I recently chatted with a ScrumMaster looking for estimating training for his teams. The teams work on a 4 week sprint cycle. I don’t have all the details, but it seems the teams have problems estimating how much work they’ll get done in a sprint.

The following could be wrong, but in my experience estimating problems result when:

1. The sprint takes an extended work period. It’s more difficult to estimate how much effort fits in 4 weeks compared to estimating how much fits in 2 weeks.
2. Lack of experience estimating. This gets compounded by managers wanting “accurate estimates.”
3. Problems with user stories being too large and / or horizontal functions instead of thin vertical feature slices.

To help teams estimate better:

• Shorten the sprint length. Going from 4 weeks to 2 weeks makes the sprint end easier to keep in focus AND doubles the amount of practice the team gets estimating.
• Remember that an estimate is only that and nothing more. An estimate. And the estimates should get better with time.
• If there are problems with the user stories, work with product owners to write stories that conform to the INVEST pattern.

Do you have a question you’d like to ask? Shoot me an email.