<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>We apply a mixed research method to improve the user stories estimation process in a German company following agile software development. We combine software project data analytics with elicitation of teams’ feedback, identify root causes for wrong estimates and propose an improved version of the estimation process. Three major changes are adopted in the new process: a shorter non numerical scale for story points, an analogy-based estimation process, and retrospectives analyses on the accuracy of previous sprints estimates. The new estimation process is applied on a new project, and an improvement of estimates accuracy from 10% to 45% is observed.</p></abstract>

We apply a mixed research method to improve the user stories estimation process in a German company following agile software development. We combine software project data analytics with elicitation of teams’ feedback, identify root causes for wrong estimates and propose an improved version of the estimation process. Three major changes are adopted in the new process: a shorter non numerical scale for story points, an analogy-based estimation process, and retrospectives analyses on the accuracy of previous sprints estimates. The new estimation process is applied on a new project, and an improvement of estimates accuracy from 10% to 45% is observed.

Combining Data Analytics with Team Feedback to Improve the Estimation Process in Agile Software Development

Foundations of Computing and Decision Sciences

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

We apply a mixed research method to improve the user stories estimation process in a German company following agile software development. We combine software...

Combining Data Analytics with Team Feedback to Improve the Estimation Process in Agile Software Development

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 305 - 334

Received: Jul 03, 2018

Accepted: Oct 19, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/fcds-2018-0016

Keywords
Agile estimation, data analytics, process improvement

© 2018 Antonio Vetrò et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Combining Data Analytics with Team Feedback to Improve the Estimation Process in Agile Software Development

Published Online: Dec 31, 2018

Page range: 305 - 334

Received: Jul 03, 2018

Accepted: Oct 19, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/fcds-2018-0016

KeywordsAgile estimation, data analytics, process improvement

© 2018 Antonio Vetrò et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Agile estimation, data analytics, process improvement