The Wisdom of (Small) Crowds

Estimates are notoriously hard to get right. What if instead of one developer making estimates, we get the entire team to participate, in a fun and agile atmosphere? that's the idea of Planning Poker or Scrum Poker.

Playing the Game

Each team member receives a deck of cards with varying values printed on them.
Traditionally, 2-exponents or Fibonnaci series are used, so the cards have a face value of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc.
For each story or task, one person (the product owner or the likely developer) explains the story and highlights in a sentence what implementing it would entail.
Then, the Scrum Master calls for an estimate. After a few seconds of contemplation, each team member selects a card, without showing it to his team members, and at a set time, all show their cards. It is important that all cards are shown at once, to prevent 'peer pressure' towards a lower or higher estimates.
If the estimates are essentially the same, the Scrum Master writes down the average estime. IF they differ wildly, the lowest estimator and highest estimator briefly explain their choice, and often then agree on an estimate based on that discussion. If no agreement is reached, the Scrum Master acts as a tie breaker and chooses a number in the range - it is important to move quickly to the next story estimates
This planning game can happen at the end of the Sprint Planning Meeting, to better be able to identify what is the sprint goals and content.

Variations on Theme

One common variation is providing each member a limited number (often 4) of each estimate value, and having them 'use up' each card in estimating. This prevents the tendency of some people to stick to very high or very low estimates for all stories.
Some teams use the estimated values (1, 2, 3, 5, 8) to mean 'ideal days', and then often a 0.5 day card is added. Alternatively the numbers can signify actual (including overheads) days, or story points.

Planning Poker Tool and Cards

Coming soon, a free planning poker tool from SprintPlanning.com will let your distributed team play the planning poker game online, safely and securely. We will also have a free printable Poker Planning cards or professionally-printed planning card decks (sold at cost) if you prefer actual paper.

Or, download our printable planning poker cards:

Print as many copies as the number of participants in your session. Encourage the use of the "?" card when a participant does not feel he can evaluate the feature cost yet.


Have Questions?