Sizing user stories using paired comparisons

Agile estimation approaches usually start by sizing the user stories to be developed by comparing them to one another. Various techniques, with varying degrees of formality, are used to perform the comparisons - plain contrasts, triangulation, planning poker, and voting. This article proposes the use of a modified paired comparison method in which a reduced number of comparisons is selected according to an incomplete cyclic design. Using two sets of data, the authors show that the proposed method produces good estimates, even when the number of comparisons is reduced by half those required by the original formulation of the method. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.