Story Points Revisited

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood concepts for people new to Agile (and even some not so new) is the concept of story points. It seems that everyone remembers planning poker and playing with cards, but the real essence of what points are, how to assign points, when to assign points, how to use points to determine velocity, what points mean to upper management seem to be either forgotten or not properly trained from the start. Learning objectives: * Learn that points are not absolute but refer to relative size * Learn that points are almost always specific to a scrum team and should not be used to determine relative maturity among teams * Learn that Planning Poker is perhaps the most inefficient (though memorable) way to assign relative size * Learn other appropriate techniques for sizing * Learn to size with non-collocated teams (if you are stuck with such an arrangement) * Learn how to use points to plan long term potentiality * Learn how to explain points to others to dispel prevalent myths