Guide on Relative Sizing/Story Points

What is Relative Sizing/Story Points:
Relative sizing/story points is a unit of measurement used in Agile project management and development. It is typically used to estimate effort or relative size of tasks in software development. The system helps offer a rough estimate of how difficult a task is based on its complexity, uncertainty and risk, not the expected duration.

Why it's important:
Relative sizing/story points allow the development team to provide estimates without getting locked into time-based measures, and offer more flexibility and accuracy in scoping work. It also allows the team to track progress over time and adjust plans or expectations as needed.

How it works:
The team starts with a story they feel comfortable estimating, this is often assigned a value such as one or two story points. The team then compares other user stories to the baseline and assigns them story point values based on their relative size. The process is subjective and relies on the team's experience.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Relative Sizing/Story Points:
When answering questions on relative sizing/story points on the PMI-ACP exam, remember the following:
1. Story points are associated with the level of effort, complexity, and risk of a task, not the duration.
2. A lower story point number indicates less complexity and effort, while a higher number denotes more complexity and therefore more effort and risk.
3. The ideal baseline is selecting a simple and small task as a 'one story point' example for comparisons.
4. Be prepared to conduct relative comparisons to answer questions about assigning story point estimates to various tasks.

Through understanding these foundations, you’ll have the knowledge to size and estimate your project tasks efficiently and accurately.