Planning poker

Planning poker is method for estimating the effort required to complete tasks. This is a consensus method typically used for assigning story points to user stories during the initiation of a Scrum project. Each participant has a deck of planning cards which are based on a modified Fibonacci set with a couple of additional cards;

The numeric cards represent story points, the question mark represents an unknown value, the infinity symbol represents a never-ending task and the pause card is to signify a break is desired. One user story that each member can relate to is found and assigned a story point baseline value. After this each user story is assigned a relative value by each participant playing a card face down. If on revealing the cards there is a consensus then that is the assigned value of story points. If there is a difference in estimation then a facilitated discussion or quick SysCon will lead to a consensus or best compromise.

Example: Scrum master X and developers A, B and C get together to do planning poker;

A: I can relate to 'As a store coordinator I want to comment on a post on the wall of my store.' and would like to use this as a base-line. Do you have any resistance to that?

B and C: No, that's fine.

A, B and C play a round, result: 2, 3, 8

X: There's a difference in results. Remember this is just to set the base-line and that these points don't represent objective units of time! Let's find a solution that everyone can use to estimate with. Would you all be happy to call this a 5?

A, B and C agree.

X: OK, now each of you can divide the number of hours you think this task would take you by 5 to get the value of one story point for you. Remember this value for estimating the remaining cards.

B: OK, next user story: "As a user I want to make a request on the item page for the item so that the system knows that I am interested in that item."

A, B and C play a round, result: 5, 13, 13

C: I played the 5 - I don't think this would much longer than the baseline use story.

A: Have you considered the implications this has across the whole stack?

C: Hmm, now you mention it I can see it taking at least twice as long - I change my card to 13.

X: OK, so we'll assign that card 13 points.

... etc