Tips and principles to stick to when doing planning poker in SCRUM

1. Planning Poker
principles of the game
Sid B. Dane
SCRUM teams
February 15, 2011

2. Generalities
• Agree your meeting rules in advance of the session
• On agile projects, it’s usually best if this number does not exceed ten
people
• Planning poker works because it lets the people who are actually going
to be completing the work do the estimating.
• Estimates derived from planning poker are more accurate because
estimators are called upon by their peers to justify their estimates.
• The lively group discussion common in planning poker also helps lead
to better estimates.
• Planning poker provides a true average of individual estimates, which
has been shown to yield better results.
• Planning poker works because it’s fun.
SCRUM teams, Sid B. Dane, February 15, 2011 2

3. Principles in Planning Poker
1. Cone of uncertainty
2. The more precise you are, the less accurate you will be
3. Granularity
4. Don’t think about tomorrow
5. The question mark
6. The 5’s and 8’s
7. Dare to choose
SCRUM teams, Sid B. Dane, February 15, 2011 3

4. Principle #1: Cone of uncertainty
In Agile Project Management environments, we
accept that software projects are ridden
with
uncertainty– it comes with the territory.
SCRUM teams, Sid B. Dane, February 15, 2011 4

5. Principle #2: The more precise you are, the less
accurate you will be
Story Points can measure things we can’t measure in
hours – e.g. complexity
It is easy to compare the size of
one with another task. Estimating in Story Points allows
you to take into consideration all sorts of intangible
‘things’ that you sense but can’t quite put your finger
on.
SCRUM teams, Sid B. Dane, February 15, 2011 5

6. Principle #3: Granularity
If you can split up a user story,
do split it up!
SCRUM teams, Sid B. Dane, February 15, 2011 6

7. Principle #4: Don’t think about tomorrow
Don’t think in long terms.
Agile
values responding to change over
following a plan
SCRUM teams, Sid B. Dane, February 15, 2011 7

8. Principle #5: The question mark
If you need more information, use
the question mark card (?)
If you don’t want to poker, don’t play a
card
Else: throw the card with the story points
you seem fit
SCRUM teams, Sid B. Dane, February 15, 2011 8

9. Principle #6: The 5’s and 8’s
If we have only 5’s and 8’s,
the majority wins (the
are no cards in-between these two
estimates) and we are settled
immediately.
SCRUM teams, Sid B. Dane, February 15, 2011 9

10. Principle #7: Dare to choose
Don’t be scared to cut the
chase: know when the estimate is
good enough
SCRUM teams, Sid B. Dane, February 15, 2011 10