• Product Owner

This is how you do Planning Poker with your Scrum Team

We regularly get the question, “How does Planning Poker work?” These 6 simple steps will help you ensure a smooth Planning Poker session. Meanwhile, there is also a more comprehensive and up-to-date blog about Planning Poker online, which can be found here: “How Does Planning Poker Work?

Purpose of planning poker

Planning Poker is a way to collectively estimate the User Stories that are on your Product Backlog. This estimate is done by the Developers and gives an indication of the amount of work that will go into developing a story. With this information, the Product Owner can then prioritize the backlog. The Developers use the information to determine how many stories to include in a Sprint.

Poker Planning is usually done in Sprint Planning. For each user story, each Developer estimates the estimated amount of work. After each estimate, the Developers jointly assess whether to add the item to the Sprint. Let’s go!

Step 1: Select the items you want to estimate

It starts with determining the user stories you want to estimate. Take out your ordered Product Backlog and select the most important items you want to estimate. Often it is the Product Owner who selects the items. With this set of stories, you now get to work.

Step 2: Explain the first user story

Now it is time to go through the list of selected items. The Product Owner explains the first user story. He or she provides as much context as possible to ensure that the Developers understand what the intent of this item is.

Step 3: Check for clarity

After the explanation, the Product Owner asks the Developers if the user story is clear enough to estimate. The Developers ask questions and try to clear up as much ambiguity as possible.

Tip: Have a Developer explain what you are trying to accomplish with the user story. Can the Developers explain it well themselves? Then the story is clear.

Step 4: Estimating individually without influencing each other

This step is the core of Planning Poker. Now that the item is clear, the Developers can start estimating the amount of effort. Each Developer makes an estimate individually. Try to do this in such a way that you do not influence each other. Don’t reveal your estimate until everyone has made an estimate for themselves. In this way, you can ensure that divergent insights are not immediately nipped in the bud.

One way to take care of this is to use a card set with a value range (often the range 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 20, 40, 100). This is where the term “Planning Poker” comes from: it’s a bit like poker. Each team member picks a card and keeps it closed until everyone has made an estimate. Only then are the cards revealed.

When everyone has shared their estimate, the most diverse estimates are reviewed. The respective team members explain why they gave the item a particular value. Now an interesting discussion often ensues about what is involved in developing the item. This is where the multidisciplinary nature of the Developers shows its strength. Different disciplines often have diverse perspectives, which is super valuable!

To be clear, only the Developers do estimation. Those who create can best estimate how much work it is.

Step 5: Tying the knot

Now that the different perspectives have been discussed and there is even more clarity, it is time to make a decision. If there is consensus, then you’re done quickly. If there isn’t, then you can do another round of poker. Perhaps the discussion from step 4 has shed new light on the story. Each Developer gives another individual estimate based on the new insights. Are you still not on the same page? Then have someone tie the knot.

Tip: Don’t spend too much time trying to come to an agreement, especially if the ratings are close. There is very little point in having a long discussion about whether the story gets 3 “Story Points” or 5.

Step 6: On to the next item, until enough is enough

This item is finished and can go to Sprint. On to the next one! Just until the Developers decide that the Sprint is full enough and nothing more will fit.

Conclusion

Planning Poker is a convenient way to create a shared assessment. More importantly, it provides a common understanding of what the Scrum team is trying to accomplish and takes full advantage of the multidisciplinary nature of the team.

Getting hungry for more tips & tricks? Our trainings are super hands-on and we always leave you with a full backpack of tools you can apply immediately. For example, check out our Product Owner or Scrum Master training.