What is Story Points? — UK Software Development Guide
Direct Answer
Story points are a unit of measure for expressing the overall effort required to fully implement a user story. Story points are relative estimates — a 3-point story takes roughly 3x the effort of a 1-point story. They capture complexity, uncertainty, and effort in a single number without committing to a specific time. Common scales: Fibonacci (1,2,3,5,8,13,21) or T-shirt sizes (XS,S,M,L,XL).
Story-points in the UK
Story points are used in ClickMasters sprint planning to estimate delivery capacity. For UK fixed-price contracts: Technical Discovery produces a fully estimated backlog in story points, which translates to a fixed timeline (based on the team's historical velocity in story points per sprint). Story points are also useful for R&D Tax Credits documentation — they provide evidence of the complexity and innovation level of specific development activities, supporting the "technological uncertainty" criterion for HMRC qualifying work.
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