Oliver Simon

[Castro Podcasts @CastroPodcasts]

We're excited to finally share an update on our future.

https://t.co/YDneYODqvy

[Rafael Zeier @RafaelZeier]

Lustiger wirds heute nicht mehr 😂

[Santiago @svpino]

Story Points don't work.

Even Ron Jeffries, who invented them, said he was sorry years ago.

And not only did he apologize, but he called the whole estimation idea "Evil."

Unfortunately, too many teams still use these points to estimate their work.

Story Points is a made-up metric to estimate work effort, not time. The goal was to prevent management from misusing estimates.

But it didn't work.

Every team I've ever met keeps a conversion table to translate back and forth between points and time. Some will never admit it, but go and talk to the folks doing the work.

Look at me and tell me I'm wrong.

But it gets worse:

Teams use points to decide how much work they can finish. But how can they do that without talking about time?

The effort to do something is not the same as the time it will take to finish it. This is especially true when planning an iteration with many people and tasks.

It's clear now: Story Points don't work.

What's the alternative?

I'll let the people who manage projects for a living offer their alternatives, but I can tell you what I've done.

As I got older and wiser, I stopped with the estimation charade altogether. I had my teams focus on short iterations with constant feedback from stakeholders.

From the "scope, budget, and time" triangle, I always tried to keep two of them variable and fix the third one.

If the customer was looking for a specific scope, we had a variable timeline and budget to finish it. We kept the scope and time flexible if the budget was non-negotiable. And if we had to deliver by a specific date, the scope and budget were on the table.

Every company is different, and this doesn't work for everyone. But if it does, I hope you stop the charade.

I'd love to hear about your experience estimating software. What crazy things does your company make you do?

[Whole Mars Catalog @wholemars]

I hate when crappy legacy auto compliance cars give EVs a bad name

No wonder Tesla & the Supercharger network are mopping the floor with everyone else

https://t.co/PL2Hn6yzcq

[Liam Gallagher @liamgallagher]

Ich sagte vielleicht

[Elmar @ElSchumi]

@wholemars Tone it down. Getting jealous here.