The best way to deliver value isn’t more, more, more, it’s to do small valuable things frequently. If instead of estimating stories, we slice them down to “small enough”, we can come to a smooth flow of value, delivering all the time. … The next question, of course, is “when will all this be done?”
The answer is that no one knows. We could do a lot of work to improve our not knowing, and in some areas and at some times some of that is worth doing, such as when there’s a large contract waiting to be bid. But when we’re in the business of developing solutions for internal or external customers, we do best to provide small amounts of value frequently, not wait for Big Bang releases that seem often to recede indefinitely into the future.
It’s far better to pick a close-in date for the next release to customers, and pick as much good stuff into that release as possible. Estimating, be it in story points or gummi bears or even time, gets in the way of this. Where possible, in my opinion, it’s best avoided.
Quote Citation: ronjeffries.com, “Story Points Revisited”, May 23, 2019, https://ronjeffries.com/articles/019-01ff/story-points/Index.html