I'm a developer still learning the complexities of a software system on a SCRUM team I joined recently.
I will be asked for a story point estimate for a piece of work that touches areas of the system that I have never worked on before. I am familiar with the technology used to build these areas, however I will need to read up on the design/patterns used, talk to other developers and then run some tests/step through the code, so I can understand how these areas work and how best to make my changes.
The team has a 2 SP baseline story that we use for the relative estimate. Let's say my effort estimate for the new story is 12 points allowing for the added effort I need to exert "learning on the fly". The other developer estimates 5 points as he/she is familiar with the system and does not require the additional learning effort.
In this situation our effort estimates are both correct, for ourselves. So how is this resolved?
I simply don't know with any confidence how much more effort the new story will be, relative to the baseline story. 12 SP is really a guess, just hoping that the story will be no more than 6 times the effort of the baseline.
The options I can see are:
- My estimate is used as I am the developer assigned to the work (due to limited resources).
- I do not give an estimate as I do not have any/enough experience and we use the other developers estimate.
On a related note, the iteration manager explained to me that they do not use or measure velocity. I have also heard from another team member that a 13 point story is the most we can fit in one sprint (3 weeks). What value is there in using story points for estimates in this case?