Product backlog estimation

The Scrum Guide says "Product Backlog refinement is the act of adding detail, estimates, and order to items in the Product Backlog. This is an ongoing process in which the Product Owner and the Development Team collaborate on the details of Product Backlog items." The method of estimation is up to the teams themselves: https://dzone.com/articles/agile-estimation-practice

Hello all,

Sorry for the late entry, I am also a little confused. Does that mean that during the first Sprint planning the PBI's are not estimated?

If a team wishes to start Sprint Planning and work is not yet ready, it might be a good idea to timebox a workshop and refine enough of it now. In Scrum there is no excuse for putting empiricism in delay, and a good team is keen to create bounded environments within which they can take action.

In my opinion, you shouldn't start your first Sprint until you have a Product Backlog that contains items that are ready to be included in a Sprint. If you think about the process of estimating, it is based upon the Developers having enough knowledge about each item to be able to estimate the work.  If you wait until Sprint Planning to estimate, how does the team know that they can create an increment of value?

Don't rush into starting Sprints.  Make sure that everyone and everything is ready to start the Sprint cadence. 

Sorry for the late entry, I am also a little confused. Does that mean that during the first Sprint planning the PBI's are not estimated?

There's no reason why a Scrum Team can't attempt to refine and size the PBIs in the first Sprint Planning session, and have enough Product Backlog ready. Will it be perfect? Probably not, but your Scrum Team will learn a lot during that first Sprint.

# Courage

Thanks for the clarifications.