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Planning Poker FAQ
Everything you need to know about planning poker, scrum poker, and agile estimation. Find answers to common questions about our free planning poker tool.
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Planning poker is a collaborative estimation technique used by agile teams to estimate the effort required for user stories or tasks. Team members privately select cards representing their estimates, then reveal them simultaneously. This prevents anchoring bias and encourages discussion about different perspectives on the work complexity.
Scrum planning poker is a web-based planning poker application designed for agile teams to estimate user stories collaboratively. It provides real-time voting, customizable card decks, and detailed analytics to help teams make more accurate estimations during sprint planning sessions.
Yes — the core planning poker experience is free forever: unlimited sessions, unlimited participants, unlimited rounds, all card decks (including custom decks), timers, and vote statistics. No credit card is required for the free tier. For teams that want more, our Business plan adds Jira two-way sync, velocity tracking, session history with CSV export, persistent team rooms, and custom branding — with a 7-day free trial.
Planning poker combines the benefits of expert opinion, analogy, and disaggregation. Unlike individual estimation or simple averaging, planning poker encourages discussion, reveals different perspectives, and helps teams reach consensus. It's more accurate than individual estimates and faster than detailed analysis.
Getting started is simple! Click 'Create Session' on the homepage, enter your name, and you'll instantly have a planning poker session ready. Share the session link with your team members, and they can join without any registration. No downloads or installations required.
No registration is required for quick sessions — you can start estimating immediately as a guest, and your preferences are saved locally in your browser. Creating a free account lets you keep your name and history across devices. An account is required for Business plan features like persistent team rooms, Jira sync, and session history.
Scrum planning poker works on all modern devices including desktops, tablets, and smartphones. It's compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge browsers. The responsive design ensures a great experience regardless of your device size.
Click the 'Create Session' button on the homepage or header. You'll be prompted to enter your name, and a unique session will be created instantly. You'll become the session host with additional controls like revealing cards and resetting votes.
Team members can join by clicking the session link you share with them, or by using the 'Join Session' button and entering the session ID. They'll be prompted to enter their name and will immediately join the active session.
There's no strict limit on the number of participants in a session. However, for optimal planning poker effectiveness, we recommend keeping sessions between 3-8 team members as per agile best practices.
Quick sessions remain active as long as participants are connected, and you can return to one using its link. Long-inactive quick sessions may eventually be cleaned up. Team rooms on the Business plan are persistent — the room link stays the same and your session history is preserved so you can review and export it later.
If you lose connection, you can rejoin the session using the same link. Your previous votes and session state will be restored automatically. Other participants will see your connection status update in real-time.
Each participant selects a card representing their estimate for the current user story. Votes are hidden until the host (or authorized participants) reveals them. Once revealed, you can see everyone's estimates, discuss differences, and reach consensus.
Our free planning poker tool offers several preset decks: Fibonacci (0,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,89,?,☕), Modified Fibonacci (0,½,1,2,3,5,8,13,20,40,100,?,☕), T-shirt sizes (XS,S,M,L,XL,XXL,?,☕), and Powers of 2 (0,1,2,4,8,16,32,64,?,☕). You can also create custom decks with your own values to match your team's needs.
Fibonacci numbers (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21...) are ideal for planning poker because they reflect the uncertainty inherent in estimation. As numbers get larger, the gaps between them increase, acknowledging that larger estimates are less precise. This sequence forces teams to make meaningful distinctions between story complexities.
Use story points, not hours, in planning poker. Story points represent relative complexity and effort, while hours can vary greatly between team members and are harder to estimate accurately. Story points also account for uncertainty and risk better than time estimates, making them more suitable for agile planning.
Yes, you can change your vote anytime before the cards are revealed. Simply select a different card, and your vote will be updated. Other participants will see that you've voted but won't see your actual estimate until revelation.
After revealing cards, you'll see comprehensive statistics including: consensus (most common vote), average, median, range (min-max), confidence percentage, total votes, and vote distribution. These help identify alignment and outliers in your team's estimates.
The session host can reset voting by clicking the 'Next Story' button after viewing results. This clears all votes and statistics, allowing the team to estimate the next user story. Host permissions for this action can be configured in session settings.
The timer helps keep discussions focused and time-boxed. Hosts can start a countdown timer visible to all participants. The default duration is 15 minutes, but this can be customized in session settings. The timer can be enabled or disabled based on your team's preferences.
Hosts can customize: deck type and custom card values, timer visibility and duration, who can reveal cards (host only or all participants), who can reset voting (host only or all participants), and other room permissions to match your team's workflow.
Session hosts can: reveal cards to show all estimates, reset voting to start fresh, access session settings to customize the experience, manage timer controls, and see additional session management options. These permissions ensure smooth session facilitation.
Yes, you can update your display name anytime during a session. Click the profile icon in the header, update your name, and the change will be reflected immediately for all participants. Your voting history and session participation remain intact.
The Jira integration is a Business plan feature. A team admin connects Jira through Atlassian's secure OAuth flow — we never see your Atlassian password. You then pick a Jira project, import its open issues into your room's backlog, estimate them together, and confirmed estimates sync back to the story points field on each Jira issue (or as a comment if the field isn't available). You can disconnect Jira at any time, which immediately deletes the stored connection.
Team rooms are persistent estimation rooms for your team, available on the Business plan. Unlike quick sessions, a team room keeps the same link forever, is restricted to invited members, remembers your room defaults and saved deck presets, records session history for velocity tracking and CSV export, and can carry your own logo and colors with custom branding.
The Business plan includes everything in Free, plus Jira two-way sync (import issues and sync estimates back), velocity tracking and reporting, session history with CSV export, persistent team rooms with unlimited members, roles, and admin controls, custom branding with your logo and colors, and saved deck presets with room defaults.
The Business plan costs $19 per month, or $190 per year — two months free compared to paying monthly. Prices are in USD and cover your whole team; you don't pay per member. See the pricing page for full details and current pricing.
Yes — both monthly and annual Business subscriptions start with a 7-day free trial. A payment method is collected at checkout through Stripe, and billing starts automatically when the trial ends. Cancel any time before the trial ends and you won't be charged anything.
Go to Settings, then Billing, and open the billing portal. From there you can update your payment method, switch between monthly and annual billing, download invoices, or cancel. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period, and you keep access to Business features until then.
Scrum planning poker uses WebSocket technology to provide instant real-time updates. When someone votes, joins, or leaves, all participants see the changes immediately without refreshing the page. This ensures everyone stays synchronized throughout the session.
If you're having connection problems: check your internet connection, try refreshing the page, ensure your browser supports WebSockets, disable browser extensions that might block connections, or try a different browser. Most connection issues resolve with a simple page refresh.
Session data is stored securely on our servers, and guest display names and preferences are also kept locally in your browser. If you create an account, we store your profile and, on the Business plan, your session history so you can review and export it. Payment details are handled entirely by Stripe, and Jira tokens are encrypted at rest. See our Privacy Policy for full details.
Scrum planning poker requires a modern browser with WebSocket support. This includes Chrome 16+, Firefox 11+, Safari 7+, and Edge 12+. JavaScript must be enabled. For the best experience, we recommend using the latest version of your preferred browser.
The ideal team size for planning poker is 3-8 participants. This includes developers, testers, product owners, and other stakeholders involved in the work. Smaller teams may lack diverse perspectives, while larger teams can become unwieldy and slow down the process.
To improve accuracy: ensure all team members understand the user story before voting, discuss significant differences in estimates, consider complexity, dependencies, and risks, use relative sizing rather than absolute time estimates, and review past estimates to learn and calibrate your team's estimation skills.
When estimates vary significantly: have the highest and lowest estimators explain their reasoning, discuss any missing requirements or technical considerations, identify risks or dependencies that others might have missed, re-vote after discussion, and consider breaking down large stories into smaller, more estimable pieces.
Before estimation sessions: ensure stories have clear acceptance criteria, include necessary context and background, identify dependencies and risks, have the product owner available for questions, and consider doing story refinement sessions before formal estimation to improve story quality.
For remote planning poker: use our free online tool for voting, combine with video conferencing (Zoom, Teams, etc.) for discussion, ensure all team members have stable internet, share screens when presenting user stories, and consider time zones when scheduling sessions. Our tool works perfectly for distributed teams.
Typically, the Scrum Master or Product Owner facilitates planning poker sessions. The facilitator presents user stories, manages the session flow, encourages discussion, and helps the team reach consensus. They should remain neutral during estimation and focus on process rather than influencing estimates.
Planning poker benefits include: improved estimation accuracy through team collaboration, reduced anchoring bias by hiding initial votes, better understanding of requirements through discussion, increased team engagement and buy-in, faster consensus building, and identification of risks and dependencies early in the process.
Basic planning poker rules: 1) Present the user story clearly, 2) Allow time for questions and discussion, 3) Each team member votes privately, 4) Reveal all votes simultaneously, 5) Discuss differences, especially high and low estimates, 6) Re-vote if needed, 7) Record the final consensus estimate. Keep sessions time-boxed and focused.
Online planning poker can be more effective than physical cards because it: prevents early reveals that cause bias, automatically calculates statistics, works seamlessly with remote teams, provides session history, eliminates the need for physical card management, and offers features like timers and custom decks that enhance the experience.
Planning poker sessions should typically last 1-2 hours maximum, with breaks every 45 minutes. Estimate 10-15 minutes per user story on average. For sprint planning, you might need multiple sessions. Keep sessions focused and time-boxed to maintain team energy and attention.
Studies show planning poker is significantly more accurate than individual expert estimation. It typically improves estimation accuracy by 20-40% compared to other methods. The collaborative discussion and multiple perspectives help identify overlooked complexity and risks, leading to more realistic estimates.
Alternatives to planning poker include: T-shirt sizing (simpler but less precise), dot voting (faster but less discussion), bucket system (good for large backlogs), affinity estimation (wall-based approach), and individual expert estimation (faster but less accurate). Planning poker remains the most popular due to its balance of speed and accuracy.
Learn More About Planning Poker
Explore our comprehensive guides and resources to master planning poker for your team.
How to Play Planning Poker
Step-by-step guide to running effective planning poker sessions
Planning Poker Rules
Complete rules and best practices for planning poker
Fibonacci Planning Poker
Why Fibonacci numbers work best for estimation
Planning Poker Benefits
Discover the advantages of planning poker for agile teams
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