A Hilarious Question

I just heard a great lecture by Mike Cohn on Agile estimation techniques. 
At the end of the lecture, an audience member asked a question that almost made me
spew water out of my nose.

“As a team gets better at Agile, do they start
using man hours instead of points?”

I refrained from standing up and screaming across the room, “No, but as your
Project Managers get better at Agile, they will start using points.” 
This is true, but only so because of the need of the PM to be able to talk to the
development team in a mutual language.

Here’s the dirty little secret; Your pristine estimation points will
eventually be translated into a money based economy. 

Whether that money takes the form of time, salary cost, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
of a team, whatever; the translation WILL eventually be made.  The hard
part is simply getting new-to-Agile PMs (particularly CMMI types) to allow measurements
to be made in arrears instead of advance.  Agile measurements are designed to
measure truth and predict realistic (not “optimal”) outcomes.  For
that to work Agile teams must have a baseline Velocity from which to draw.

Waiting for a baseline of Velocity to appear on a newly constituted Agile team is
a nerve wracking time for the newly Agile PM.  Pity them, stroke them, hold them
tight, but do not let them make you estimate in time.  As soon as your team produces
a genuine velocity, they can translate your team’s point system into
time and money economies in their own offices, far away from the product development
teams.

Now that the PM has the exchange rate between her currency (time) and yours (points)
she will you to begin estimating using her notes of exchange.  Encourage the
PM to continue the background exchange rate translations for the executive reports
that they must make, but keep that discussion away from your estimation process.