Introduction #
A key aspect of any planning process is to have a reasonable understanding of the amount of effort required to complete a task. Task estimation is a very complex activity and often the results are highly variable.
To avoid this complexity and wasted effort, the Good Day product reccomend the use of ‘story points’ to assess the size and scale of a task.
Generally, the use of story points is about designing a fixed view of task scale and assigning a numeric value to each entry in that scale. For example:
- Tiny task = 1 story points
- Small task = 2 story points
- Average task = 3 story points
- Large task = 5 story points
- Massive task = 10 story points
The main value of story points is the regular assessment of the total number of story points associated with tasks completed during a period. For example, if in an average week a user completes tasks with a total of 15 story points, then there is little value in assigning tasks to a future week where the total exceeds 15.
Another effective way of assessing a task size is to use the Task checklist feature to decompose the task into several smaller steps.
Updating task story point values #
The story point value of an open task may be updated at any time by editing the task and updating the story point value field
Reviewing story points as part of the planning process #
When the initial set of tasks for agreed, the next stage is to review the story point assignments for each task in the list.
The user should have in mind a story point capacity for the planning period (e.g. 25 story points in a week, 110 story points for a month). Once the story point review has been completed for all the tasks, if the new story point total exceeds the planning capacity, then it would be prudent to remove tasks from the list until such time that the total is within the capacity
