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Story Points

5 minutes 5 Questions

Story Points are a unit of measure for expressing an estimate of the overall effort that will be required to fully implement a product backlog item or any other piece of work. When we estimate with story points, we assign a point value to each item. The raw values we assign are unimportant. What ma…

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PSM I - Story Points Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Story Points

Question 1

Your team is given a complex user story estimated at 20 story points in the sprint planning session. However, after starting the sprint, the team feels it should be 13. How should the Scrum Master address this?

Correct Answer: Leave the story point as is and use this situation as a learning opportunity for better estimations in the future.

The best way to handle the situation, according to Scrum practices, is to leave the story point as is and use this situation as a learning opportunity for better estimations in the future. Story points are estimates given before the work starts and shouldn't be altered after the sprint starts. Changing the story points mid-sprint can affect the team's velocity and forecasting ability. The other options are not considered good practices; increasing the story points of other work items to balance the sprint is a form of manipulating the system rather than addressing the underlying issue; reassigning work to another team creates dependencies and doesn't solve the underlying estimation issue; reducing the story points for the complex story during the sprint is against Scrum principle as once the sprint starts, the team commits to the work and their estimates.

Question 2

Your team received a user story with a high story point estimate. Your team's confidence level is low due to lack of knowledge on the task. What should you do?

Correct Answer: Seek clarification from the product owner and revise the story point estimate if needed

Clarification from the product owner can help the team to better understand the task and may result in more accurate story point estimates. Ignoring the user story or proceeding without clarification is not helpful.

Question 3

During a sprint, the team completed a user story with a story point value of 8 but struggled with a story with a value of 5. What should you do?

Correct Answer: Discuss the discrepancy during the sprint retrospective and look for ways to improve future estimates

Discrepancies in story point estimations can be used as a learning opportunity during the sprint retrospective. Swapping points, redoing the story, or increasing workload won't lead to improvement.

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