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Overview
Based on Wideband Delphi, the Asynchronous session is a specially designed tool for teams that either cannot or prefer not to estimate simultaneously.
By utilizing the Asynchronous session, teams can overcome the challenges of real-time coordination and enable team members to contribute their estimations and insights asynchronously. This approach fosters a more inclusive and flexible estimation process by accommodating diverse schedules and results in consultation-based estimations.
Who should use Asynchronous session?
It is indispensable for teams working across different geographical locations and time zones with varying schedules or limited availability. It allows team members to contribute their estimations at their own convenience, eliminating the need for real-time coordination.
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Mechanics of the Asynchronous Session
Within the Asynchronous session, there are two different roles available:
Moderator: The moderators have the ability to configure settings and manage the session. A session has either a single moderator or everyone is a moderator.
Estimator: Estimators can participate in estimation sessions, cast their votes, and contribute to the decision-making process.
Here's a brief step-by-step overview of how the Asynchronous session unfolds:
The moderator selects the issues to estimate and the people that will participate in the session.
The session link is shared with all the participants via Slack or email.
Participants estimate issues in the scope of the estimation session whenever they find it convenient, optionally putting down their comments, questions, and concerns to support the chosen estimation.
The moderator closes the personal estimation phase and proceeds to the final estimation phase.
The moderator saves the estimates for issues in scope based on the estimation result or proceeds with further discussion interactively.
To gain a better understanding of Asynchronous session, you can watch the video below:
Viewing the All sessions dashboard
To start working with asynchronous sessions go to the All sessions dashboard view. You can go to this view from the Jira Software backlog screen by:
opening the "Agile Poker" dropdown and clicking link "Manage sessions", or
clicking the Agile Poker Enterprise logo on the Jira project sidebar where it says Estimates
Creating an Asynchronous session
On the Jira Software backlog view, open the "Agile Poker" dropdown and click "+ New session".
Alternatively, select "Estimates" in the board navigation menu on the left and click on "+ Create session"
In the "Create new session" popup choose "Asynchronous session" and click "Next"
Select the issues you want to estimate (session scope) and click "Next" again
Before starting a session you should define the session name, participants, and the email invitation message.
For each session, you can also choose the field you want to save estimates into, estimate values you want to use, and fields to display inside the session to help your team estimate.
Then click the "Create" button to start your session.
Saving session configuration
Use "Save this configuration as my personal default" option to prepopulate future sessions you will create for this board with configuration from the current session.
Estimating issues
On the All sessions dashboard screen, click the "Estimate" button to go to the session.
Alternatively, select your session from the Agile Poker dropdown from the Jira backlog view:
Select the first issue from the list on the left, provide an estimate, and (optionally) type a comment.
Then click the "Save & next" button to repeat this process for all other issues.
Using the estimation layout toggle you can switch between Cards and Dropdown layouts.
Note that the Dropdown layout supports Triangulation and Reference issues to help with the estimation process.
Once you estimate all the issues, you can simply leave the session page.
Previewing the estimation results
Every session participant can see the overview of how many issues other participants have estimated in the top-right corner of the session screen.
Hover over the user avatar shows the number of issues estimated by them.
The green tick will show up next to the users who estimated all the issues in the estimation session.
The session moderator can preview partial estimates even if the session is open. To do this go to the All sessions dashboard, open the "more" dropdown for the estimation session you are interested in and click "Review partial results".
On the loaded screen, pick an issue to see the partial results in the "Estimation results" section.
Closing a session
Once everybody provides their estimates, the moderator can close the session.
Participants can no longer estimate issues in closed sessions but they can review the results instead. The session moderator can close the session in two ways:
From the All sessions dashboard view using the "Close" button:
From the estimation view using the "Close session" button in the top-right corner of the screen:
Reviewing estimation results
When the session has been closed all participants can review the results. Moreover, the session moderator can save the final issue estimate directly from the results screen.
To see estimation results:
On the All sessions dashboard, click the "Review results" button.
Pick an issue from the list on the left. You will see the "Final estimate for..." panel.
Based on the user estimates and comments, enter the final issue estimate and click "Save & next" button.
The final estimate value will be saved into the issue field selected during the session creation process (in this example: "Story point" field)
Once you save the final estimate for all issues, simply leave the session results page.
Restarting a session
While reviewing the results, the session moderator may decide that for some issues another estimation round is needed. In such a case, click on the "Restart session" link on the results screen.
The "Restart session" dialog is very similar to the "Create session" dialog.
Choose issues to be re-estimated and update the list of session participants if needed.
Once you restart the session Jira can send e-mail invitations to all participants and estimation will proceed as usual.
Customizing the estimation values
You can configure the estimation values available to the session participants. Read the Board settings documentation page for details.
Reviewing the estimation results later
After the session has been closed, you can view proposed estimates and estimation comments at any time by going back to the session screen or simply from the Agile board and viewing an issue.
