Consequences of changing from hours to story point estimation "midproject"

[jorgen.bakke.eriksen]

Hi!

Our team have used hours for estimation and tracking issues but now we want to try out story point. I know how to configure Jira to allow this, but I wonder if there are any consequences of doing this "midproject". Will it f.ex destroy history and old sprint reports/burndown charts or is this straight forward. We plan to do the switch for the next sprint.

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @jorgen.bakke.eriksen  -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

First thing: good idea switching on a sprint boundary as that will make tracking the impact of the change easier for the team.

Making this change will not destroy your history; it will essentially reset it as the team re-learns their capacity, velocity, sizing, etc. in the new unit of measure (story points rather than hours).  The data/numbers all remain in the issue histories.

To help the transition, I recommend a few things:

• Create some quick filters based upon date of the switch.  You can use those to quickly see pre- and post-changes in the reporting.
• Consider creating a "sizing ruler" to ease the adjustment to story points.  A sizing ruler is a tool teams use by identifying representative stories for the different sizes on your scale.  For example: ABC-23 is a typical 1 pt, ABC-42 is a typical 8 pt, etc.
• At your first sprint planning after the switch, ready as much work as the team believes they can finish (plus a bit more), and only pull in what you are certain you can achieve.  (no stretch goals).  The switch is going to lead to lots of learning, so reducing the stress of a full-sprint backlog will help.
• If you have a project manager, have discussions with them about forecasting differences.  That will help align expectations of the PM, stakeholders, and the team.

Best regards,
Bill