Time Estimation for User Story

There are multiple ways to estimate time for a user story. One of the ways that worked really nice for my team was personal estimates discussed by the developers together (Estimate Poker game?). This is how it goes.

User story:

As a Sender, I want to be able to query status of my document, so I could know it's location.

Each develop would grab a pen and paper, break down the user story into tasks that will be required to implement the user story and estimate each task. At the end the total estimate is written down.

Once all team members are done, the total numbers are revealed. If the numbers are identical, I envy you. You have a solid team with hands on experience on the subject. But have no worries, this will not happen often. Normally numbers will vary, and significantly.

At this point the discussion starts, to understand why each person estimated it this or other way. This is the best part of the estimate, as it

• Brings up all the required tasks an individual would not necessarily consider, but as a group chances to forget something are lower
• Reveals if a certain tasks is a brand new or there's some previous experience that can help to estimate / implement better
• Bridge domain understanding by driving into question and having answers

This is a great technique. Works smoothly and feels like a game, therefore not boring and doesn't feel like a depressing task to do.

And recycle you papers after that so you'd feel even better about the whole process :)