How to get a more accurate story points allocation on resources during sprint planning?

Question

Part of sprint planning is to ensure that your resources are not over allocated / under allocated work.

In jira a ticket is allocated the total points.

Now if a ticket is assignee to person A who is allocated 1 point, then it is assigned to person B who is allocated 2 points and then it is assigned to person C who is allocated 3 points.  The total points allocated to the jira ticket is 6 points.

When reporting the points are used to measure the work against who is currently assigned to the ticket.  Which is misleading, as you will assume that the 6 points are all for either person A, B or C depending on when they are assigned to the ticket.  This over allocates / under allocates points to each person during sprint planning.

How can I accurately represent each person's allocated points so I can better determine the work allocation during sprint planning?

I could use sub-tasks, but I am unable to report at that level.  To resolve the so called double counting of points when using sub-tasks, when jira tickets are allocated sub-tasks, you can sum the sub-tasks points at the jira issues(task, story) level, instead of having to manually enter the points.

Much appreciated for your response

Ste Wright · Answer

Hi @Salwa Chamra

If an organisation is using Story Points in this manner, it sounds more of a training/learning issue than a platform issue.

If you're doing points-based capacity management, I'd look into alternatives rather than confusing Story Points...

* Time-based allocations
* Points, or a similar custom field, which are set at the Sub-task level* You could use Automation to...* SUM these at Story level (avoiding duplication)
* Have custom fields to SUM progression - eg. have custom fields for Points Done, Points In Progress, etc
* Have custom fields to SUM per area, assuming Sub-tasks can uniquely identify this - eg. have custom fields for Testing Points, Dev Points, etc

Ste

Salwa Chamra · Answer

Much appreciated for the prompt response.

While the theory is sound why the use of points, unfortunately in practice it is very different.

Unfortunately a number of organizations are using points to manage allocation of resources, hence the question.

Thanks heaps

Ste Wright · Answer

Hi @Salwa Chamra

This isn't really how Story Points are meant to work.

Story Points are a team allocation estimation technique - rather than per user. The average amount of points a team can deliver in a sprint is called the velocity - and this is what you'd use to decide how many points you can add into each sprint.

Having it at a team-level means it's not definitive - not every sprint is the same, and neither is every story. Story Points are an indication of expected effort/complexity across all team members. That is why teams estimate together - so you can discuss everyone's thinking in terms of effort, complexity, size, dependencies, etc.

If you're looking to be more definitive on planning each user's capacity in a week, and how much time they have available, I'd probably suggest using time estimates / time spent on each Sub-task.

Ste