Any phase · Ways of working
Estimate work as a team
Estimating together helps a team understand the work and plan realistically. The conversation matters more than the number.
About 1-2 hoursEvergreenLast reviewed 5 November 2026
Who this applies to
- Skills it builds
- Delivery and executionTechnical and AI fluency
- PM types
- All
- Product types
- All
- Starting points
- All
- Ways of working
- ScrumHybrid / stage gates
- Experience
- All
- Size of organisation
- All
Steps, by experience
Beginner (under 1 year)
- Use relative sizes, such as story points or T-shirt sizes, rather than hours.
- Pick a small, well-understood item as a reference point.
- Each person estimates privately, then everyone reveals at once.
- Discuss big differences; they often reveal hidden work or risk.
- Use past results to see how much the team usually completes.
Intermediate (1 to 4 years)
- Use relative estimation with reference items.
- Discuss outliers to surface risk.
- Use velocity or throughput for forecasting.
Experienced (5+ years)
- Forecast with ranges and confidence levels.
- Consider counting items instead of estimating when items are similar in size.
- Never use estimates to judge individuals.
Who can do this
Owner: Product manager
Can be delegated to
- Scrum Master or Delivery Manager: Facilitate estimation
- Tech Lead: Explain technical complexity
Reviewed by: Tech Lead
Tool examples
- Jira
- Use the story points field and the velocity chart.
- Azure DevOps
- Use effort fields and the velocity widget.
- Miro
- Run affinity sizing by placing items in size columns.
Definition of done
- Items estimated by the team
- Big differences discussed
- Forecasts based on past results
Common pitfalls
- Treating estimates as promises
- One person estimating for the team
- Comparing teams by points