Thread by @ryanripley

Why Story Points are Trash - a thread 🧵
1. Story Points are Subjective: Different people may have different interpretations of a particular story point value, leading to misaligned estimates and potential discrepancies in the overall estimation process. #estimation #noestimates

2. Story Points are Fragile: Changes in team composition invalidate relative estimation efforts. WIP impacts relative estimation efforts. Hidden dependencies impact story points.

3. Story Points are Hard to Define:
-Mike Cohn uses time: mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/story-poi…
-Ron Jeffries uses days:

https://twitter.com/RonJeffries/status/1521963218201202690?s=20&t=ikf9eEjlbhD64jClrZUBig

-Bloggers say capacity, effort, risk, time: peterkretzman.com/2018/10/24/quo…
WHICH IS IT!??!??!

4. Story Points Confuse Stakeholders: Non-technical stakeholders may need a clearer understanding of what story points represent, making it difficult for them to comprehend the estimates, forecasts, and projections provided by the Scrum Team. (See #3)

5. Story Points Have Limited Usefulness for Short-term Planning: Story points are often used to estimate the relative size or complexity of work but can vary wildly from Sprint to Sprint. Over a longer period, there can be planning benefits, not in the near term.

6. Story Points are a Lagging Indicator of Capacity: Capacity does not indicate performance, effectiveness, efficiency, progress, improvement, or value. The utility of story points ends when Sprint Planning is completed, and the Sprint Backlog is built (capacity).

7. Story Points Do Not Help with Workflow Policy Improvement: Story points cannot be used to identify potential bottlenecks or challenges that could impact the completion of a PBI, story, feature, or task.

8. Velocity Fails Due to the Flaw of Averages: Using the average number of story points completed, Sprint over Sprint is the definition of Velocity and is a massive mistake. The Flaw of Averages is in full effect, and an average velocity is, therefore, unreliable.

9. Story Points are Limited to Team Usage: Story Point estimates are limited to a team as they are relative and subjective. It is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to normalize points between teams, let alone an entire organization or portfolio.

10. Why Eat Hotdogs When You Can Have Steak: Story Points are the hotdog of agile metrics. Yes, they can get the job done, but why not have the Tomahawk Rib-Eye? The Flow Metrics are far superior and more straightforward to collect and use.