When Two Worlds Collide: Using Agile Story Points AND Management Time Tracking

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*** See more on: http://tasktop.com/resources/videos *** Presented by Nicole Bryan, VP of Product at Tasktop Congratulations, you've successfully adopted Agile methods! You've been at it for six months, and you're humming along like a well-oiled machine. You've even scaled to multiple separate agile teams. Your developers are happy and production seems to be up! And then the dreaded question comes – "We need this feature, how long will it take?" Your answer … "We've estimated that to be about 50 story points." Blank stare. It's no secret, there are some challenges in trying to marry Agile processes to outside stakeholder needs. For example, Agile teams may prefer to use Story Points as an estimate of the complexity of a story, while business stakeholders generally just want to know how many person-hours a feature will require. Often the PMO is interested in tracking developer time in order to better understand their Return on Investment. But their instructions to use time-tracking tools is met with either simple annoyance our outright disdain. In this webinar, Nicole explores some of the challenges that arise when marrying Agile processes to outside stakeholder needs. She shows you practical ways to make the translation of Agile, to the Rest of the World, as painless as possible – and helps show you why it actually helps development teams in the end. This webinar was presented on October 23 2013

Technology Business

Time
Man Hours

Agile

Relative
Complexity
Story Points

PMO

The dreaded question:
We need this feature, how long will it take?

The equally dreaded response:

It will take 50 story points

Self-Improvement
requires introspection
and data

The ultimate irony: What
the PMO needs for its
success is also what your
team needs for its
success

and track

But disassociate the two – only look after the fact ….
Hmmmm...

Estimation that accurately reflects relative complexity

Is there a (relatively) even distribution of hours taken to complete stories
that directly correlates to number of story points?

Metric
Average hours logged by story points

40
20
0
1-2 Hours 2-4 Hours 4-8 Hours 8-12 Hours > 24 Hours > 48 Hours > 72 Hours
40

Hmmmm...

20
0

1-2 Hours 2-4 Hours 4-8 Hours 8-12 Hours > 24 Hours > 48 Hours > 72 Hours
Take some old 2 pt stories that took 48 hours to complete and compare to the
2-4 hour stories – talk it through as a team to understand why the disparity
• Technical debt?
• Large disparity in experience on team?
• “Lip Service” to estimation?

20
10
0
1-2 Hours 2-4 Hours 4-8 Hours 8-12 Hours > 24 Hours > 48 Hours > 72 Hours
20
10

0
1-2 Hours 2-4 Hours 4-8 Hours 8-12 Hours > 24 Hours > 48 Hours > 72 Hours
• Both could be ok! Just reflect different types of teams

35
30
25
20

2 Point Story

15

3 Point Story

10

5 Point Story
8 Point Story

5
0
1-2
Hours

2-4
Hours

4-8
Hours

8-12
Hours

> 24
Hours

> 48
Hours

> 72
Hours

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Hmmmm...

2 Point Story
3 Point Story
5 Point Story
8 Point Story

1-2
Hours

2-4
Hours

4-8
Hours

8-12
Hours

> 24
Hours

> 48
Hours

> 72
Hours

Indicative of a micro problem
• Discuss specific stories that have been given 5 vs 3 points
• Was it for a specific feature or set of stories that this happened?

12

Hmmmm...

Hmmmm...

10
8

2 Point Story

6

3 Point Story

4

5 Point Story

2

8 Point Story

0
1-2
Hours

2-4
Hours

4-8
Hours

8-12
Hours

> 24
Hours

> 48
Hours

Indicative of a more macro problem
• Significant technical debt?
• Team education on estimation?

> 72
Hours

Minimize disruption to the team when team changes occur

Is there significant disparity between a new team member and the rest of
the team in terms of time taken to complete stories?

Metric
Average hours logged by story points

Hmmmm...

Jennifer

Clear Pattern: Larger story, more hours

Jane

No Clear Pattern!

Is Jane junior or senior?
• If junior: Does she need some mentoring? Should you institute pair
programming for the next few sprints?
• If senior: Is her ideal time playing a role?

Team Signature
Team Signature
Team Signature

©2013 Rally Software Development Corp

No eating unless the PMO is happy too!

Mylyn

Agile Tool
With Work logs or
Timesheets

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