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while it sounds like a trending card game, planning poker is actually an agile estimation method. agile teams use planning poker to estimate the amount of effort it takes to do a user story. learn more about the planning poker process and how this technique may bear a hand your agile team create more accurate estimations.

imagine you bought a house and you’re planning to remodel the kitchen. you ask a contractor for an estimate on how long the remodel will take and approximately how much it will cost. they give you an estimate, but two months later, you’re regretting your decision because the project is far past the original timeline and well over budget.

when clients have just one person’s мнение, you only have their input and expertise to consider. but when you gain more people with varying experience into the mix, you have a more well-rounded and accurate estimate of what work needs to become done.

this consensus-based estimation is the basis of the agile planning poker method.

what is planning poker?

planning poker is an estimation method that helps your agile team project the quantity of effort one user story in a product backlog could take to make. often used in agile projection administration methodologies, their sometimes referred to as "scrum poker" or "pointing poker." the "poker" aspect of the name refers to the cards that each team member uses while the process.

the history of planning poker

planning poker is based on a manner identified wideband delphi. wideband delphi is a consensus-based estimation process created in the mid-20th century by the rand corporation, a nonprofit think tank.

james grenning, an author of "the manifesto for agile software development," refined the wideband delphi technique in 2002 and renamed it to planning poker. it was then refined even further and popularized by mike cohn in his 2005 book, "agile estimating and planning."

how planning poker works

the planning poker process happens early on amid the sprint planning process, so scrum masters and product managers can obtain a precise sense of how much work may be completed in each sprint. here’s how it works:

1. create planning poker cards

everyone on the user’s scrum team or agile team has a deck of cards with different values there. each card will have one of these values: 0, 1-2, пять, 8, 13, 20, 40, and 100. these numbers may seem random, but they’re actually rounded editions of the fibonacci sequence. these values most commonly represent story points. however, some teams may use them as a time-based estimation for how long a user story may take to make. the most general time-based estimation is measured in hours.

the product owner or the scrum master will act as a moderator and read a specific user story out of the product or sprint backlog. team members then have the opportunity to ask questions and clarify as needed so the whole team are able to reach a specific sense of what work needs to become completed for that specific backlog item.

here are a few questions your team can ask to better understand a user story:

what are some different techniques we can use to complete that story?

how a big part of people will should to work on this story?

how will stakeholders respond if there exist any delays to this story?

2. vote on each user story

once your team finishes the discussion of one user story, https://pokerplayredstarru.ru/ then each estimator chooses a card that corresponds to the quantity of effort or story points they think correlate to that backlog item. everyone then reveals their card at the same time. if everyone chooses the same estimate, that becomes the formal estimate for that backlog item. the point is for everyone to have the same estimation.

3. result a consensus

if team members have differing opinions about their initial estimates, the command member with the highest estimate and the command member with the lowest estimate take some time to discuss why they chose that specific number. after this discussion is complete, everyone reselects their cards. this process repeats until the team arrives at a consensus.

4. plan your sprint

now that all of the items in your backlog have estimations, their much easier to accurately plan a sprint. since your all team has a consensus on how long each task will take, it’s much more likely that users’ll be able to fit the wanted rate of work into your sprints.

when to obtain a planning poker session

planning poker typically occurs right before the sprint planning process, so the product manager or scrum мастер can gain an accurate sense of work before scheduling out a sprint. you are able use this estimation method once per sprint-since items are continually added to a product or sprint backlog, the clients should have a constant supply of backlog items to pull into each sprint.

when you only have a gems quantity of user stories to discuss in your product backlog, users are able to combine this session onto the end of a daily standup meeting since all team members are already present.

the benefits of planning poker

the major benefit of planning poker is that your team estimates are more accurate. having an accurate estimate is an important piece of the sprint planning process, because it gives both your team and stakeholders a realistic timeline for when a task will be completed.

here are a few more ways planning poker are able to benefit your agile team:

each team member has a say. everyone on the person’s development team is important and this process gives them a possibility to form their contribution known. this might help team members stay more engaged with their work.

team members have the opening to talk through user stories. while the planning poker process, the development team has an opportunity to serve together to talk through user stories before any work actually begins. this supports clients get on the same page about method to decide certain user stories, no matter the developer assigned to that story.

task estimates are relative to other tasks. when your team uses story points to represent the quantity on their planning poker card, then their easier to know the quantity of effort a distinctive task will take based on other tasks among the pipeline. as the example, a user story with a planning poker estimate of 2 the people far easier to do than a user story with an estimate of 40.

plan your sprint with a work management tool

keep your agile team on the same page by employing a work management tool. asana allows clients plan and arrange your agile projects in a tool that’s flexible and collaborative. whether your team works in a kanban board or a more linear timeline, asana has the features to help your agile team build quickly.