What is pointing poker?
Pointing poker, also known as planning poker or scrum poker, is a fun way for a team to agree on how much work different tasks will take in Agile software development.
Why use pointing poker?
It gets everyone involved and helps the team agree on the workload. It's a quick way to gauge if the team has a similar understanding of the task at hand. Outliers can indicate that either the task or the scope is not well understood.
How it works:
- Pointing Poker cards: Use cards with special numbers (Fibonacci sequence) to estimate the effort needed for the task at hand.
- Estimating work for tasks: The team looks at the tasks that need to be done.
- Talking about the tasks: The team talks to understand the tasks better.
- Private guessing: Everyone picks a card, the cards remain private.
- Showing cards together: Once everyone has picked a card, all cards are revealed at the same time.
- Consensus: If there is a clear majority or a consensus, congrats! The team can move on. If not...
- Discussion ensues: If people's guesses are different, it may indicate that the task is not well understood. Refine the task and vote again.