If you’re a part of the agile software development community, then you’ve probably heard of Planning Poker. For those who don’t know, Planning Poker is a game used to estimate the effort required to complete a task in Scrum. It’s a collaborative effort where team members assign points to tasks based on their complexity and the amount of time they’ll take to complete.
The goal of Planning Poker is simple: to produce accurate and reliable estimates for each task. By using this method, the team can avoid overestimating or underestimating tasks, which could result in missed deadlines or wasted resources.
One of the main benefits of Planning Poker is that it encourages team collaboration. During each round, team members discuss their individual estimates and explain their reasoning behind them. This discussion allows everyone to gain a better understanding of the task at hand and helps them identify any potential roadblocks.
Another benefit of Planning Poker is that it ensures that all team members have a say in the estimation process. Each person’s opinion is taken into account, ensuring that no one person dominates the conversation or decision-making process.
To play Planning Poker, each team member receives a set of cards with numbers on them representing different levels of effort required to complete a task. The cards typically range from 0 (no effort required) to 100 (extreme effort required). The team then discusses each task and selects a card that represents their estimate for that specific task.
Once all the estimates have been collected, they are averaged out to determine an overall estimate for each task. This estimate then becomes part of the project plan and helps guide future decision-making processes.
In conclusion, the goal of Planning Poker is to produce accurate and reliable estimates for tasks in an agile software development project. By encouraging collaboration among team members and ensuring that everyone has a say in the estimation process, teams can avoid missed deadlines and wasted resources. So if you’re looking for an effective way to estimate tasks in your agile project, give Planning Poker a try!
