Planning Poker Deck & Instructions
Time to Read 3 min
Why an own Planning Poker Deck?
We are using Planning Poker to estimate effort in hours. In this the Fibonacci-series seemed not very practical, as they they do not lead to an easy interpretation in terms of days and hours.This is why we use the series 1, 2, 4, 8, 20 (half week), 40 (one week), 80 (two weeks)... In addition the cards should urge the estimators to split large packages (larger than 40 person-hours).
Of course the deck can be used to estimate other quantities, the scale is almost logarithmic.
What are the Advantages of Planning Poker?
- Less influence of the estimators by dominant members of the group and no Anchoring Effect:
- Everybody keeps his estimate for himself until all estimates are on the table ("Delphi-Method").
- All estimators are converging to the same definition of the element to be estimated:
- All details and assumptions/ risks are discussed an can be documented ("Wideband-Delphi").
The process needs more resources than an expert simply filling in the estimation list, but due to the above reasons, it leads to better results.
How to estimate using Planning Poker?
How we use Planning Poker can be found in the instructions.