Collaborative workload estimation

In agile development methodologies, development teams use Planning Poker for issue evaluation. Each planner provides an independent evaluation of the effort needed to complete the issue by assigning Story Points to it. After that, the planners announce their evaluations, discuss them, and arrive at a final evaluation. Planning Poker usually uses special cards numbered according to the selected evaluation scale.

You can use the planning poker page in Tracker to collaborate on workload estimation.

Estimating effort for issuesEstimating effort for issues

1. To go to the planning poker page, open your board and click Poker in the top-right corner.

2. Ask other planners to go to the poker page. All users visiting the page can be seen in the Team section.

3. To add an issue to the list for estimation, enter the issue name or key in the search box on the left panel.

4. To select an issue to estimate, find the issue card in the left-hand panel and click Estimate.

5. On the right panel, click a button with the value that you want to assign to the selected issue.

6. Wait until the other planners assign their values. In the Team section, you will see under planner names.

7. Click Show estimates. The scores chosen by the other users appear under their names.

   The final score will be calculated automatically and then saved in the Estimate field. You can change this value if needed.

8. Click Set an estimate to finalize the score. The score value from the Estimate field is copied to the Story Points field in the issue, and the issue disappears from the poker page.

Configuring the estimation scaleConfiguring the estimation scale

The estimation system used in planning poker usually includes Fibonacci numbers and similar number sequences. To change the scoring system:

1. Open your board and click .

2. Go to the Planning poker tab.

3. To add a number to the scoring system, enter it in the Add estimate field.

4. To remove a number from the scoring system, click .

5. Click Save.

Configuring how the final score is calculatedConfiguring how the final score is calculated

You can select how the values assigned by planners will affect the final effort estimate for your issues. To do this:

1. Open your board and click .

2. Go to the Planning poker tab.

3. In the Calculation of the final score field, choose a calculation function. Maximum value is selected by default.

4. Click Save.