This article discusses how Agile Estimations work with Planning Poker.
Planning Poker is a collaborative estimation technique used by many Agile Team. This technique helps to determine the relative effort required to complete any piece work – A story, Epic or even a Task! Planning poker uses story point estimations as base. To understand more about Story Points, read this article. Planning combines multiple techniques like group discussion, agreement-building, and individual input. This helps the team to ensure more practical and inclusive estimations.
Planning Poker and how its used in Agile Estimations
Planning poker uses a deck of cards with the modified Fibonacci series. All developers have their own copy of this deck. Once the Product Owner explains the functionality, all developers show up a card with their own estimate. Then the team as a whole will engage in a discussion about the estimates. This discussion helps to build a common shared understanding. So its important not to skip.
Some key things to remember are
- All Developers participate in Planning Poker
- Product Owner can clarify the functionality and negotiate the scope of the work. They can not “push” the team to change the estimates
- Scrum Master usually facilitates the session and keeps it on track
Steps for Planning Poker
Get Ready for Agile Estimations With Planning Poker:
- Gather the team: Ensure all relevant team members, including developers, testers, and product owners, are present.
- Prepare the deck: Use a standard deck of Planning Poker cards, typically following the Fibonacci sequence: 0, ½, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100. You can also use a digital tool for virtual sessions. ScrumPoker is one such tool. Of course, Scrum Teams should decide which tools works best for them!
Actual Planning Poker meeting
Explain the Piece of work (Epic /Feature/Story/Task):
- The Product Owner describes the user story or task to be estimated. This explanation includes acceptance criteria and other relevant details.
- Team members can ask clarifying questions.
Discuss the work:
- Discuss and agree upon assumptions if needed
- The team then discusses
- potential challenges, risks, or dependencies
- What are subcomponents to consider – Design/Code/Test/Deploy etc
Select Cards and Reveal Individual Estimates:
- Each team member independently selects a card that represents their estimate of the task’s effort or complexity.
- The estimate considers end to end work needed for all subcomponents discussed above.
- All participants reveal their chosen cards simultaneously to avoid influence or anchoring.
Discuss Variation and Re-Estimate (If Necessary):
- If there’s a significant variation in estimates, the team members then discuss their reasoning.
- Those who chose higher or lower estimates explain their perspectives, leading to a better understanding of the task.
- After the discussion, participants may select a new estimate. This process can repeat until the team reaches consensus or a reasonable estimate. However, what many teams instead do is have one or two open discussions and then have a working agreement on how to proceed. The working agreement can be discussed prior. Some examples of these working agreements are – higher estimate prevails / Team goes for average/ If we know person working on the item –> we respect their choice etc
Advantages of doing Agile Estimations with Planning Poker
- Shared Understanding: Discussions during the Planning Poker exercise bring everybody on a common ground. This helps transparency about work being done. This helps not only in Agile Estimations but also in actual execution. The discussion also helps to make the risks and dependencies visible
- Improved Accuracy: All the Developers (Programmers / testers /analysts and other people in team) participate together in Planning Poker for Agile Estimations. This collaborative approach increases the accuracy of estimations.
- Team Building: Entire scrum team works together for planning poker. Such working and discussing together fosters teamwork and communication.
- Reduced Bias: Each team member independently decides their estimate. Then everybody shows their “number” at the same time. This way of silent voting helps to minimize the bias from dominant people or people with perceived seniority /authority.
Challenges to anticipate while doing Agile Estimations with Planning Poker
- Too Time consuming – Sometimes Planning Poker and its discussions consume a lot of time. This then may make the teams reluctant to participate as they think it does not add value.
- Distributed Teams – Today many Scrum Teams work from more than one location. Sometimes, it is quite difficult for these teams to come to one common location for estimation work
- Resistance to change – good old “we want to do things the way we have been doing them!” is a very common opposition to anything new. Teams often resist any new technique or approach.
- Personality Issues – Some people tend to dominate discussions. While some other people, do not speak up even when necessary.