Planning Poker in Agile

Given that software development continually evolves, speed has become very important. With agile methods at play, teams embrace change, work closely together, and achieve their goals.

In agile development, you need to always guess estimations. In settings that change quickly, traditional ways of estimating often don't work well, which can lead to wrong predictions and project delays. Forget what you know about traditional estimation; Planning Poker provides an agile approach to keep teams sharp and in sync.

Basics of Agile Estimation Poker

The practice of predicting the quantity, effort, and complexity of activities or user stories inside an agile project is called ‘Agile Estimate.’

Agile project management embraces flexibility and adaptability, in contrast to the traditional waterfall methodology. It requires everything to be stated at the beginning of the project. Agile estimation, which emphasizes providing estimates that are reliable and quick based on available information, takes this uncertainty into account.

What is Planning Poker?

Planning Poker, or Scrum Poker, is an agile estimation method that Scrum teams use to figure how big different user stories or jobs are, compared to each other. It gets its name from cards that are used to estimate, which look like playing cards. Mike Cohn made the method well-known with his book "Agile Estimating and Planning."

Each person on the team plays Planning Poker and is given a deck of cards with different estimation values on them, such as 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20. The team talks about the requirements of a user story, and then each person picks a card that represents how much work they think it will take to finish the job. Once everyone has picked a card, all of the cards are shown at the same time. If people on the team have very different numbers, they talk about why they think what they think and re-estimate until everyone agrees.

How does Planning Poker work?

The first step in the Planning Poker process is for the product owner to deliver a user story or task to the team. A discussion is held among the team regarding the acceptance criteria, dependencies, and any other information that may be pertinent.

Following this, each team member chooses a card that represents their estimate, taking into consideration aspects such as the level of complexity, risk, and uncertainty. Both the cards and the estimates are debated after they have been revealed. The team debates the reasoning behind their estimates and re-estimates until they reach a consensus on the matter. This process is repeated if there is a big discrepancy in the estimates themselves.

As an illustration, take into consideration a user story that involves the incorporation of a new payment method into an e-commerce platform. One member of the team might guess that it is a 5, which would indicate that the effort is moderate, while another member might guess that it is a 13, which would indicate that it is substantially more difficult.

The team determines the reasons behind these differing estimations by engaging in an open conversation. These factors include familiarity with the application programming interface (API) of the payment gateway, anticipated integration issues, and the influence on features that are already in place. Following the resolution of these issues, the group arrived at a consensus estimate of eight, which reflects their overall comprehension of the assignment.

What are the Benefits of Planning Poker?

Encourages Teamwork

Planning Poker makes it easier for team members to collaborate and participate, paving the path for a more well-rounded decision-making process. Since different points of view and ideas are brought to the estimation process through collaboration, the estimates are more accurate.

Helps in Consensus-Building

Planning Poker helps the team come to an agreement. Members of the team talk about the needs, dependencies, and possible problems that might come up with each user story or job during estimation sessions. Locking in a mutual understanding through this deal cuts down on future disagreements by making sure everyone's on the same page from day one.

Cuts down Bias

Planning Poker helps get rid of biases that are common in other ways of estimating. Planning Poker lessens the effects of anchoring bias and herd mentality by letting team members choose their estimates secretly before sharing them with the group. As a result, estimates are based on personal opinion and logic instead of outside factors. Think of Planning Poker as not only engaging but also a smart strategy for teams seeking honesty and responsibility. Together, they can significantly lower how much their personal views skew estimate accuracy.

Improves Accuracy

One ace up the sleeve of Planning Poker is its knack for transforming wild guesses into reliable forecasts. Teams can get a better idea of how hard, risky, and uncertain each user story or job is by looking at it from different points of view and talking about different parts of the work. With such a broad-scoped tactic for crunching numbers, you're not just guessing; you’re confidently sketching out future work paths thanks to dependable forecasts. Keep at it with Planning Poker, and watch your team’s planning powers flourish.

Promotes Ownership and Commitment

Planning Poker makes people feel like they own it and are committed to the team. By taking part in the estimation process, team members care more about the project's success and are more likely to stick to the expected deadlines and deliverables. Owning part of the process does wonders; it keeps individuals on track with their promises, which in turn ramps up enthusiasm for work as well as actual performance levels.

Encourages Learning and Improvement

Planning Poker gives you a chance to keep learning and getting better. Regularly reflecting on past performance during team huddles paves the way for more accurate forecasting ahead. Teams get better at predicting project timelines when they really dig into why their last guesses were off-target. As teams adopt this progressive way of estimating, they get better at forecasting and streamlining their project plans with each attempt.

Implementing Planning Poker

Planning Poker needs to be carefully planned and facilitated in agile settings. Laying down solid ground rules for making accurate guesses ahead of time? Absolutely crucial. These should include how to use story points or other units of estimation, what "done" means, and what each team member's job is.

Online Scrum Planning Poker tools can make estimation meetings easier for teams that work in different places or at different times. With just a click, teammates can flag their preferences on e-cards. This leads to easier conversations and smoother collaboration. Setting a time limit for discussions, encouraging everyone on the team to be involved, and writing down any unanswered questions or worries for further explanation are some of the best ways to run an effective Planning Poker session.

Mitigating Shortcomings of Planning Poker

While Planning Poker brings plenty of advantages to the table, it has some drawbacks. An issue that comes up a lot is bias, like anchoring bias or groupthink, which can change predictions and make forecasts wrong.

Knocking down biases means building a space where everyone feels eager to pitch in their ideas and challenge the status quo, making sure no voice goes unheard.

Estimation fatigue can also happen when teams have to predict too many user stories at the same time. To keep people from getting tired, it might help to split estimate sessions up into smaller, more focused meetings and rank user stories by how important they are to the project and how they will affect the schedule.

Successful Adoption of Planning Poker

Many companies are jumping on the Planning Poker bandwagon to sharpen their project forecasting and get better outcomes. For instance, Spotify, a popular music streaming service, uses Planning Poker to guess how much work will be needed to add new features and fix bugs. At Spotify, getting estimates spot-on means pulling in experts from different fields. They chew over every detail to make sure nothing about a project’s technical challenges or requirements is overlooked.

Atlassian, the company that makes famous project management tools like Jira and Trello, also uses Planning Poker as part of its agile development methods. Imagine working where you can sit down with your team, roll up your sleeves, and map out your game plan together. That's how Atlassian ensures its atmosphere is one brimming with mutual respect and candidness. As a result, predictions hit closer to home, and speedier deliveries became the norm.

The Road Ahead

The next big thing for Planning Poker is to use technology to make it easier for people to collaborate and speed up the estimate process. Combining machine learning algorithms with artificial intelligence allows for the automatic creation of precise forecasts based on historical data.

Better virtual and augmented reality technology could turn those boring estimation meetings into something far more engaging, especially when the team is spread out over different locations. Imagine a world where team collaborations and work estimates in agile environments get a facelift with technologies that let us chat in real-time and feel like we're all sitting around the same table, even if we're miles apart.

Final Words

Think of Planning Poker as your go-to for navigating decisions in teamwork—it paves the way for well-thought-out choices that lead to delivering excellence again and again. Through the promotion of transparency, collaboration, and consensus-building, Planning Poker empowers teams to surmount the obstacles associated with the inherent complexity and uncertainty of software development. With Agile’s popularity skyrocketing among companies, you can bet that Planning Poker will stay front and center for sorting out those tricky project forecasts and schedules accurately.

FAQs

What are the common estimation scales used in Planning Poker?

Common estimation scales utilized in Planning Poker consist of the powers of 2, the Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21), sizes of t-shirts (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.), and linear scaling (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.).

Is Planning Poker suitable for all Agile teams?

Planning Poker is a popular and effective agile estimation method, although not all agile teams can utilize it. Team size, experience, project complexity, and organizational culture affect Planning Poker effectiveness. Planning Poker may benefit smaller, co-located teams with great trust and collaboration, while bigger or distributed teams may struggle to coordinate estimating sessions.

Which scale is used for planning poker?

The size that is used for Planning Poker is based on what the team wants and how the project is set up. As we already said, some popular scales are the Fibonacci sequence, powers of 2, T-shirt sizes, and linear scales. Picking the right scale should make our chats about estimates way more useful, letting us cover a broad spectrum without diving into too much detail.