Ask HN: Why can't anyone tell me what story points equate to?
7 by movedx | 5 comments on Hacker News.
Contract after contract, engagement after engagement: why can't a single product owner, scrum master, agile coach, anyone, tell me what story points equate to? Time? Effort? How many times I have to push my code? Cakes Available Per Day (mmmm, cakes)? And what's with the whole Fibonacci numbers? 1, 3, 5, 8, 13, ..., etc. What does that even mean? Why even do that? No one can tell me. I know someone can, but it's never been the people who are managing this stuff. What's with the concept of trying to make story points mean "Effort"? Why even bother? Why can't story points simply mean: time. How much time a task will take. How much time I think I'll need to apply assuming the best case. I think X will take N time based on experience, environmental factors, common causes of time loss (meetings, coffee breaks, eating cake (mmmm cake), ...)... if you're asking ME to do the time. Why does that then need to be converted into "effort"? Or Fibonacci numbers? "Task X will take 7 gold stars and a glitter bomb to complete." "Good work, Mike! That's a great estimate. Now get to work!" Please help :(