I’ve not really understood the no estimates movement. I’ve read a bunch of blog posts and followed the twitter hashtag and discussed with friends and peers, but it just seems like a different kind of estimating, albeit using empirical evidence (not that story points don’t).
Anyway, the secret is this: INVEST.
If your stories adhere to this acronym, then you’ll be able to do #noEstimates and, by “adhere” I really mean, be “Independent”. I believe this is the one most important things about the movement – being able to make decisions about what to build and deploy, how to prioritise and project comes down to the quality and size of your stories.
The trouble is, that is really, really difficult.
A story can be independent and has estimates. I didn’t get your point at all.
I’m not saying they’re mutually exclusive – you can still have an estimated independent story, my point is, if you want to do #noEstimates successfully, you must have independent stories.