Thread by @eisabai

Here is my unpopular perspective on story points. Story points are just a number. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s a good information to know for the team so that they can predict their velocity and commit to deliverables. #agile #scrum #developer #storypoints

The use of story points has always been a huge topic for debate. Some say it is useful for agile software development teams, others say it is of no use for business. Both of them are correct.

But here is where I have a strong opinion, as someone who has worked in many software development teams, both as a software developer and an engineering manager in the last two decades of my career. Story points are a bad measure for a software developer’s performance.

Here are the reasons why I think story points are a bad indicator for performance?

- Not all story points are equal
- Story points are the measures of complexity relative to the knowledge of the person or team giving an estimate.

- Larger story points don’t mean a bigger impact (In software development, simple is beautiful.)
- Story points give away too much flexibility and encourage less accountability

And here is an even more unpopular opinion: The worst thing about story points is that it enables software engineers to avoid committing to any date.

I understand many software engineers do not generally want to commit to a deadline in case they discover any unknowns but not setting expectations on when something will be done, or not having any milestones is purely irresponsible.

So there you have it, my open, transparent, unfiltered thoughts on story points.