Estimating the User Stories
When the user stories have met the team’s Definition of Ready and have been approved by the Product Owner, they still need to be estimated before the team commits to actually working on them. The typical process of estimating user stories during a meeting would be as follows:
● Listing the user stories in scope (these will be listed in priority order according to their value)
● Picking a user story to discuss on (the most valuable user stories will be selected to be discussed)
● Clarifying user story and its acceptance criteria
● Estimating and voting on the user story size
● Re-defining, negotiating and re-voting on the user story, as needed
● Agreeing and finalizing the user story size
Another guideline for Product Owners to know when they can approve a user story is to check if it follows the INVEST mnemonic: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable. Putting user stories against these criteria can help resolve questions such as whether a user story is too big or if the user story is feasible.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course: