Due to their polycrystalline nature, metals develop intergranular stresses during elastic and inelastic deformation. These stresses are thought to play a role in the fatigue properties of metals and to significantly affect residual stress measurements. The development of intergranular stresses during deformation of interstial free steel was modelled using crystal plasticity finite element modelling. Predictions were compared with measurements made using fast synchrotron diffraction and good qualitative agreement was found. Effects of mesh size and shape, element packing and neighbourhood on the predicted mean elastic strains and their variance were investigated.