Story Points: Estimation and Setup in Popular Tools
Story points measure the relative size of work on a task. Learn how to estimate with them and set them up on boards in Jira, YouTrack and other tools.
Overview & context
Story points are a unit of relative size: they estimate how complex a task is compared to other tasks. A 5-point story is roughly twice as big as a 2- or 3-point one, no matter who on the team picks it up. Below you'll find how story point estimation works, how to set story points up in Jira, YouTrack, Azure Boards, GitLab, GitHub Projects and Linear and how to keep track of where each app's board and backlog live.
1. What are story points?
Story points express how much work, complexity and uncertainty a task holds compared to another task. Keep in mind they aren't time. The team doesn't ask "how many hours will this take?" but "is this bigger or smaller than a task we already know?"
Story points grew out of the points used in Extreme Programming. Teams estimated in ideal days and multiplied them by a load factor of about 3 to get real time, which confused people, so ideal days got renamed to points. Ron Jeffries, who probably invented them, now warns about how they're misused. The Scrum Guide doesn't require story points either. They're just one technique for estimating effort.
2. Why use story points instead of hours or man-days?
Teams use story points instead of a unit of time because comparing two tasks is faster and more reliable than estimating the duration of each one. An hour estimate also depends on who gets the work: a senior developer changes the payment flow in a day, a newcomer needs three. The size of the task is the same for both.
Points turn into time only through the team's velocity, the average number of points finished per sprint. If the team completes about 30 points in two weeks, a 90-point backlog is roughly three sprints. Points don't compare across teams, though, and they don't work for rating people. Every team has its own scale.
| Story points | Hours | |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Size relative to other tasks | Expected duration of the work |
| Depends on who does it | No | Yes |
| Turning it into a date | Through velocity from past sprints | Directly, with no buffer for uncertainty |
| Comparing teams | Meaningless | Possible, but skewed |
3. How to estimate story points
Story point estimation needs fixed reference tasks the team agrees on and everyone on the team estimating at the same time. A short discussion afterwards sorts out the difference in how people understand the task and gets them to agree on an estimate.
If the team lands on 3 or 5, take the higher number and move on. Arguing over one step will probably cost more time than it's worth.
- 1
Pick a scale
The most common story point values follow a modified Fibonacci sequence: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. The growing gaps reflect that uncertainty grows with size. It would be hard to estimate the difference between, say, a 9 and a 10.
- 2
Set reference tasks
Pick two or three finished tasks the whole team knows, for example "a new form field = 1" and "a new payment method = 8". Compare new tasks against them: is the new one similar to one of the references, bigger or smaller?
- 3
Estimate at the same time
For estimating together, use a technique called planning poker. Each team member picks a card with the number of story points they'd give the task but doesn't show it to anyone. On a signal, all cards flip. Nobody anchors on the first number or on the most senior person in the room.
- 4
Explain the outliers to each other
When one team member estimates a task at 2 and another at 8, both should explain what led them there. Chances are one of them knows about a dependency or a risk the other doesn't. Or the other one knows the area well enough to explain why the task is simpler than it looks. Then the team votes again or agrees on a shared estimate right away.
- 5
Split big tasks
A task of 13 points or more is too big and uncertain for one sprint. Split it into smaller pieces you can finish, ship and estimate on their own.
4. How to set up story points in Jira, YouTrack and other boards
Story points are turned on in these tools as an estimation field, which the tool uses for sprint totals, the burndown chart and velocity. Each tool has its own field and setting:
| Tool | Estimation field | Where to turn it on | What the tool calculates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jira (team-managed) | Story point estimate | Project settings → Features → Estimation | Velocity report, sprint burndown |
| Jira (company-managed) | Story Points | Board settings → Estimation | Velocity report, sprint burndown |
| YouTrack | Story points (integer, Scrum template) | Board settings → Card → Current estimation field | Burndown by estimation |
| Azure Boards | Story Points (Agile), Effort (Scrum), Size (CMMI) | Built into the process; Basic has no field | Velocity, backlog forecast |
| GitLab | Weight | On the issue, Premium tier and above | Total weight per iteration, burndown |
| GitHub Projects | Custom number field, for example Estimate | New Number field in the project, sprints in an Iteration field | Field sum when grouped by iteration |
| Linear | Estimate (linear, exponential, Fibonacci or T-shirt) | Team settings → Estimates | Cycle capacity from the last three cycles |
5. How to organize boards when a team builds several apps
The board belongs to the team, the backlog to the product. Story points and velocity are counted per team, so a team that builds, say, a booking system and invoicing needs one board across both products and one shared estimation field.
In Jira you build that board on a filter spanning several projects. In YouTrack you add several projects to the board. Make sure every project on the board uses the same estimation field.
project in (BOOK, INV) AND sprint in openSprints() ORDER BY Rank ASC6. Where should the link to an app's board and backlog live?
You can put the link to the board and backlog right into the app. That makes it easier to get to work in progress when you test the app, report bugs or do reviews. It helps most in teams that manage several apps and switch between tools. The link in the app can point to the board and usually already filter it to the specific project.
In AboutTheApp you can add links to the board, the backlog or the velocity report to the app under the ready-made Issue Tracking category.
AboutTheApp doesn't connect to Jira or YouTrack and doesn't read story points. Its job is to bring together links to the tools the team uses to build the app.
- 1
Open the app in the product editor
In the AboutTheApp dashboard, open the app and go to Resources.
- 2
Add the board link
Click Add resource, pick the Issue Tracking category and paste the board URL. Use a custom label such as "Sprint board" and a description such as "Internal Jira".
- 3
Add the backlog and reports
The same way, you can also add links to the backlog, the velocity report or a saved filter, for example issues labeled as technical debt.
- 4
Set visibility
Mark an internal board as private. Only signed-in team members and whoever gets the unlock code can see it.
- 5
Add a link for one customer only
If a client has their own Jira or Azure Boards, switch the editor scope to that customer and add the link to them only. Other customers won't see it.
7. Do story points still make sense now that AI writes the code?
Story points still make sense with AI assistants as long as they measure a task's complexity and risk, not typing time. Design, review, tests and deployment are still there. A task with a vague spec or a critical change is as uncertain as it was before.
Velocity will shift once the team adopts AI tools, though. Compare it only with sprints after the change. After a few sprints, check whether your reference tasks still match how the team works.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours is one story point?
There's no fixed conversion and you don't want one. Points turn into time only through velocity: if the team finishes 30 points in a two-week sprint, a 90-point backlog is about three sprints.
Why are story points estimated with the Fibonacci sequence?
The growing gaps between 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 13 reflect that uncertainty grows with size and each step is roughly half again as big as the previous one.
Who estimates story points in Scrum?
The whole development team that will do the work, testers included. The product owner explains the task and answers questions but doesn't estimate.
How do I enable story points in Jira?
In a team-managed project, turn on estimation in Project settings → Features → Estimation and choose Story points. On a company-managed project's board, pick Story Points in Board settings → Estimation.
Where should I keep the link to an app's sprint board and backlog?
Team members usually keep the board as one of their main bookmarks in the browser. It still pays to have it available from the app too, whether in the dev or the test environment. In AboutTheApp you add links to the board, backlog and reports under Issue Tracking, mark internal ones as private and add a client's tracker link to that customer only.
In short
Story points work when the team compares tasks against reference tasks and records them in a dedicated board field. Keep the link to the board and backlog at hand right from the app.
Want the board and backlog next to the app?
Create a free app in AboutTheApp and attach links to its board, backlog, repository and environments.