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Scrum for Team System - v2.x Support
Started by HoJoe at 10-01-2008 2:38 PM. Topic has 1 replies.
  
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 10-01-2008, 2:38 PM
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HoJoe
Joined on 09-30-2008
Posts 7
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Sprint Backlog Estimation
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Hi
Not sure if this is the correct forum, i'll give it a go. We are using Scrum for Team System v2.0. This is our first Scrum project and we are running a 30 days sprint. During our first Scrum planning meeting, a project manager raised a question regardng the estimated Effort (hours) in the Spring Backlog. he asked if the estimate is in hour, and the sprint is 30 days long, if the team is 4 x developers, you have 4 X 30 X 7 man hours per sprint. that would also mean we can plan a 4 x 30 x 7 hours sprint, rather than the 30 day sprint. hope this make sense, and trust a project manager to raise this kind of quesiton!
cheers
joe
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10-01-2008, 3:14 PM
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Crispin Parker
Joined on 11-13-2007
Posts 664
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Re: Sprint Backlog Estimation
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Ah yes, project managers...
The "Sprint Backlog Item" "Estimated Effort" value is an indication of how many hours of effort it is estimated the task will take.
In order to work out the total number of hours available (the capacity) of you sprint, you need to calculate the total number of working hours your team (or teams) can provide for the given sprint. The calculation of this can be as simple as the TM x D x H you have suggested. However, a wise planner would consider that a few of days would be lost on Sprint planning, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective and other ad-hoc get togethers (daily standups and the like).
Also, it's worth noting that people get sick, sometimes like to take holidays or have other work concerns (don't tell your PM this it upsets them), so you should maybe factor down the capactiy a little to cover this.
I personally think it is better to slightly under estimate your capacity. If, during the sprint, all the selected Backlog tasks are complete, get on to the project owner and select some more user stories to work on. However, don't under estimate too much...
Mike Cohen told to me: "Work will always fill the capacity available". What he meant by this is that the time taken to complete tasks always seems to stretch out to the time alloted to get it done. Human nature I guess!
Estimation is hard, especialy with a new team on your first scrum project. Estimations get better with time. I estimate that by the time your team have a few sprints under thier belts, you should see improvment. And make sure you use the Retrospectives to have a look at how estimations can be improved.
Good luck on your adventure into scrum. I hope this gives you some insight.
Regards,
Crispin Parker,
Technical Consultant,
Conchango.
"It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness"
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Scrum for Team ... » Version 2.x - T... » Scrum for Team ... » Sprint Backlog Estimation
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