During sprint planning for a software development project, your team is estimating user stories for the upcoming two-week sprint. One critical story that the Product Owner wants included has significant technical uncertainty. Three developers provide estimates ranging from 3 to 13 story points, indicating vastly different understandings of the work involved. The team has already committed to 32 story points of well-understood stories, and their average velocity is 40 story points. What should the team do with this uncertain story?

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct answer is B. Option B is correct because when significant technical uncertainty exists, a spike allows the team to investigate and reduce risk before committing to delivery (ECO Process Task 3.10). This follows agile principles of working at a sustainable pace and not over-committing to poorly understood work. Option A is incorrect because averaging widely divergent estimates masks the underlying uncertainty and increases the risk of sprint failure. Option C ignores the learning opportunity and may be based on over-confidence rather than accurate understanding. Option D might work for some stories, but the wide estimate range suggests fundamental technical uncertainty that decomposition alone won't resolve—investigation is needed first.

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