User Story Estimation Based on the Complexity Decomposition Using Bayesian Networks

Abstract

Currently, in Scrum, there are different methods to estimate user stories in terms of effort or complexity. Most of the existing techniques consider factors in a fine grain level; these techniques are not always accurate. Although Planning Poker is the most used method in Scrum to estimate user stories, it is primarily effective in experienced teams since the estimation mostly depends on the observation of experts, but it is difficult when is used by inexperienced teams. In this paper, we present a proposal for complexity decomposition in a coarse grain level, in order to consider important factors for complexity estimation. We use a Bayesian network to represent those factors and their relations. The edges of the network are weighted with the judge of professional practitioners about the importance of the factors. The nodes of the network represent the factors. During the user estimation phase, the Scrum team members introduce the values for each factor; in this way, the network generates a value for the complexity of a User story, which is transformed in a Planning Poker card number, which represents the story points. The purpose of this research is to provide to development teams without experience or without historical data, a method to estimate the complexity of user stories through a model focused on the human aspects of developers.