Agile estimation uses a specific vocabulary. Practise the collocations that help teams communicate effort and complexity accurately.
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Fill in: 'The team uses planning poker to ___ effort for each user story.'
We 'estimate effort' — 'estimate' is the core Agile collocation for judging the complexity or time required for work. 'Measure effort' implies a precise, post-hoc calculation; 'calculate' is too mathematical for story-based planning; 'assess effort' is more suitable for risk contexts.
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Fill in: 'Before we can ___ a story accurately, we need to understand its acceptance criteria.'
We 'size a story' — 'size' specifically means to assign a story-point value reflecting complexity, a standard Agile collocation. 'Estimate a story' is also used; 'grade' implies quality assessment; 'score a story' is informal and borrows from gamification.
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Fill in: 'We should ___ the backlog before sprint planning so all tickets have clear descriptions.'
We 'refine the backlog' — 'refine' (also known as 'grooming') is the Agile-standard term for the ongoing process of reviewing, splitting, and clarifying backlog items. 'Groom' was the older term; 'clean' is informal; 'sort the backlog' means only ordering, not improving content.
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Fill in: 'The client asked for a ___ order of magnitude estimate before we scope the full project.'
We 'give a rough order of magnitude' (ROM) — 'rough order of magnitude' is a standard project-estimation phrase for a high-level cost or effort range (typically ±50%). 'Quick estimate' is informal; 'ball-park estimate' is a separate idiom; 'loose estimate' is non-standard.
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Fill in: 'The product owner needs to formally ___ each story after the team demos it at the sprint review.'
We 'accept a story' — in Scrum, the product owner 'accepts' a user story when it meets the definition of done and the acceptance criteria. 'Approve' is used for financial or governance decisions; 'sign off' is informal; 'validate' is used in testing, not Agile delivery.