What is Planning Poker?

Planning Poker is a technique used in Agile teams to estimate the effort required to complete a user story or task.

The technique involves team members using a deck of cards to individually estimate the effort, then discussing and re-estimating until consensus is reached.

The true significance of this technique lies not in the score reached, but in the dialogue it fosters within the team.

It is commonly associated with Scrum and Extreme Programming - XP.

The cards in the deck often follow the Fibonacci sequence to reflect the uncertainty in the estimation process and employ a relative measure that does not relate to time.

The team member most familiar with a particular user story provides a brief overview, and the team may ask questions to clarify.

Each team member selects a card from their deck to represent their individual estimate without revealing it to the rest of the team to prevent swaying others.

The team discusses the estimates, aiming to understand any discrepancies or polarity and reach a consensus.