{"id":955,"date":"2010-06-21T12:57:36","date_gmt":"2010-06-21T19:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/2010\/06\/21\/kanban-story-sizing-elephants-and-mice\/"},"modified":"2018-04-13T17:24:12","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T21:24:12","slug":"kanban-story-sizing-elephants-and-mice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/kanban-story-sizing-elephants-and-mice\/","title":{"rendered":"Kanban Story Sizing, Elephants and Mice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In our morning standup meeting one of my team members made a pretty good point about story sizing not being so important.\\n\\nIn Kanban we strive to have relatively same sized stories because it allows us certain benefits:\\n\\n<\/p>\n<ul>\\n    <\/p>\n<li>More accurate metrics on estimated time in queue for any story to be delivered.<\/li>\n<p>\\n    <\/p>\n<li>Reduced dependence on estimation and planning.<\/li>\n<p>\\n    <\/p>\n<li>Continuous flow as opposed to slow\u2026 fast\u2026 fast\u2026 slow.<\/li>\n<p>\\n    <\/p>\n<li>Predictability.<\/li>\n<p>\\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\n\\n<\/p>\n<h2>I thought you said the story sizing is not so important?<\/h2>\n<p>\\n\\nRight, exactly.\u00a0 It is important for them to be <strong>relatively<\/strong> same sized, but it is not so important that they be exactly the same size.\\n\\nBasically, we don\u2019t want to have mice and elephants thrown in together.\\n\\n<a href=\"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/elephantmouse.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: inline; border: 0;\" title=\"elephant-mouse\" alt=\"elephant-mouse\" src=\"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/elephantmouse_thumb.jpg\" width=\"436\" height=\"418\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>\\n\\nIt is the difference between breaking a candy bar in half to share and measuring out prescription medication.\\n\\nYou can look at the candy bar and say \u201cyeah, that looks about the same size,\u201d but you\u2019d better not do the same thing with medication.\\n\\nIt is a complete waste of time to go overboard with the splitting of the candy bar, getting it even to the exact milligram.\\n\\nIt is a complete waste to try and get stories estimated down to the hour.\\n\\n<\/p>\n<h2>Size \u2018em up against each other<\/h2>\n<p>\\n\\nIn that case how do you actually size the stories?\\n\\nJust compare them against each other.\u00a0 When looking at a new story, consider the other stories you already have on the board.\u00a0 Is this new story like an elephant in comparison to a bunch of mice?\u00a0 Is it the other way around?\\n\\nIf so, adjust the story to make sense.\u00a0 Don\u2019t trust your gut without comparing it to what is out there already, otherwise you\u2019ll start to drift in your estimations.\\n\\nDon\u2019t worry too much if you\u2019re wrong sometimes.\u00a0 As long as you are close, it will all balance out in the end.\\n\\nAlso don\u2019t forget to get rid of all the <a href=\"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/2010\/01\/26\/scrum-backlogs-that-cover-too-much-and-are-not-thinly-sliced-enough-and-have-spreadsheets-attached-and-have-non-specific-things-like-fix-everything-on-this-page\/\">Blue Whales<\/a>.\u00a0 You don\u2019t want any of those on your board, ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In our morning standup meeting one of my team members made a pretty good point about story sizing not being so important.\\n\\nIn Kanban we strive to have relatively same sized stories because it allows us certain benefits:\\n\\n \\n More accurate metrics on estimated time in queue for any story to be delivered. \\n Reduced dependence&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11287,1136966,35042354,31679,303624],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agile","category-kanban","category-kanbanand","category-process-improvement","category-user-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kanban Story Sizing, Elephants and Mice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An explanation of how Kanban or Scrum story sizing should be based on comparing the story with other stories. 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