What is Planning Poker and how does it interact with Scrum?

Planning Poker, also called Scrum Poker, is a strategy used in agile projects that seeks an estimate via team consensus.

The tool was initially defined and named by James Grenning in 2002, but it was with the book Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn, one of the Scrum software development contributors, that it became popular in the design world.

Briefly, in a Planning Poker game, each member of the development team receives a set of cards, with the values of a certain sequence, which will determine, at the end of the game, an estimate for the phases of the Product Backlog.

With Planning Poker you can prioritize tasks and estimate the effort required to perform them.

Are you curious and want to understand more?

In this article we will pass through:

• What is an estimate?
• How to estimate using Story Points?
• How does Planning Poker work?
• How does the Planning Poker deck work?

What is an estimate?

The act of estimating can be defined as an idea of the time and effort required to carry out an action.

With this tool it is possible to receive assistance in planning, in addition, it can be used in a Scrum project to estimate the Product Backlog items by the Development Team itself.

For the success of an estimate within a Scrum project it is important to follow some basic principles. Are they:

Estimate made by the Development Team

It is believed that the best estimates are made by the people who actually do the work, therefore, estimates in Planning Poker should only be done by the Development Team.

Consensus of the entire team

The Team needs to agree on estimates of the Product Backlog items. Since everyone participated in the work, the result should be a cluster of team collaboration.

Consensus of the entire team

The Team needs to agree on estimates of the Product Backlog items. Since everyone participated in the work, the result should be a cluster of team collaboration.

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How to estimate using Story Points?

Story Points are units of measure used to express the overall size of a User Story, or as they are known, User Stories. When we make estimates with Story Points, we assign a point value, or Story Points, to each item.

The raw values that are assigned are unimportant, the relative values being more valuable for the estimation process.

Let's now go to three steps that must be followed to estimate using Story Points.

1.Choose a scale

Unlike traditional projects where the estimate is transformed into hours or days, a Scrum team develops its own measurement scale. In the next topic, it will be presented with more details what is the most used scale in Scrum projects.

2.Choose reference items

Once the measurement scale has been defined, one or more reference items are determined to create the scale points.

It is recommended that you choose the smallest item on the list, as it makes it easier to estimate the effort of the following items and with that you begin to create a development measurement unit.

3.Estimate Product Backlog items

Once the reference is created, the estimation of the items at the top of the Product Backlog begins. Being the process in which the development team defines the magnitude of each item on the list, starting from the reference item.

It is similar to a chain process, as to estimate the next item, it must take into account the items already estimated, making a comparison of the reference items, and so on.

Now let's understand how Planning Poker works in a Scrum project.

How does Planning Poker work?

As said at the beginning, to carry out a Planning Poker there is a sequence of values ​​for a set of cards and this sequence can be defined in different ways.

The scale most used by Scrum teams is based on a part of the modified Fibonacci sequence, which is: 0, ½, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40 and 100. Each number in this sequence corresponds to a letter that serves as a “box” for each item in the Product Backlog.

A Sprint planning meeting is held, in which the entire Development Team, Product Owner and Scrum Master participate, but only the Development Team makes the estimates.

Meanwhile, the Product Owner assumes the role of explaining the User Story, and the Scrum Master guides Planning Poker and ensures its proper functioning.

Now that they're all gathered, it's time to get started!

Planning Poker starts with a description of a Backlog item, and then each team member estimates each User Story with one Story Points. For example,

Story Points are relative units of measure that combine factors such as complexity and size and help to estimate items on the customer requirements list. These points correspond to the Fibonacci sequence presented above and are defined from the values in the Planning Poker deck.

How does the Planning Poker deck work?

Each card in the Planning Poker deck has an interpretation, below I will describe them for you.

• 0 - The item has already been completed or is so small that the estimation is not worth performing.
• ½ - very small items;
• 1,2,3 -  small items;
• 5, 8, 9 - medium items;
• 20, 40 - Big items. In most teams that adopt agile methods, items larger than 13 are broken down into smaller items;
• 100 - Very large items;
• ∞ - So big that there is no way to estimate
• π - The member is asking for a break.

It is from these interpretations that the items of a Scrum project are estimated and as you can see, the interpretations are very simple and easy to apply.

Next, we will learn how Planning Poker should be conducted within the Scrum team.

Planning Poker Step by Step

1. The Product Owner selects an item from the Product Backlog to be estimated and reads the item to the entire team, explaining it as clearly as possible;

2. Development Team members discuss the item and the Product Owner is available to answer any questions that may arise;

3. Each member of the development team, privately selects a card to represent an estimate;

4. Having made the private choice, now is the time to lay out the cards;

5. If everyone selected the same card, we have an estimate of the Backlog item;

6. If the estimates are very different, members discuss to air their opinions and ideas and return to step three for another round. Follow the example.

In this case, members Wilson and Tony, for having estimated with the lowest and highest cards, respectively, explain the reasons that led him to play such cards, before the next round.

After that, with a new view of the task and new perspectives, we repeat step three.

Now the scenario is different, there is a smaller dispersion compared to the last game and it is already possible to estimate a single Story Point for that Backlog task. However, in the example above, as there was no consensus among the players, the Scrum Master can choose three viable options:

• Average the estimates;
• If the numbers are close, choose the largest;
• Continue the process from item 3 until everyone chooses the same card. 

An important point is that estimates are not converted to hours, they just measure the complexity of each task presented from the Product Backlog.

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