Goldilocks sizer

…a pile of work to be done.

✣  ✣  ✣

Working in flow is satisfying and productive. You forget about time while the work gets done and having fun. Working on similar-sized items facilitates flow.

Goldilocks is an interesting technique and basically doing the opposite of estimating: you shape the work into the desired sizes, preferably similar-sized items:

1. Vote each item into one of three piles: “Too Big”, “Just Right”, and “Too Small”.
2. Split any “Too Big” items into “Just Right”-sized ones.
3. Group any “Too Small” items together into “Just Right”.

The Wikipedia » Goldilocks Principle applied to sorting stories reminds of potato grading machines that sort potatoes into different sizes.

Enjoy the flow.

Therefore:

Vote each item one of three piles: “Too Big”, “Just Right”, and “Too Small”. Split any “Too Big” items into “Just Right”-sized ones. Group any “Too Small” items together into “Just Right”. Enjoy the flow.

✣  ✣  ✣

✣  ✣  ✣

• InfoQ » Marcus Hammarberg, Joakim Sundén » Q&A on Kanban in Action
• Wikipedia » Goldilocks principle