Should teams log time in Scrum? The agile community has debated this topic for years. Purists argue that time tracking creates micromanagement and distracts from delivering value. Finance directors and project managers respond that without logged hours, it is impossible to calculate actual sprint costs, track project budgets, or compute Earned Value Management (EVM) indicators. This article explains how to reconcile story points and time tracking without harming team morale.
Why Combine Story Points and Time Logging?
Story points estimate relative complexity. Time logging measures actual effort spent. Combining both enables calculating cost per story point, tracking budget variance, and computing EVM financial metrics (CPI, SPI, EAC).
See how Manifst automates time tracking and EVM cost calculation.