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How does a Scrum Team Estimate and Commit to User Stories in a Scrum Project?
Posted by SCRUMstudy® on October 13, 2022
Categories: Agile Product Backlog Product Development Project Delivery Scrum Scrum Guide Sprint Backlog
In this process, the Scrum Team, supported by the Scrum Master, estimates the User Stories and identifies the effort required to develop the functionality described in each User Story. Only User Stories that satisfy the Definition of Ready and are properly defined by the Product Owner are estimated by the team.
The Product Owner does not play an active role in estimating User Stories, but may be consulted to clarify any questions the Scrum Team might have related to the User Stories being estimated.
The Scrum Core Team (i.e., the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Scrum Team) are involved in creating the product deliverables. Ongoing interaction between the Scrum Core Team members in a Scrum Team and others, such as other Scrum Teams in the project, and internal and external project business stakeholders, may motivate Scrum Core Team members to suggest changes or improvements to the product, service, or some other part of the project. Usually such changes—like any others—are captured in Change Requests, and the Product Owner makes a final decision about which suggested changes from the Scrum Team and Scrum Master should be considered as formal Change Requests.
In this process, User Stories and their related Acceptance Criteria are created by the Product Owner (elaborated from the previously-defined Epics) and incorporated into the Prioritized Product Backlog. User Stories are designed to ensure that the customer’s requirements are clearly depicted and can be fully understood by all the project stakeholders. User Stories need to be tangible enough and must satisfy the Definition of Ready before they can be estimated and developed by the Scrum Team.
User Group Meetings provide the Product Owner with firsthand information about user expectations from relevant business stakeholders (primarily users and/or customers). Relevant members from the Scrum Core Team may also be present in User Group Meetings. These meetings help in formulating the Acceptance Criteria for the product and provide valuable insights for developing Epics. User Group meetings also promote buy-in for the project and create a common understanding among the Product Owner, Scrum Team, and relevant business stakeholders.