What is Planning Poker?
Planning poker is a consensus-based estimation technique used by agile software teams. Team members use playing cards with values from an estimation scale to vote on the relative effort of user stories.
How Planning Poker Works
The facilitator presents a story, everyone votes simultaneously, votes are revealed, outliers discuss, and the team re-votes if needed.
Why Teams Use Planning Poker
Prevents anchoring bias, surfaces hidden knowledge, engages the whole team, and builds shared understanding.
Card Values and Estimation Scales
Fibonacci (0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21), T-Shirt sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL), Powers of 2 (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32).
Tips for Better Sessions
Timebox discussions, focus on relative sizing, keep a reference story, and respect all estimates.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Don't convert points to hours, don't let one person dominate, and don't skip the discussion.