High level estimates can be provided using the T-Shirt Sizing Estimation technique. It can be used as an alternative to Planning Poker for estimating Story Points for Agile projects. T-Shirt sizing estimates can still be converted into rough number of days and cost involved.
When estimating your backlog, just like Planning Poker, the team can use T-Shirt sizes as shown in the image above. The t-shirt size can be converted into story points as well.
Benefits of T-Shirt Sizing Estimation
- It is an informal estimation technique and can be used to estimate quickly as it is relative sizing.
- The primary advantage to t-shirt sizes is the ease of getting started.
- It is a popular estimation technique used in Agile based software development.
- It is a good way to introduce the Teams to doing relative estimating.
Mountain Goat Software states,
T-shirt sizes can be a great way of becoming accustomed to relative estimating. So, start with them if your team finds that easier. But minimally put some underlying numbers on them (e.g., Medium=5) and then gradually shift to using the numbers directly.
Have you looked at alternative estimation techniques?
Have a look at the following video for an overview of the estimation strategy that your team can adopt for t-shirt sizing.
