Planning Poker is also known as Agile Poker. It is a team assessment approach often used by agile teams to evaluate the amount of work or the relative magnitude of development objectives in software development.
Planning Poker is a task appraisal strategy for agile teams. It is played with cards and resembles a game of poker.
James Grenning, one of the creators of the agile manifesto, originally defined Planning Poker in his paper.
Planning Poker is played as follows:
- Each player is given a deck of cards with numerical weights to evaluate needs.
- The next user story is discussed and evaluated: it is read aloud, the team queries the product owner, and details are obtained as needed.
- Each team member delivers his or her evaluation by putting the card with the shirt up.
- When all team members have completed their assessments, all cards are handed over and the results are reconciled.
- If all participants’ ratings are the same, the consensus score is put in the wish list; otherwise, a re-discussion starts and a second round is conducted.
- The whole team participates in the planning. – Each team member has a voice without being swayed by more authoritative colleagues.
- All team members are accountable for meeting deadlines.
- PP estimates are more accurate than other estimation approaches.