Scrum Estimation Techniques

Correct Answer: Explain to the Product Owner that the team is responsible for estimating the effort required for user stories.

In Scrum, the estimation of story points or effort required to complete a user story is a team responsibility, as the team is best equipped to understand the work required to complete each story. The Product Owner's role is to clarify the requirements and prioritize the stories, not to estimate the effort. This makes the answer 'Explain to the Product Owner that the team is responsible for estimating the effort required for user stories.' the best possible answer. The other answers propose invalid actions: 'Assign 30 Story Points to the User Story as a compromise.' is wrong because it undermines the team's authority on estimation; 'Ignore the Product Owner's opinion and continue with the team's estimate.' may lead to conflict, and it counteracts the dialog nature of Scrum. Finally, 'Assign 20 Story Points as the Product Owner is always right.' is incorrect because, as mentioned earlier, the Product Owner is not responsible for effort estimation.

Correct Answer: The issue is anchoring bias. Switch to Silent Mapping technique for unbiased estimations.

In the given scenario, the issue is anchoring bias, where people rely too heavily on an initial piece of information (the anchor) when making decisions. In this case, team members' estimates are influenced by other people's in the team, and the juniors might lean toward the estimates given by the more experienced team members, which might not always be right. In order to solve this, you can consider switching to Silent Mapping technique, which allows each team member to make independent estimations, thereby reducing the effects of anchoring bias. This is why the answer stating 'The issue is anchoring bias. Switch to Silent Mapping technique for unbiased estimations.' is the best choice. The answer that suggests 'The issue is commitment bias. Continue with Poker Planning.' is incorrect because commitment bias refers to the preference for sticking to an initial decision, even in the face of negative information, which is not the issue here. The answer 'The issue is contrast bias. Switch to T-shirt sizing technique.' is wrong because contrast bias is about the human inclination to judge things as better or worse relative to something comparative, which doesn't make sense in this context. Lastly, 'The issue is not related to bias. Provide more training to junior team members.' deals with increasing the knowledge level of the team members, while the problem needs to be solved by modifying the estimation technique to prevent bias.

Correct Answer: That's a great idea. T-shirt sizing is a valid relative estimation technique used in Scrum.

The statement 'That's a great idea. T-shirt sizing is a valid relative estimation technique used in Scrum.' is correct. T-shirt sizing estimation is an agile technique where items to be estimated are compared and grouped based on their relative size. T-shirt sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL) are commonly used to denote relative size. This technique supports the Scrum idea of 'not spending too much time on getting the estimate right but getting it approximate in a reasonable time.' The statement 'That's not appropriate. We should use exact time estimations.' is not correct. Scrum teams usually don't estimate in terms of exact time due to the complex nature of the work which could lead to unforeseen problems and consequently delays. Therefore, using T-shirt sizes or story points over exact time estimations is more appropriate to accommodate these unknown factors The statement 'T-Shirt sizing is not an Agile estimation technique.' is incorrect as explained in the response above, it is in fact a widely used Agile estimation technique for its simplicity and effectiveness in relative estimation The last statement 'Scrum doesn't allow for any estimations.' is also incorrect because Scrum does allow estimates, and even encourages them to help with sprint planning and long-term project forecasting.