Agile Estimation Techniques

1. AGILE
ESTIMATION
TECHNIQUES
“OUR GOALS CAN ONLY BE REACHED THROUGH A VEHICLE OF A PLAN, IN
WHICH WE MUST FERVENTLY BELIEVE, AND UPON WHICH WE MUST
VIGOROUSLY ACT. THERE IS NO OTHER ROUTE TO SUCCESS.” – PABLO
PICASSO.

2. WHAT IS AGILE ESTIMATION?
• Agile estimation is the process for estimating the effort required to complete a
prioritized task in the product backlog. This effort is usually measured with
respect to the time it will take to complete that task, which, in turn, leads to
accurate sprint planning.

3. WHY RUN AGILE ESTIMATION FOR YOUR
PROJECT?
• More team collaboration from every individual
• No need to re-estimate
• Agile estimation rides out fear of completion
• Enhanced team to team affiliation
• Accurate release prediction according to the team performance
• Improved sprint management

4. WHAT ARE
THE
DIFFERENT
TYPES OF
AGILE
ESTIMATION
TECHNIQUES
?
1. Planning poker
2. T-shirt sizing
3. Analogy
4. Dot Voting
5. Affinity mapping
6. Three-point estimate
7. The Bucket system
8. Big, Uncertain, Small
9. Random distribution
10.Maximum allowable size

5. 1. PLANNING POKAR
• Number cards are used in the poker technique. All the team members involved in the project
will be involved here.
• In this method, all the team members are requested to select a number card according to the
difficulty of completing a specified task. Then they reveal the number when asked. The number
can be 1, 2, 3 ….10…50..100.
• The number which gets the majority will determine the story point of the task. If there is no
majority or too many different numbers are selected from individual team members. Then a
meeting will be conducted regarding the task.
• After the meeting, the voting task will be repeated to determine the number for the tasks with
the most acceptance from the team members.
• This technique is suitable for smaller teams with a small number of tasks.

6. 2. T-SHIRT SIZING
• The standard T-shirt sizing XS, S, M, L, XL are used to estimate the
task. The team members will categories the stories according to the
difficulty of completion.
• All the team members will be involved, and it is a collaborative and
informal method. After completing the categorization, the sizes can
be replaced with numbers.
• The task in the XS category will require minimum effort and
resources compared to the task in the XL category.
• If you find T-shirt a little boring, then you can use the sports balls in
different sizes like a golf ball to basketball in exchange for S, M, XL
etc., and make it a sports ball method.
• The T-shirt sizing is just a metaphor; the basic idea is to categories
the tasks according to the difficulty of completion from small to
large.
• This technique is suitable for projects with more number of tasks.

7. 3. ANALOGY METHOD
• In analogy estimation, the story point from the other tasks is compared to
estimate a story point for a specific task.