Skip to main content

Planning poker

Last post 06:23 am July 6, 2018 by Julian Bayer
5 replies
09:20 pm July 4, 2018

Hi all,

I have a question regarding planning poker.  Lets say its the first sprint for a new team.

We have a product backlog and i plan to do a planning poker session for the 1st time.  

I understand the mechanics but i was wondering if its possible to assign a minimum measurement lets say a "day" and tell the team that we can take the #1 card as an equivalent of 1 day and from that to base the rest of the  estimates or that is wrong approach?

Thanks


10:42 pm July 4, 2018

Have you asked the team how they think they should estimate how much work they can take on in a Sprint? Things they might wish to bear in mind include:

  • Time based estimation is rarely accurate except at a small scale, which is why relative estimates like story points are preferred.
  • A team can relatively estimate using T-Shirt sizes, and then map to points using a scheme of their choosing, such as XS:1, S:2, M:3, L:5, XL:8, XXL:13
  • During Sprint Planning a team should always look at a forecast of work in aggregate and decide if the Sprint Goal is realistic and achievable.

 


05:26 am July 5, 2018

Equating points to time can add unnecessary complexity, and can lead to some dangerous assumptions when using those estimates later.

One technique is for the team to take a typical-sized, and well understood item from the backlog, and declare that estimate as a certain number of points (e.g. 2 points).

The team could then use this item as a baseline for relative estimates, until there is a good understanding of the points rating within the team. So an item that is approximately half the size of the baseline would probably be estimated at 1 point.


08:07 am July 5, 2018

If there was a need to equate story points back to time you'd surely just use time from the beginning and skip points all together.  What extra value can story points possibly bring if x points = x time?


01:38 pm July 5, 2018

Thank you for your answers.

So, lets say we go for points and we estimate all the stories.  On the planning we take 25 points to be completed on the sprint.  Since its our first sprint ever, lets say we took too much and we completed 10 points, then for the next sprint that is the base i should take and i should take around 10 points.   And keep trying to improve sprint after sprint.

Am i correct?


06:23 am July 6, 2018

That would be one possible way of doing it. Take an empirical measurement and go from there. I'd say you're on the right track.


By posting on our forums you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.

Please note that the first and last name from your Scrum.org member profile will be displayed next to any topic or comment you post on the forums. For privacy concerns, we cannot allow you to post email addresses. All user-submitted content on our Forums may be subject to deletion if it is found to be in violation of our Terms of Use. Scrum.org does not endorse user-submitted content or the content of links to any third-party websites.

Terms of Use

Scrum.org may, at its discretion, remove any post that it deems unsuitable for these forums. Unsuitable post content includes, but is not limited to, Scrum.org Professional-level assessment questions and answers, profanity, insults, racism or sexually explicit content. Using our forum as a platform for the marketing and solicitation of products or services is also prohibited. Forum members who post content deemed unsuitable by Scrum.org may have their access revoked at any time, without warning. Scrum.org may, but is not obliged to, monitor submissions.