Karmængine

To me, there’s not confusion on how to handle incomplete stories – and yet, there is a huge range of different approaches hanging around in the Scrum community.So, I’m going to address some of the common claims being made.

Some people make claims that you have to credit some ‘done’ story points.

Ridiculous. Scrum is not a game – you don’t ‘get points’. Story points are not awarded. They are a measurement of scope. “Congrats, you win fifty centimeters” is about what these people are saying.

So no, there’s no credit – and to make an even plainer point – if a story is not done – it is not done. I don’t know how much simpler this could be.

Remedy your brain by:

• Revising how you think about story points.
• Getting/revising your Definition of Done.

Some people claim that you can keep the same estimate for the story

Yes, insane people. Put it this way. If I am asked how long it takes to fill my bucket, and I say one hour, then after one hour it’s three quarters full – should I really answer with ‘one hour’ when I’m asked again how long it will take to fill? No, damnit. And this is not rocket science. It’s filling buckets!

Be wary – the re-estimated value could be either higher or lower than the previously-estimated value.

Things to remember:

• The story was not completed, therefore it’s not done.
• Factors relating to the reason the story is not completed should be discussed during the retrospective meeting.
• There could be either less work remaining that originally estimated, or there could be more work remaining.

The bottom line

Simply put:

• Story not completed? No story points completed. Simple.
• Work to be done? Estimate it.