Agile: sprints & story points
This course covers how Agile, and Scrum in particular, plans work in fixed-length Sprints sized with story points. It starts from this app's own GitHub milestones: five phases with no due dates and no points. It quotes the Scrum Guide's definition of a Sprint. It explains that story points are a community convention the Guide never mentions. It walks through planning poker and its Fibonacci-like deck. It then shows how velocity turns points into a calendar forecast, and when the model fits a team.
What you'll learn
- ✓How the Scrum Guide defines a Sprint and why its length is fixed
- ✓What story points measure and why the Scrum Guide leaves sizing to the Developers
- ✓How a planning poker round works, from private votes to convergence
- ✓How to compute velocity and use it to forecast remaining Sprints
- ✓Why velocity cannot be compared across teams or improved by inflating points
- ✓How to judge whether a project needs Sprints or fits a phase model
One project, two ways to organize the same work
This project, the one every course in this catalog lives in, was built this way. There are five named phases, each a GitHub milestone. Issues carry a domain label (domain: catalog, domain: enrollment) and a type label (type: backend, type: frontend). None of the milestones has a due date. That's…
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7 lessonsOne project, two ways to organize the same work
Compares this app's GitHub milestones, five phases without due dates, with Agile's fixed cycles and relative sizing.
What a sprint is, according to the Scrum Guide
Quotes the Scrum Guide's definition of a Sprint as a fixed-length event of one month or less.
Story points: a convention the Scrum Guide never mentions
Shows that the Scrum Guide never mentions story points and explains how points size work relative to other work.
Planning poker: Fibonacci, and why it converges
Explains planning poker's Fibonacci-like deck, private votes revealed together, and discussion that converges in one to three rounds.
Velocity: turning points back into calendar time
Defines velocity as points finished per Sprint and uses it to forecast calendar time for a backlog.
This app's planning shape, examined again
Examines this app's issue data again and explains why velocity needs fixed cycles and a stable team.
Putting it together: one full estimation cycle
Runs one full cycle: four tasks estimated with planning poker, then a forecast from the team's velocity.