Indiana Jones and The Art of Story Points

 

In the world of Agile development, user stories play a crucial role in delivering value to customers and stakeholders. By breaking down complex requirements into smaller, manageable pieces, teams can effectively plan, estimate, and execute their projects.

The concept of story points is a fundamental aspect of Agile, helping teams gauge the effort, complexity, and uncertainty associated with each user story. To illustrate the correct approach in assigning story points, let’s delve into the thrilling opening scene of the film “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

In this iconic scene, Indiana Jones embarks on a quest to retrieve the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol. The weight of the idol becomes a significant obstacle and Indy makes an erroneous estimation that nearly costs him his life.

We’ll use this analogy to understand how to apply story points effectively.

Effort:

Effort refers to the amount of work required to complete a user story. In the opening scene of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Indiana Jones underestimates the weight of the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol. As a result, he faces unexpected challenges when trying to replace the idol with a bag of sand of the wrong weight. Similarly, user stories with high effort may require extensive development, testing and documentation.

For instance, if we have a user story that involves implementing a complex feature with various interactions, extensive database changes and integration with external systems, it would likely carry a higher story point value due to the considerable effort needed.

Complexity:

Complexity refers to the intricacy and technical challenges a user story presents. In the film, Indy encounters a series of deadly traps designed to protect the idol. These obstacles add complexity to his mission, requiring him to apply his intelligence and skills to overcome them.

In Agile, complex user stories may involve intricate business rules, non-linear processes, or integration difficulties.

For example, a user story that involves creating an algorithm to optimize route planning for a delivery service could be considered complex, as it requires sophisticated problem-solving and algorithmic skills.

Uncertainty:

Uncertainty refers to the level of ambiguity or lack of clarity surrounding a user story.

In the film scene, dr. Jones faces unknown dangers while navigating the temple to reach the idol. He couldn’t predict the specific challenges he would encounter, leading to uncertain outcomes. In Agile, uncertainty can stem from vague requirements, evolving business needs, or new technology.

Suppose you have a user story with unclear acceptance criteria or vague expectations from stakeholders. In that case, it would be considered uncertain and would likely require more story points to account for the additional time and effort needed to gather requirements and address potential changes.

In conclusion, by combining the elements of effort, complexity and uncertainty, Agile teams can accurately assign story points to user stories using a commonly used approach known as the Planning Poker technique (using the Fibonacci sequence). This involves team members collaboratively estimating the story points based on shared understanding and knowledge.

Just as Indiana Jones learned from his mistake and adapted his approach to overcome the challenges of the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol, Agile teams can navigate project obstacles by accurately assigning story points. This ensures better planning, prioritization and delivery of value to stakeholders, culminating a successful and rewarding project.