Agile estimating is a complex subject. There are various methods with different accuracy, easy, and speed. We had an open survey when we asked agile practitioners what they think about different methods, knowledge is available for you in the form of a brief report.
When to use what during an Agile estimating?
During the mentioned survey respondents answered questions regarding when they would suggest using a method.
Sprint to Sprint in Scrum
● Planning Poker
● T-Shirts
● Divide until maximum size or less
● Team Estimation Game
Single user story
● Planning Poker
● T-Shirts
● Bucket System
● Divide until maximum size or less
Whole Backlog
● T-Shirts
● Team Estimation Game
● Expert Judgement
● Dot Voting
Maintenance and bugs
● Divide until maximum size or less
Fixed-scope project estimation
● Team Estimation Game
● Expert Judgement
The overall cost of an MVP
● Team Estimation Game
● Dot Voting
List of Agile estimating methods
| One ticket or too big! known also under the name Divide until Maximum Size or Less. Ideal for estimating in a maintenance Kanban teams. |
| Team Estimation Game workshop (origin from Scrum) is known also under the Swimlanes Estimation name and is approximately 3 times faster than Planning Poker. |
| Planning Poker (also known as Scrum Poker) – each player uses a set of cards to estimate the overall effort of a task in Story Points. |
| Bucket System The main purpose of this method is to briefly estimate a large backlog and assign Story Points. It is different from T-Shirts. |
| Expert Judgement is very simple when it comes to explaining because it is what it seems it is. As an Expert for the estimate. |
| The T-Shirts estimation procedure is simple as it can be. Gather with the team and to every single task assign a label from this list: S, M, L, XL. |
| Dot-voting refers to small dot stickers. Luckily with minor modifications, it can be successfully used in the estimation process. |
| Use Case Story Points is an algorithm, invented to help Managers estimate projects. Go through the cheat sheet and learn how to use it. |