Customers write stories
Each team receives 12 story cards. Each card contains the following:
- Story description. The stories are simple little games. No technical knowledge is required.
- Story value in “business points”. The aim of the game is to earn as much business points as possible.
- Estimate: 1/2/3/4/5/6 points or impossible
Developers estimate stories
The team estimates how long the story will take to implement. They must choose one of 1-2-3-4-5-6 points or “this is too big to estimate“. The team may ask the coach questions about the story. The coach should suggest that estimates be done by sorting and comparing stories by complexity. E.g. if a story is twice as difficult as another, estimate twice the number of points.
Customers choose stories
The team selects stories they guess they can implement in 180 seconds (the real-time length of the iteration). The team must maximize the number of business points to earn by implementing the stories.
The team orders the stories for implementation. All the stories must be “implemented” sequentially in this order.
Developers implement stories
The stories are taken one by one. Team members volunteer to implement the story. Before implementation, the team may hold a short discussion on how best to implement the story. The team may ask the coach questions about implementation and acceptance conditions.
When a developer starts the implementation of a story the hourglass is started. The hourglass is stopped when the story is finished and accepted by the coach. The business points of the story are earned.
The iteration continues until the hourglass is empty. If all the selected stories have been implemented before that happens, the team may select more stories for implementation.
At the end of the iteration, the score sheet contains the stories, estimated time and business points earned. The business points are summed. The sum of the cost points of the implemented stories is the velocity.