Required preparation for planning poker
It is essential for a team that uses planning poker for estimating story points that have the same understanding of what a story point of 3 or 5 means to them.
I understand that part of the planning poker is discussing the complexity of a task.
My question is how a team can make sure they are using the same scale for measuring complexity.
You can either lead them through an affinity exercise, where the team groups items in similarly-sized categories, or just let the team begin estimating and find their own way to the team consensus.
You can start off with T-shirt sizing in order to overcome any predisposition about what the numbers mean. Once such a relative sizing exercise has been performed, numbers can then be correlated to each size, e.g. XS = 1, S = 2, M = 3, L = 5, XL = 8, XXL = 13
>> I understand that part of the planning poker is discussing the complexity of a task.
Hamid - Just to clarify, when pointing shouldn't the team consider the effort to complete the story based on meeting the definition of done?
All the best,
Chris
have the same understanding of what a story point of 3 or 5 means to them.
You can define some Reference Story which may be an average Story that the team develops or may develop, and indicate that Story is 3 or 5 or 8, whatever suits the team best. Then you estimate all other Stories relatively.
If using story points the team should consider effort, complexity and uncertainty. It's relative estimation, so you're comparing it with something you've done before and not getting bogged down in how long you think it will take.
The real value in planning poker is the conversation it stimulates and getting a better understanding what you're trying to develop.