Final answer:
A story point is the effort estimation for a product backlog item in Agile project management and is assigned before the sprint begins. It is a holistic measure of effort required, taking into account the work, complexity, and risks. These estimates assist teams in planning and managing future work commitment.
Step-by-step explanation:
A story point is the effort estimation for a product backlog item and is assigned before the sprint begins. In Agile project management, particularly Scrum, a story point is a metric used in Agile estimation to convey the difficulty of implementing a given user story. It reflects the overall effort that might be required to fully implement a product backlog item, including the amount of work, the complexity of the work, and any risks or unknowns.
Story points are a unit of measure for expressing an estimate of the overall effort that will be required to fully implement a product backlog item or user story. They are assigned to the items during the sprint planning meeting before the sprint actually begins. Story points allow teams to discuss and estimate the effort required for features without getting into time-based estimates, which can be very subjective and vary between team members.
The process involves the entire team because different perspectives can influence the understanding of the task's complexity. Once a story point is agreed upon, it is used as a reference for planning and helps the team to manage expectations and predict how much work they can commit to in a future sprint.