Asynchronous session (DC)

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.

Mechanics of the Asynchronous Session

Within the Asynchronous session, there are two different roles available:

1. 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.

2. 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:

1. The moderator selects the issues to estimate and the people that will participate in the session.

2. The session link is shared with all the participants via Slack or email.

3. 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.

4. The moderator closes the personal estimation phase and proceeds to the final estimation phase.

5. 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:

How to create an Asynchronous session

Step 1: Open the Create Session screen

Step 2: Create Asynchronous session

1. Select the issues you want to estimate (the session scope) and click Next.

2. Name your session (up to 100 characters) or go with a pre-set one.

3. Use the Save this configuration as my personal default option to prepopulate future sessions you will create for this board with configuration from the current session. 

4. Select the issue field that will be used to save the final estimate.

5. Pick the people that estimate with you.

6. Choose a Moderator to give them exclusive control over the estimation session. Otherwise, everyone can control the session. Additionally, in private mode, the moderator is the only user who can change session settings (i.e. add/remove participants, change session mode, and change the moderator). In the public mode, everyone with access to the Jira Software board is allowed to change session settings.

7. Select what suggested estimate you will see once all votes are done. Define what suggestions you would like to see after the personal estimation phase is finished. 


   1. Consensus: the value is suggested only if all the estimators selected the same value. 


   2. Median and Average: the value is calculated using median or average formulas. 

8. Decide whether you want to send emails to the participants. You can customize the email body as needed.

9. Select one of the commonly used sets of deck types/estimation values, or create a custom set your team prefers. These values will be available to the participants.

10. Select the fields you'd like to be available during the estimation session to help your team estimate.

Click the Create button to start your session.

How to join the Asynchronous session

• 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: 

Estimation process

In the Asynchronous session, each participant is required to individually estimate all the provided issues and may choose to include comments supporting their estimates.

Start the estimation

After the session has started, the participants provide their estimations at their own convenience.

1. 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.

After all the participants submit their estimates, a moderator selects the Review personal estimates option from the voting section or session menu to switch to the Interactive session.

Preview 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. 

Close the 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:

Review 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 the estimation results:

1. On the All sessions dashboard, click the Review results button.

2. Pick an issue from the list on the left. You will see the Final estimate for... panel.

3. 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).

4. Once you save the final estimate for all issues, simply leave the session results page.

Restarting a session

While assessing the outcomes, the session moderator might determine that additional estimation rounds are necessary for certain issues. If this occurs, click the ellipsis icon and select Restart session.

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 email invitations to all participants and estimation will proceed as usual. 

Review 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.