Committing the User Stories
Once the user stories have been estimated, they are ready for the team to commit to completing during Sprint Planning. However, just because they are estimated doesn’t mean that the user stories cannot be negotiated. For example, during Sprint Planning, the team may have found roadblocks in a certain user story that could affect its estimates, and they may need to clarify it with the Product Owner and resize it. Or, the customer has expressed differently and the Product Owner thinks that they may need to revise a certain user story or discard it and then create a new one. As long as the user story has not yet been committed, it may still be changed and re-estimated.
Committing user stories will take place during Sprint Planning. It would be helpful to know what the velocity of the team is, which is the average total of story points they finish in a Sprint. If the Product Owner sees that the team has over committed or under committed, he may work with the team in re-scoping and finalize the Sprint Backlog.
Just like software development, user stories have a lifecycle of their own: incepting the ideas, putting them to words, approving them, refining or possibly splitting them, prioritizing them, committing them, developing them, and then finally marking them as done. A mix of working agreements, Sprint ceremonies, and Agile tools will help facilitate the team is working on the user stories together. Estimates inform Product Owners on how their team perceives the work to be done and can further their decision making in developing the product.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course: