What Is a Planning Poker in Agile?

Planning poker is a tool used in agile software development to help estimate the effort required to complete a user story.

The goal of planning poker is to get all team members to agree on the relative size of a user story, without being influenced by other team members. This is accomplished by each team member privately estimating the story, without discussing it with other team members.

PRO TIP:Planning Poker is a consensus-based technique used by Agile teams to estimate the effort required for a given story. Each team member is given cards with numerical values representing time estimates. The team discusses the task at hand and each member gives their opinion on the estimated effort. The team then collectively agrees on an appropriate estimation of the task.

Once all team members have estimated the story, they reveal their estimates simultaneously. If there is disagreement on the estimate, the team discusses the factors that led to the different estimates.

After discussion, each team member re-estimates the story. This process is repeated until all team members agree on the estimate.

Planning poker is a valuable tool for agile teams, as it helps avoid estimation bias and encourages discussion about the factors that influence the size of a user story.