Story points are a unit of measure used in agile project management to estimate the effort required to complete a task or user story. They help teams assess the complexity, time, and resources needed for a project without getting bogged down in specific hours or days. Teams typically assign story points based on a relative scale, often using the Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc.) to represent increasing levels of difficulty. This method encourages discussion and collaboration among team members, leading to a shared understanding of the work involved in delivering a feature or product.