Why story points are not directly proportional to hours of work on an item . #sizing #agile

 The relationship between story points and hours is complex and intentionally indirect in agile methodology. Here's how they relate:

Fundamental Difference

Story Points: Relative measure of effort, complexity, and uncertainty Hours: Absolute measure of time duration

Story points are deliberately designed to avoid direct hour conversion because they capture more than just time.

What Story Points Actually Measure

Three Key Factors:

  • Effort - How much work is involved
  • Complexity - How difficult/intricate the work is
  • Uncertainty - How much unknown risk exists

Example Scenario:

  • Simple data entry task: 3 hours of work = 1 story point
  • Complex algorithm task: 3 hours of work = 5 story points (due to complexity/uncertainty)

Why Direct Conversion is Problematic

Team Variability:

  • Senior developer might complete 8-point story in 6 hours
  • Junior developer might need 16 hours for same story
  • Story point value stays same, hours vary dramatically

Task Nature Differences:

  • Research spike: 2 story points might take 8 hours
  • Bug fix: 2 story points might take 2 hours
  • Integration work: 2 story points might take 12 hours

Practical Relationship Patterns

Rough Industry Averages (highly variable):

  • 1 story point ≈ 4-8 hours of work
  • Some teams see 1 point ≈ 0.5-1 day
  • Other teams see 1 point ≈ 2-3 hours

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