Question 1

What is asynchronous Planning Poker?

Accepted Answer

Asynchronous Planning Poker is an adaptation of the traditional Planning Poker process where team members estimate user stories independently, in their own time, before refinement meetings. It's particularly effective for distributed teams across different time zones and can significantly shorten the time needed during refinement.

Question 2

When does asynchronous Planning Poker work best?

Accepted Answer

Async Planning Poker works best when the majority of stories are well defined, so all team members share the same understanding and can give an estimate without further clarification. If stories have major open questions, team members will likely have different interpretations of the work, leading to widely varying estimates.

Question 3

What should you do when team members have questions about a story during async estimation?

Accepted Answer

Rather than trying to resolve questions through lengthy Jira comment threads, label those stories as "Discussion Needed" and skip estimating them during initial rounds. This lets the team discuss them properly during planning and provide accurate estimates only after key questions are answered.

Question 4

How do you implement asynchronous Planning Poker in Jira?

Accepted Answer

The process has two phases. Before refinement, the Product Owner prepares the backlog, notifies the team which stories are ready, and team members estimate in their own time. During refinement, the team reviews submitted estimates, discusses variations, reaches consensus on final story points, and update the stories Jira.

Question 5

How do you prevent team members from seeing each other's estimates during async Planning Poker?

Accepted Answer

In Smart Guess, Scrum Masters can control when and how estimates are revealed through the settings menu. The Leading role lets you decide when estimates are shown. By using the "Leading" and "Auto join" roles, while reviewing each story, you control who shows estimates. These settings only need to be configured once per project and apply automatically to every issue.

Question 6

What happens during the refinement meeting when using async Planning Poker?

Accepted Answer

During refinement, the team reviews the estimates that were submitted asynchronously, discusses any significant variations between team members, reaches consensus on the final story points, and updates Jira. Because most estimation happens beforehand, the meeting focuses on resolving disagreements rather than estimating from scratch.

Question 7

What are best practices for asynchronous Planning Poker?

Accepted Answer

The key best practices are: ensure stories are well-defined before asking the team to estimate, establish clear guidelines for asking and answering questions asynchronously, and use Jira labels to flag stories that need discussion so team members don't waste time estimating unclear work.

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