Planning Poker is a collaborative and fun technique used in the Agile project management framework to estimate the effort and complexity of user stories. Originating from the Scrum framework, Planning Poker promotes team engagement and generates more accurate estimations through collective decision-making. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore the principles behind Planning Poker, its benefits, and how to conduct a successful Planning Poker session.

What is Planning Poker? 

Planning Poker involves a group of team members, including developers, testers, and the product owner, coming together to estimate the effort required for specific tasks. The process is particularly useful for breaking down user stories and assigning story points, representing each task's comparative size and complexity.

The Planning Poker Process:

Preparation

• Gather the team in a conducive environment.
• Ensure everyone has a deck of Planning Poker cards, each card having a number representing a story point (commonly used values are 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 20, 40, and 100).
• Familiarize the team with the user stories or tasks to be estimated.

Round 1 - Individual Estimation

• Present a user story to the team.
• Each team member privately selects a Planning Poker card representing their estimate of the effort required.
• This phase encourages independent thinking and prevents influence from others.

Round 2 - Discussion

• Team members reveal their chosen cards simultaneously.
• If there is a wide range of estimates, the team discusses the reasoning behind their choices.
• This collaborative discussion helps in sharing insights and aligning everyone's understanding of the task.

Round 3 - Re-estimation

• After the discussion, team members repeat the estimation process.
• This step ensures that the team converges towards a consensus on the effort required.

Repeat if Necessary

• The process is repeated until a reasonable consensus is reached.
• If needed, teams can iterate on the estimation process for a more accurate result.

Does Planning Poker Work? 

It certainly does. Planning Poker is highly effective in the estimation process. Teams consistently report achieving more accurate estimates compared to other techniques previously employed. This success can be attributed to various factors.

Firstly, Planning Poker facilitates the collaboration of multiple expert opinions within a cross-functional team, representing various disciplines involved in a software project. This diversity of expertise enhances the team's capability to undertake the estimation task more effectively, as highlighted by Magne Jørgensen, Ph.D., of the Simula Research Lab, who emphasized that the people who are most competent in solving the task should estimate it, after conducting a comprehensive literature review on software estimation.

Secondly, the dynamic nature of poker planning sparks lively discussions among team members, compelling estimators to provide justifications for their estimates. This interactive dialogue has been found to significantly improve estimate accuracy, particularly for items characterized by a high degree of uncertainty commonly encountered in software projects.

Furthermore, the practice of justifying estimates has proven effective in compensating for missing information, a crucial aspect in agile projects where user stories are often intentionally left vague.

Which Organizations Should Practice Planning Poker?

Planning Poker proves to be a valuable estimation technique applicable to teams in diverse organizational settings. However, its effectiveness is notably pronounced in smaller businesses and teams. In contrast, larger organizations with more extensive teams may experience prolonged consensus-building times during Planning Poker sessions, given that increased participation correlates with an extended decision-making process for each item.

What are The Benefits of Planning Poker? 

Here are the advantages of using planning poker in agile:

1. Team Collaboration

• Planning Poker fosters active participation from all team members, including developers, testers, and product owners.
• It leverages collective intelligence, ensuring a more comprehensive perspective on task complexity.

2. Improved Accuracy

• The combination of individual estimation followed by group discussion helps in reducing biases and provides a more accurate assessment of the task's complexity.

3. Time Efficiency

• Planning Poker is a time-boxed activity, promoting efficiency in the estimation process.
• The structured rounds prevent prolonged discussions, ensuring a balance between thoroughness and time management.

4. Enhanced Communication

• The open discussion phase encourages team members to share their viewpoints and insights.
• This promotes a better understanding of the task and any potential challenges, fostering improved communication within the team.

5. Engagement and Morale

• The gamified nature of Planning Poker adds an element of fun to the estimation process.
• Team members are more engaged, leading to higher morale and a positive team dynamic.

Also, Read:Planning poker estimation techniques 

What is the Planning Poker Process? 

To illustrate the Planning Poker process, let's consider a simplified example with three team members estimating the complexity of a user story:

In Round 1, each team member provides an initial estimate. During the discussion in Round 2, the team members share their perspectives, leading to a re-estimation in Round 3, where the estimates tend to converge.

What are Common Planning Poker Cards?

Here's a set of commonly used Planning Poker cards:

Does Planning Poker Have Drawbacks?

No system is perfect. This Poker agile tool has its pitfalls. First, the consensus may still lack crucial information, resulting in people putting too much confidence in a flawed plan from the start.

Second, despite the egalitarian spirit of the Poker tool, it’s still possible for an aggressive, dominating person to take control of the process. Such a condition can create a flawed estimate.

Finally, a group's estimate can be more hopeful and optimistic than the conclusions that team members would arrive at separately. In other words, there’s a risk of the group taking on more than they can handle or doing it in a shorter time frame.

Best Practices for Planning Poker:

1. Use Fibonacci Sequence: The Fibonacci sequence is often used for Planning Poker cards because it reflects the uncertainty and variability of estimates.

2. Involve the Whole Team: Ensure that all team members, including developers, testers, and the product owner, actively participate in the Planning Poker session.

3. Moderate the Discussion: Facilitators should guide the discussion to prevent it from becoming too lengthy or deviating from the estimation goal.

4. Iterative Process: If the estimates are still varied after a round of discussion, repeat the Planning Poker process to converge towards a consensus.

5. Regular Refinement: Periodically review and refine the Planning Poker process based on feedback and evolving project dynamics.

Lastly!

Planning Poker is a valuable tool in the Agile arsenal, promoting collaboration, accuracy, and team engagement during the estimation process. By leveraging the intelligence of the team, Agile practitioners can enhance their ability to deliver projects with precision in today's fast-paced and dynamic development environments. Consider incorporating Planning Poker into your Agile toolkit for more effective and enjoyable project planning.

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