Planning Poker in Agile Project Management

In order to get a clearer picture of what is going on with the project, consider using a poker planning card game. Sometimes called "Scrum poker," this game allows members of the team to estimate the amount of effort required for a particular product feature or deliverable. Planning poker is especially useful when all members of the team are involved in the estimation process. Physical poker cards make this process much easier to follow. In addition to the poker cards, you can use the same tool for estimating a product feature or a deliverable.

The game planning poker involves using playing cards to estimate the size of a user story. The product owner or Scrum master acts as moderator. Each team member plays and makes an estimation. If any stories need clarification or have changed from the initial estimation, the team can discuss them. Ultimately, the story will be completed. The next step in the process is the retrospective. During this phase, the team reviews the story with the stakeholders. If there are any changes or issues, the team can adjust the estimate.

The Scrum master helps the team determine how much work they can realistically estimate. During these meetings, participants must justify their estimates. By opening up a feedback loop, the team can identify gaps and rework the product backlog. The scrum master facilitates the meeting and should attend all standard meetings. It is essential to have a scrum master who can help the team to stay on track. The scrum master is the key person to help teams learn the ins and outs of the agile methodology.

The sprint planning meeting is important. All team members should work through the user stories one at a time. The user stories should be discussed and signed off by the product owner. Once this is done, the product owner should deploy the user story into production. When the sprint is over, the next user story should be created based on the agreed criteria and time remaining. If everything goes well during the sprint, the team will be able to focus on the next sprint and move to the next.

Another important part of the sprint planning process is the estimation process. User stories are written descriptions of the tasks to be completed. They represent the scope of the product and the relative level of effort required for completing that task. A team's estimates should be based on this understanding. The team should also try to estimate as many features as possible during this time. This is an essential component of agile software development. So, how can the Scrum master estimate the time required for the project?

A team can measure its velocity by tracking how quickly it completes tasks. To do this, it uses "story points," or units of work. Story points help the team focus on time and complexity. They compare their new work to past work and rank them according to the difficulty and time required to complete the task. Often, a team can forecast release dates by using story points. A team that doesn't measure its velocity is not agile. If a team cannot predict a project's completion date, it won't release it.