What are the common approaches to sizing User Stories ?

The common approaches to sizing User Stories include using – Story Points and T-shirt sizes.

What is a Story Point ?

Story Point is a size given to a User story based on a team’s opinion of how long it might take to deliver. The Story Points are usually based on a Fibonacci scale which is – 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 etc.

What are T-Shirt sizes ?

T-Shirt size is a size given to a User story based on a team’s opinion of how large the User Story is. T-Shirt sizes are usually in the form of – Extra Small – XS, Small – S, Medium – M, Large – L and Extra Large –  XL.

What is a Story Map ?

A Story map is used to provide a two-dimensional graphical visualization of the Product Backlog. At the top of the map are the headings under which stories are grouped, usually referred to as ‘Epics’ that are big coarse-grained User Stories, and ‘Features’ that are collections of related user stories. Next, vertically, below the Epics, the actual story cards are allocated and ordered by priority. The first horizontal row is a “walking skeleton” and below that represents increasing sophistication.