Managers face roadblocks in estimating the process that predicts how much effort the work requires or the number of story points needed to finish the task. In some cases, management forced the team to improve the accuracy of the prediction process. However, it is not a simple task, as the team has to put effort into identifying how to estimate a task correctly. In this regard, PSM Certification helps you understand Scrum poker and how it helps you with the estimation process.
This article delves into the planning poker methodology in Agile planning. Read the article to learn more about Scrum poker in detail.
What is Scrum Poker?
Planning poker, or Scrum poker or pointing poker, is a gamified technique that the development team can use to estimate a project’s effort. Thus, the estimation is based on group input and agreement. The planning poker method is engaging and accurate.
How does planning poker work?
At the initial stage, the product owner or customer reviews an Agile user story, an informal explanation of software features. The process describes how the software offers value to the customers or users. Let’s discuss some steps for using planning poker:
Hand out the cards: Everyone should be given the same deck of cards. Each has a number the team agrees to use as a rough guess. Every player should have a deck with different numbers in it. The decks are kept simple on purpose, and there are a lot of number jumps. This way, everyone can agree on a number for each story. If not, the process would be very slow if they had a card for every number from 1 to 50.
Read the story: The product owner or manager narrates the story in front of the whole group. The moderator answers the questions of the participants.
Discuss the story: After describing the story, everyone shares their views. Some discussion points will be how to handle the work, how many people will be involved, what skills will be necessary, and how to tackle any roadblocks. The discussion makes everyone understand the process appropriately.
Select and share: After the discussion, each person will select a card from the deck. It used to show the estimate of story points or ideal days. Once the card is selected, show them at the same time. If a player shows a higher-numbered card, it signifies that the story will take longer to complete.
Reach an Agreement: When everyone on the team shows the same card, that number becomes the agreed-upon number. The group can now start on the next story. However, if the cards keep changing, there will be more talk about the story. People with higher or lower figures will say what they think. Then, they’ll try to get their friends to understand why their numbers are different.
When this new round of talks is over, everyone will review and show their deck again. If a player likes their last choice, they will either pick the same card again or a new one. Once you get to the second round, the numbers usually match up. If not, the process starts over until everyone on the team agrees on a single number.
The benefits of Scrum Poker
It was also noticed that planning poker estimates were better than individual ones for the same jobs. Some other benefits are:
- It is not always easy to guess how long a job will take, especially when doing it for the first time. Planning poker helps teams get used to evaluating them.
- Playing cards and explaining their reasoning can get new workers to speak up.
- Recognize the gaps in the requirement and implementation. The participants disclose their estimates and reasons for their high or low values.
- This can lead to questions about the need and how it is implemented. This creates a feedback loop that can find the holes.
Who to include in Scrum poker meetings
The people who should join the Scrum poker meeting are
- Scrum team members: The team members deliver the items from the product backlog. In addition, they offer their input for the discussions of story points.
- Scrum master: A Scrum master facilitates an Agile meeting and should participate in all discussions.
- Product owner: They will describe all user stories to the team and answer their questions for clarification.
Pitfalls of Planning Poker
Every system has pitfalls. Similarly, planning poker is the same.
- The consensus may lack crucial information, which causes inadequate planning from the beginning.
- A dominating person from the team could take control of the process and disturb the estimation process.
- The team estimation can be more optimistic than individual estimation. Thus, there is a bottleneck risk as a team can take more than they can handle.
Final Thoughts
CSM training gives you a deep understanding of Agile methodology and planning poker ideas. It also enables you to estimate product development. Teams usually set up a meeting after creating the first backlog. Throughout a project, items are slowly added to the product list, so teams find it easier to hold talks only once per iteration. This usually happens a few days after the iteration stops, right after a daily meeting.
