their estimates by using more abstract metrics to compare and qualify the effort required to deliver the user stories. Common estimation methods include:  Numeric sizing (1 through 10),T-shirt sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL), orthe Fibonacci sequence (0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, etc) An Example User story The Scrum Team members must share a common understanding and consensus of the unit of estimations they use so that every member of the team feels and acts comfortable with it.  Planning Poker® / Scrum Poker One commonly used method for the estimation process is to play Planning Poker® (also called Scrum Poker).  When using Planning Poker®, the social proof influence among the Scrum Team members are minimal. Therefore, the Scrum Team produces more accurate estimation results.  What you need to play Planning Poker® game is straightforward:  The list of features to be estimatedDecks of numbered cards. A typical deck has cards showing the Fibonacci sequence, including a zero: 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89