Affinity estimation is a technique to group user stories based on their similarities in complexity and size. Affinity estimation enables a large number of stories to be estimated quickly.
Steps of affinity estimation could be as follows:
- a relative measure unit is agreed by the team and different measure sizes are written into columns on a wall.
- an already completed user story is placed in each column, the size of which has been proven. These user stories are then used as a reference for comparision.
- The team takes stories from the backlog list (written on sticky notes), compares them to the reference story, and place them on the appropriate columns (affinity).
