Story Points

A unit of measure for expressing the overall size, complexity, and effort required to fully implement a user story. Story points are relative — a 5-point story should take roughly twice the effort of a 2-point story. Unlike hours, story points capture uncertainty and complexity rather than raw time. Teams use them during sprint planning to determine how much work can fit into an iteration. Because story points are team-specific, they cannot be compared across teams. Over time, a team's average story points per sprint — their velocity — becomes a reliable forecasting tool for release planning and roadmap estimation.