Okay this may not be the absolute best way to explain the pointing system when doing agile. But it is the best way I have found to explain it.
The scrum guide tells us that estimates should be provided by people that will be doing the work but, it doesn’t tell us how we should provide estimates. Story points is one of the most common tools we can use to help provide estimates. However, all too many times when someone is teaching about the agile story pointing system, people try to describe it in very abstract ways. It’s meant to disconnect us from the time estimate approach we all have been taught. You know, how LONG will it take you. They try to describe it in a way completely separated from the time estimation mind set.
One popular teaching scenario is having you use points to describe the effort for eating or preparing fruit. For example comparing the effort to eating a pineapple vs eating a banana. Pineapple has to be cut, banana has to be pealed. While it drives home the point (get it?!) that we need to think of effort in a more abstract way, it tends to lose the more practical people on how they will apply this to their effort.
The way I like to explain it puts both time and effort in the picture. I do this by doing the mental exercise of pointing your drive home from work. The distance is the story points or miles (in this case story points = miles). The effort, or miles (story points in this case) doesn’t necessarily mean how long it will take you to get it home. A lot of factors come in to play like weather and traffic. Or who is doing the driving. I typically drive much faster than the average person. I might get home faster but, the mileage didn’t change. Further more, getting home takes me longer than getting to work yet, the mileage, the effort is exactly the same. Time isn’t what I’m asking about when doing story points. I’m asking, “how many miles do you live from work”. Not, “how long did it take you to get to work”.
Now, invariably someone in the room will ask: “But, what if two people take 2 different routes? There is more than one way home!” Yes, perfect. Now they understand. Now we can talk about what is the right route to the solution. This is one of the purposes of the story pointing system. It’s not just to provide estimates. It is also for us to have a conversion with the team. To better understand what the ask is, and how to best get the task done. To arrive at a consensus, through conversation.
I’ve had more success with this analogy then any other approach I’ve tried. I’ve been told, more than once from people who have been part of teams for a bit, yet still learning agile say: “Now I get it! I never understood what fruit had to do with it”.
Hope this helps next time you get stuck with someone who can’t quite get their head around Story Points.
