What is Planning Poker?

Planning poker, also known as Scrum poker, is a consensus-based estimation technique widely used in Agile software development. This gamified approach helps development teams estimate the effort, complexity, and risk associated with user stories and project tasks. Unlike traditional estimation methods, planning poker encourages active participation from all team members, reducing bias and improving accuracy.

Our online planning poker tool brings this powerful methodology to remote and distributed teams, providing a simple yet effective platform for collaborative estimation sessions. Whether you're practicing Scrum, Kanban, or other Agile frameworks, planning poker enhances team communication and creates shared understanding of project requirements.

New to Agile? Planning poker is rooted in the Agile software development methodology, which emphasizes iterative development, team collaboration, and continuous improvement. Learn more about planning poker fundamentals and how it fits into the Agile process.

Why Use Online Planning Poker?

Traditional in-person planning poker sessions work well for co-located teams, but modern software development often involves remote collaboration across different time zones. Our online implementation solves these challenges by providing:

• Real-time Collaboration: All team members participate simultaneously, seeing updates instantly as votes are cast
• Zero Setup Required: No downloads, installations, or account creation needed—just share a link and start estimating
• Customizable Point Systems: Configure Fibonacci sequences, T-shirt sizes, or custom values that match your team's preferences
• Session Statistics: Track estimation time and voting patterns to identify areas for team improvement
• Privacy-Focused: Sessions are temporary and automatically deleted when complete—no data retention

How to Run an Effective Planning Poker Session

Step 1: Starting Your Estimation Session

Begin by having one team member navigate to the home page and click Start Session. The session creator can configure several important options to customize the experience for their team:

General Options

Control which interface elements appear during your session. Minimize distractions by hiding unnecessary features and focus your team on the estimation task at hand.

Point Value Configuration

Different teams use different estimation scales. Common options include:

• Fibonacci Sequence: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 (reflects increasing uncertainty in larger estimates)
• Modified Fibonacci: 0, ½, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100
• T-Shirt Sizes: XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL
• Powers of 2: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32

Configure your preferred scale to ensure estimates align with your team's planning process.

Settings Management

Reset all configurations to default values if needed, ensuring a clean starting point for new sessions.

Step 2: Joining and Team Roles

Each participant enters their name to identify themselves to the team. Choose the appropriate role based on your function in the session:

Players (Voting Members)

Developers, QA engineers, business analysts, and other team members directly involved in executing the work should join as players. Players cast votes representing their estimation of effort, complexity, or risk. Having diverse perspectives from different disciplines improves estimation accuracy and uncovers potential challenges early.

Observers (Non-Voting Participants)

Scrum Masters, product owners, stakeholders, and facilitators typically join as observers. Observers can see all votes and participate in discussions but don't cast votes themselves. This prevents undue influence on the estimation process while keeping key stakeholders informed and engaged.

Step 3: Inviting Your Team

Planning poker is fundamentally collaborative—you need your entire team present for accurate estimates. Share your session in two convenient ways:

• Direct Link Sharing: Copy the session URL from your browser's address bar and share via Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, SMS, or your preferred communication tool
• Email Invitations: Enter email addresses directly in the invitation box to send automatic invites. Your email addresses are used only for this invitation and are never stored or used for other purposes

Pro Tip: Send invitations a few minutes before the scheduled meeting time to ensure everyone can join promptly when the session begins.

Step 4: The Estimation Process

Effective planning poker follows a structured yet flexible process that encourages honest estimation and productive discussion:

1. Story Introduction: The product owner or business analyst presents the user story, explaining the business value, acceptance criteria, and any relevant context. Team members ask clarifying questions to ensure everyone understands the requirements.
2. Silent Voting: Each player independently selects their estimate without seeing others' votes. This eliminates anchoring bias where the first estimate influences subsequent votes. The interface clearly shows who has voted without revealing their choices.
3. Reveal and Discuss: Once everyone votes, estimates are automatically revealed to all participants. Wide variations in estimates indicate differing assumptions or understanding, triggering valuable discussion.
4. Reaching Consensus: Team members who gave the highest and lowest estimates explain their reasoning. This discussion often surfaces technical risks, dependencies, or requirements that weren't initially obvious. Players can revote based on new information.
5. Manual Controls: Use the Show Votes button to reveal estimates early if someone is unavailable. Use Clear Votes to reset for the next story once consensus is reached.

Step 5: Using Statistics for Continuous Improvement

The statistics panel provides insights that help teams refine their estimation process over time:

Time Spent Tracking

Monitor how long each story takes to estimate, from clearing previous votes to achieving consensus. Teams that consistently spend excessive time on individual stories may benefit from better story refinement before planning sessions. Conversely, very quick estimates across all stories might indicate insufficient discussion.

Vote Distribution

See the breakdown of votes for each point value. When the tool displays "Consensus," all team members agreed on the same estimate—an ideal outcome indicating shared understanding. Wide distributions suggest the story needs clarification or decomposition into smaller, more estimable pieces.

Step 6: Wrapping Up

When you've completed all estimations, simply close your browser or navigate away. The system automatically removes you from the session. Once all participants have left, the session and all associated data are permanently deleted, ensuring your team's discussions remain private.

Best Practices for Planning Poker Success

Based on thousands of successful estimation sessions, here are proven practices that improve accuracy and team alignment:

• Prepare Stories in Advance: Ensure user stories are well-written with clear acceptance criteria before the planning session
• Set Time Limits: If discussion on a single story exceeds 5-10 minutes, consider deferring it for additional refinement
• Embrace Flexibility: There's no single "correct" way to use planning poker. Some teams vote multiple times to converge on consensus, while others use initial votes to spark discussion. Find what works for your team dynamics
• Focus on Relative Sizing: Compare stories to previously estimated work rather than trying to predict absolute hours or days
• Include the Whole Team: Frontend developers, backend developers, QA engineers, and other specialists each bring unique perspectives that improve estimates
• Track Accuracy Over Time: Compare estimated versus actual effort in retrospectives to calibrate your team's estimation skills

Common Questions About Planning Poker

How is planning poker different from traditional estimation?

Traditional estimation often relies on a single expert or team lead providing estimates, which can introduce bias and miss important considerations. Planning poker democratizes the process, leveraging the collective wisdom of the entire team. Research shows that group consensus-based estimates are typically more accurate than individual expert estimates.

What if team members never reach consensus?

Persistent disagreement usually signals that the user story is either too large, too vague, or contains hidden complexity. In these cases, consider breaking the story into smaller pieces, scheduling a spike to investigate unknowns, or deferring it for additional refinement.

Can we use planning poker for non-development work?

Absolutely! While planning poker originated in software development, teams in marketing, design, operations, and other fields successfully use it to estimate effort for any type of work. The key is having team members with relevant expertise participate in the estimation.

How long should a planning poker session take?

Most teams estimate 10-20 user stories per hour once they're experienced with the process. For sprint planning, budget approximately 1-2 hours per week of sprint duration (e.g., 2-4 hours for a two-week sprint).