[DanielBMarkham]

You know, as soon as I typed "complexity" I knew we'd end up here.

I believe we're deep into semantics. The fact is, whether you call it complexity, effort-till-delivery, or chopped liver, the process is still the same. And it still works.

And while I like story points, frankly I could give a rat's ass with Cohn has to say about it. He's a nice guy, and he's obviously an expert, but I'm much more interested in what works than in anything else. Story points work because we pick them up and use them for stuff, not because Cohn calls them one thing or another or recommends doing them a certain way. Remember the point here is that the predictive modeling process the team uses evolves and becomes more accurate over time. It's really nowhere near as important where you start as that you keep getting better. I've started teams using a 2-tier H/M/L process for assigning points and it works fine. No matter how they think about it, the team gets better over time and it ends up giving them powerful predictive capabilities. That's the key item here. You're getting wrapped up in the weeds.

Sorry, but when I talk about insufferable Agile people, the number one annoying thing they do is name drop. Really bugs me. People drop some famous author's name and then all rational thought shuts down. The great one has spoken.

I'm very sorry you seem to not be getting the answer you wanted. Like I said, I feel your pain.