Estimating With Story Points

Understand, Explain, and Create Great Estimates with Story Points

An Online Video Course from Mike Cohn

Too many agile teams struggle with story points. This is made worse by the fact that there is a mountain of information—and misinformation—about what story points are and how to use them.

That’s why I created this course.

Mike Cohn, CST
Mountain Goat Software

This course is ideal for anyone who wants to gain a solid understanding about what story points are, common misconceptions and how to use them correctly. It’s also perfect for introducing story points to a team, (and stakeholders) and fixing teams that have developed bad habits.

It’s a great coaching resource for Scrum Masters and agile coaches
 and anyone working in agile project management.

What our Current Students are Saying...

Successfully putting together a one-stop course to  teach me everything he does when working with teams.

Justin Amore

Estimating with Story Points Student

The Godfather of Story Points has done it!”

WOW! How can I not succeed now using them correctly and teaching others the right way?!”

What you're going to learn

MODULE 1

Why Use Story Points

If so many people struggle to estimate with story points - should we just abandon them? No. This module explains why it’s important to use story points, why time doesn’t work, and why we can get better at estimating.

MODULE 2

What Story Points Are

This module helps you understand (and explain) exactly what story points are.

You’ll be introduced to estimating sequences such as Fibonacci and powers of two, and why those are good sequences. You’ll also see in detail how to get the team to understand exactly what type of estimate you’re going to create.

MODULE 3

Creating Estimates

Once your team understands story points - you need to create your estimates. In this module, you’ll discover how to establish a baseline so that everyone knows what a 3 point, or an 8 point story looks like.

You’ll walk through estimating processes in detail, including Planning Poker® and affinity estimation. I’ll also explain when you should estimate, who should take part in estimating and when (if ever) you should re-estimate a story once work has started.

MODULE 4

Improving Estimates

See how to avoid common mistakes that can make teams quit before they ever see success with story points. I’ll explain how to use triangulating to prevent anchoring and biased estimates.

You’ll learn coaching techniques to handle someone who refuses to budge on an estimate, and I’ll also share 5 ways to get better estimates, and 4 things to avoid when estimating.

MODULE 5

Introducing Story Points to a Team

How you talk to your team about story points can make all the difference. Whether your team is resistant to using them, or has been using them incorrectly, this module shows you how to have those conversations in a way that makes teams more receptive to using story points (in the right way).

You’ll also get a presentation that you can use to train your teams, making it easy to coach them from good to great.

MODULE 6

Troubleshooting

Understand problems of using non-additive scales, know how to tell if you’re estimating too much (or not enough) of the product backlog, how to avoid estimate inflation, and whether or not bugs should have story points assigned.

MODULE 7

Wrap up

In the final module you’ll see an overview of the key lessons you’ve learned, with advice on where to go from here. Whether you’re about to start a new project, or are midway through delivery, you can apply what you’ve learned straight away.

Stakeholders and Story Points Module

You need a different conversation to explain story points to stakeholders. Register now and get access to a bonus module that includes what stakeholders need to know about points.

This includes why they can’t use person days, and why you can’t measure productivity or compare teams with points. You’ll also see how to predict date and cost using velocity.

BONUS #1 - $49 Value

Planning Poker® Tool

As an additional bonus, you also get access to our Planning Poker® tool which allows you to play multiple games with any number of users.

Your guests don't need to own the course. Create a new game, add your stories, invite users, and start estimating. You can mark items as favorites and use them to estimate new items. While estimating you can view an item, its acceptance criteria and notes, plus edit and add backlog items.

BONUS #2 - $99 Value

About Mike Cohn

Learn Scrum and agile processes directly from Mike Cohn, one of the industry's most well respected Certified Scrum Trainers (CST).

Mike Cohn is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile.

He is a co-founder and former board member of the Scrum Alliance, and a co-founder of the non-profit Agile Alliance, home of the Agile Manifesto.

Mike teaching at Ramsey Solutions

Copyright ©1998-2021 Mountain Goat Software. All Rights Reserved.

Build a solid understanding about what story points are

Explain story points to your team AND stakeholders (dispelling myths and overcoming resistance) 

Create great estimates, even on teams with diverse skills, experience, or personalities

NEWLY ADDED!
Plan fixed-date and fixed-scope projects

Planning with Story Points

Once you’ve estimated, how do you turn that into discussions with stakeholders and customers about how much, and when you’ll deliver those features?

In this bonus module, you’ll see why plans are as much about what you don’t know, as what you do. You’ll use velocity as a range to create realistic estimates, and even if your team has no historical data, you can still plan your project.

BONUS #4 - $49 Value

This course is currently closed

12 month membership to Mike's AgileMentors Community

When you sign up today you'll also get a FREE 12 month membership to Mike Cohn's AgileMentor's community.

This is the only place you can access: 

  • Monthly Q&A with Mike and other agile experts
  • Friendly forum with some of the sharpest agile mentors
  • A library of resources - 40+ Scrum Education Units®
  • Archive of all Mike Cohn's Weekly Tips

BONUS #3 - $299 Value

Get your questions answered in our active community.

Mike’s weekly tips are ONLY available to AgileMentors community members.

Ask Us Anything Recordings

Mentoring Channel

Calendar of Events

Planning with Story Points

Now that you understand story points and can explain them to teams and stakeholders—what do you need to know about planning before you use them? In this extra module you’ll get 6 brand-new lessons that explain:

  1. The components of a plan

  2. Estimating what you don’t know

  3. Estimating velocity as a range

  4. Estimating velocity without data

  5. An introduction to fixed-date plans

  6. An introduction to fixed-scope plans

BONUS #4 - $49 Value

Build a solid understanding about what story points are

Explain story points to your team AND stakeholders (dispelling myths and overcoming resistance)

Create great estimates, even on teams with diverse skills, experience, or personalities

NEWLY ADDED!
Plan fixed-date and fixed-scope projects

GET NOTIFIED WHEN IT OPENSCLICK HERE FOR GROUP LICENCES

This course is now closed for individual registrations.

CLICK HERE FOR GROUP LICENCES

This course is currently closed

GET NOTIFIED WHEN IT OPENSCLICK HERE FOR GROUP LICENCES

Get Lifetime Access + Free Updates

Estimating with Story Points is the only course of its kind that teaches you exactly how to get your team consistently and correctly estimating story points.

Delivered in an Engaging Format

  • Professionally shot videos with animations make the lessons easy to watch
  • Illustrated transcripts, worksheets, audio files, and video captions for all lessons
  • Quizzes to test your knowledge

40+ lessons and 4 hours of video content on estimating with story points available on desktop, tablet or mobile devices.

Invest RISK-FREE With Our 30-Day Money Back Guarantee

We're so confident in our products , we happily offer a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee.

If you don't see the tremendous value you expected in our product, simply let us know in the first 30 days and we'll refund your money—no questions asked.

An entire module to help you introduce the concept of story points to stakeholders.

Order BEFORE Nov 24th at 9pm Pacific to also get: 

  • Lifetime access to materials so you can refer to them wherever you’re working
  • 6 Category B PDUs and 6 Learning SEUs
  • Certificate and digital badge of completion of the course

Add to your Agile Skills

BONUS #1:  Stakeholders and Story Points module

Add your stories, invite unlimited users, and start estimating.

BONUS #2:  Planning Poker® Tool

Join other smart AgileMentors, and use the library and forum to get your agile questions answered.

BONUS #3: 12 month membership to Mike's AgileMentors Community

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BONUS #4: Planning With Story Points

Use story points to create projections for fixed-date, and fixed-scope projects, even if your team is new to agile

These bonuses alone are worth OVER $400.

BONUS #1 Stakeholders & Story Points

What's the Value of the Estimating with Story Points course?

$49

BONUS #2 Planning Poker® Tool

$99

BONUS #3 Agile Mentors Community

$299

TOTAL VALUE:

$496

$49

BONUS #4 Planning With Story Points

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