Product teams need to estimate effort and complexity to effectively build lovable products. Many agile teams use planning poker to align around estimates, but it can only be productive if it is managed efficiently. The key is to keep planning poker sessions structured enough to be helpful, but flexible enough to fit your team. When you run a planning poker session on a whiteboard (available with Aha! Whiteboards Advanced), you can make estimation quick, collaborative, and engaging.
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Overview
Anyone with Edit access to a whiteboard can facilitate a planning poker session on a whiteboard. The facilitator will set up the planning poker session in advance from the right side panel in a whiteboard. They will determine the values and units that the team will use to estimate work. You can use Fibonacci values, T-shirt sizes, or custom values. These values will appear on estimate cards during the session.
When the session begins, the facilitator will present a feature or user story to the team. All participants will select an estimate card from the Voting section of the right side panel. When all participants have selected an estimate, the facilitator will reveal all estimate cards all at once. The team can then discuss and align around an official estimate, which the facilitator will select before moving on to the next feature or user story.
Only the person who begins a planning poker session can end it. Estimates the team decides on during the planning poker session will not be added to records automatically. The facilitator or another whiteboard user will need to add the agreed upon estimate to the record, but you can do this from your whiteboard at the close of the session.
Run a planning poker session
Begin setting up your session by getting the records you want the team to estimate onto your whiteboard. There are several ways you can do this:
Export records to your whiteboard from a report
Paste each record's URL to your whiteboard
Search for and add records from the Shapes menu
After you have added records to your session to the whiteboard, set up your session:
Click >> to open the right side panel.
Click Voting.
Next to Voting type, select Planning poker.
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Next to Voting values, select a unit type:
Fibonacci: By default, cards will display story point values in a Fibonacci sequence up to 21. This is the most common unit that scrum teams use for planning poker.
T-shirt size: Cards will display T-shirt size estimates (S, M, L, XL)
Custom: Select this option to create custom estimate cards. Enter the values you want to use as estimates.
When you are ready to start the planning poker session, select the record you want to begin with and click Start. Participants will begin voting. When everyone has voted, click Stop voting and reveal to end voting on the record and reveal all participants' estimates. Participants can then discuss and align around an estimate. Click Select next to an estimate and click Submit when your team comes to a consensus. Click Re-estimate if you need to remove the results and take a vote again.
After you have submitted the estimate, the record will display the agreed upon estimate value. Select the next record to continue, and repeat until all records have been evaluated and the team has aligned around estimates for each of them.
Click End voting session to close the planning poker session. (Remember, only the person who began a planning poker session can end it.)
After the planning poker session has closed, you can add the team's estimates to each record you evaluated during the session. Double-click a record to open it and edit the estimate field.
Participate in a planning poker session
You will need Edit access to a whiteboard to participate in a planning poker session. To participate, click Start estimation when prompted by the facilitator. You will select an estimate card from the choices provided for the record selected on the whiteboard. (You can double-click a record to view any details that may impact your estimate.)
When all participants have selected an estimate card, the facilitator will reveal all estimate cards at once. Your team can then discuss and align around an estimate before moving on to the next record.