6. Once upon a time…
The Agile Kingdom
Product Owner
Vision of Ice and Fire
Vision
Requirements
User Stories
7. The whole kingdom…sizes user stories
The Agile Kingdom
0 1/2 1 2 3 5
8 13 20 40 100 ?
Product
Backlog
1
3
3
2
3
5
Big user story
Big user story
Small USSmall US
Small
US
Scrum
Team
smallsmall sml
8. Years went by…
The Agile Kingdom
Pricing model Price / story points
0 1/2 1 2 3 5 8 13 20 40 100 ?
equals
12. The brave knights…challenges
The Quest
‘We need to compare in order to size and we don’t have enough epics
to compare to’
0 1/2 1 2 3 5
8 13 20 40 100 ?
‘They come in different shapes and formats – some more rich in
content than others’
‘We can’t spend too much time deep-diving’
‘Not a flexible scale in Planning Poker’
13. The brave knights…challenges
The Quest
‘Proportion of Uncertainty is bigger in epics than in user stories’
Epics
Volume
Complexity
Uncertainty
User stories
Volume
Complexity
Uncertainty
14. The brave knights…recipes
The Quest
Blue Recipe
1. Take epics
2. Do planning poker
3, 5, 3, 2, 8, 13
3. Multiply by scale (10)
30, 50, 30, 20, 80, 130
4. Do one Epic (breakdown and
implement)
30 -> 25
5. Adjust size for everything else
25, 42, 25, 17, 67, 108
Green Recipe
1. Take epics
2. Choose one epic and breakdown
into user stories
3. Size the user stories and sum it up
1, 3, 5, 8, 13 = 30 SP
4. Divide by scale and make it
Reference Epic
÷ 10 -> 3
5. Do Planning Poker
3, 5, 2, 3, 8, 1
6. Multiply by scale
30, 50, 20, 30, 80, 10
16. And the epics considered…
The Quest
The Dragon
‘As a king I want to have a dragon so that I could win battles and conquer
cities.’
The Dire wolf
‘As a king I want to have a dire wolf so that I can protect myself against the
enemies.’
The Wall
‘As a king I want to have the Wall so that it will protect the
kingdom against the White Walkers.’
17. Questions set
The Quest
1. User new data capturing? A: Yes/No
2. UI changes to existing screens? A: Yes/No
3. Integration with third parties? A: Yes/No
4. Data migration? A: Yes/No
5. Does it affect internal processes? A: Yes/No
6. Change the database structure? A: Yes/No
7. Is it a re-usable configurable component? A: Yes/No
8. Specific behavior for transactions? A: Yes/No
9. Special performance considerations? A: Yes/No
10.Does it affect common functionality? A: Yes/No
11. Any product specific variations? A: Yes/No
18. The gathering…sizing epics
The Quest
The Dragon Benchmark 5 points
The Dire Wolf
The Wall
Size 5 points by comparison to The Dragon
Struggle 13 or 20 points by comparison to
The Dragon
There is a problem!! Too BIG for the scale!!
19. The gathering…
The Quest
Inspect
The previous scale and benchmark were too small and needed
adjustment
Adapt
The Wall 20 pointsRe-benchmark
The Dragon 8 pointsResize
The Dire Wolf still 5 pointsResize
Therefore the new scale and benchmark
21. Turn it into story points…
The happy ending?
Blue Recipe
1. Take epics
2. Do planning poker
3. Multiply by scale
What scale? What is the multiplier?
? 4. Do one Epic (breakdown and implement)
5. Adjust size for everything else
No time
Inspect
22. Turn it into story points…
The happy ending?
Existing backlog epic – The Three-eyed crow
“As a king I want to have a three-eyed crow so that I can have power over
nature and prophetic visions.”
The Three-eyed crow Size Trying to introduce Uncertainty
Adapt
3. Choose an epic from the backlog already broken down into
recently sized user stories and on the same scale
23. Final estimates…
The happy ending?
The Three-eyed crow = 5 epic points
The Three-eyed crow in the
backlog
30 Story points multiplier of 6
The Dire Wolf = 5 epic points ~ 30 Story points
The Dragon = 8 epic points ~ 48 Story points
The Wall = 20 epic points ~ 120 Story points
~
24. In the end…
Business owners
Product Owner Scrum Team
The Happy Ending?
visibility
better release planning
25. And they continued to live happily…
…well…not ever after because each day
came with a new quest for the brave knights
in their so called shinning armors.
Questions
What is our reference epic?
Why not use Epic Points?
Why not use greater Fibonacci numbers?
…
Where can we get epics to use as comparison?
Why can’t old epics be used? – already implemented
When committing to a budget it is more difficult as that is not easily re-adjustable
When used in Release Planning it’s easier as it is continuously re-adjusting
When to use
Innovating on the two approaches and created a 3rd
How to choose an epic from the backlog to compare?
Recently sized
On the same scale
Broken down into sized User Stories
