What do story points refer to in estimating stories?

Story points are a crucial component of agile project management, particularly in estimating the relative effort needed to complete a user story. This estimation technique helps teams assess how much work is involved in implementing a story compared to others. By assigning story points, teams can express the complexity, effort, and risk associated with a story rather than trying to estimate the exact time it will take to complete.

Using story points allows for a more flexible and abstract method of estimation, which recognizes that not all tasks can be neatly fitted into a time-based framework. Instead of focusing on hours or days, story points emphasize the relative size of stories, thus enabling teams to prioritize and plan sprints more effectively. This focus on effort over time helps teams manage their workload and velocity more accurately, adapting to changes in scope and complexity throughout the project lifecycle.

Other options do not align with the purpose of story points. They either pertain to monetary aspects, time management, or team organization, which are separate considerations in project planning.