Estimating in man-hours is one of the most prevalent methods for assessing teamwork. While man-hours are easy to understand, there are a few big disadvantages to this method:
Few tasks are hard to estimate precisely, e.g. the legacy work
If one team member provides the estimate but another completes the task, the estimate becomes worthless.
The time needed to complete a task will vary based on a developer’s level of experience.
Teams usually misjudge impediments they might face and contemplate only the best-case state.
The advantages of estimating user stories in points can be – There is no correlation with the skills and experience of the estimator, story points do not depend on who is doing the story. As the story points are a measurement of relative sizes, and the size of the story cannot be changed by external pressure, the team members can estimate more accurately. Story Points invites collaboration as team behavior becomes prominent over individuals. Using planning poker to estimate story points brings the team together. It acts as a team building activity as teams share, constructively criticize each other, debate and have fun playing poker cards to come to a consensus on estimates.
