What does sizing refer to in a user story?

• A. The number of users
• B. The estimated effort or amount of work
• C. The priority
• D. The acceptance criteria

Answer: (B)

Sizing a user story is about estimating the effort or amount of work required to implement it. This helps the team plan and forecast how much work they can take on in a sprint, using relative measures like story points or size categories to express effort and complexity rather than exact time. It’s a way to compare stories and gauge workload for future iterations. It’s not about how many users are affected (that speaks to scope or impact), nor about priority (which determines order of work), nor about acceptance criteria (which define what “done” looks like). Acceptance criteria describe the definition of done, while priority guides sequencing, and sizing provides the energy estimate behind what will be done.