Story Point is a relative measure heavily used for agile estimation of size. The team decides how big a point is, and based on that size, determines how many points each work item is. In many organizations, the use of story points for similar features can vary from one team to another, and successfully, based on the teams’ sizes, skillset, and relative use of this tool. However, in a CMMI organization, this technique demands a degree of consistency across teams for a more streamlined approach to solution delivery. This generates a challenge for CMMI organizations to adopt Agile in software estimation and planning. In this paper, a process and methodology that guarantees relativity in software sizing while using agile story points is introduced. The proposed process and methodology are applied in a CMMI company level three on different projects. By that, the story point is used on the level of the organization, not the project. Then, the performance of the sizing process is measured to show a significant improvement in sizing accuracy after adopting the agile story point in CMMI organizations. To complete the estimation cycle, an improvement in effort estimation dependent on story point is also introduced, and its performance effect is measured.
Alaa El-deen Hamouda
Systems and Computers Engineering, Al-Azhar University
Cairo, Egypt
[email protected]
