Planning Poker estimation games (board view)

Owned by Oleksii Kovalenko
Last updated: Nov 30, 2023 by Derya Özdemir
6 min read

 

As mentioned in , there are several ways of providing estimates in Planning Poker for monday.com. In this article, we will describe the Game-based part of the app located in the Board view.

Particularly, Interactive Poker and Async Poker session types will be reviewed.

Adding Planning Poker board view

After installing Planning Poker app, you can add the board view to start estimating. Click on the plus icon next to the board view tabs and select Apps from the list:

Then select Planning Poker - Board view option from the Installed apps list and click on Open in board. You will see that a new board view called Planning Poker - Board View has been added to the board. Consider renaming it for your convenience.

That’s it, the app is ready for use!

Creating Planning Poker game

Once the Planning Poker - Board View is added, you can create an estimation game by clicking on the Create new game button:

Please note that the app supports Light, Dark and Night modes, still, all the screenshots are done in the Light mode.

If there are already created games, the view might be different:

During the game creation process, you will be prompted to configure the game and choose items for the estimation backlog.

Session configuration

During the session creation process, you can configure the following parameters:

  • Game name

  • Async session ON/OFF

    • Select whether you’d like to estimate interactively or asynchronously

  • Admin settings

    • When enabled, only session creator will have session moderation permissions.

  • Estimators (optional)

    • Specify the list of participants who will provide estimates; users from this list will receive an invitation via email and monday.com notifications.

  • Spectators (optional)

    • Specify the list of participants who will observe the game flow without providing estimates; users from this list will receive an invitation via email and monday.com notifications.

  • Estimation column*

    • Select the destination column for the estimates.

    • Only columns with Numbers and Text types are supported.

  • Deck type* and Cards*

    • Select the card deck from standard templates or choose to create a custom one.

    • You can display custom labels instead of the end values on the cards, for example, user T-Shirt sizes instead of Fibonacci numbers:

  • These settings are selected separately for Items and Sub-items.

When all the preferred settings have been selected, click on the Next button to proceed to the game backlog selection.

Game backlog (game creation)

The second step of game creation is the Edit game backlog. All items and Subitems from the board, excluding ones in the Done status, are available for selection.

Mark items or subitems you would like to add to the estimation game:

Note: in Planning Poker, you can either select Items or Subitems to be estimated, but not both item types in the same time.

For your convenience, we have integrated the app with the standard http://monday.com filter:

Interactive Planning Poker session

Interactive or Standard Planning Poker session is the default choice while creating an estimation session. Make sure the Async toggle is off during the game creation process to start the Interactive Poker session.

Game navigation and controls

  • Bread crumbs. Check the current session’s name. Navigate to the dashboard to create or join another game.

  • Share game. Copy the board view link to share it with your teammates.

  • Edit game. Adjust session settings and backlog. Available only for game admins.

  • More action → Finish game. Change game status to finished, marking it accordingly on the dashboard and blocking participants from providing estimates. Available only for game admins.

  • Auto-open item view. In case you need more details on an item, the app will automatically open Item view every time a new item is selected for estimation.

  • Estimating item. One of 2 indicators of the item that is currently being estimated. Provides quick access to the item view.

Participants + Estimation areas

The Participants area displays all invited or joined users. Based on the game settings, users can observe the following:

  • The total number of online participants.

  • The total number of provided votes for the current estimation round.

  • Online status:

    • Online participants. All the users with the current Planning Poker game opened;

    • Offline participants. Invited or participated participants who don’t have the game opened. Offline participants are dimmed and placed on the left.

  • Game admin status:

    • The Crown marker indicates the admin if there is only one game admin configured. If it’s absent, all the participants have moderation permissions;

    • Game admins can choose estimator or spectator roles similarly to non-admins.

  • Participant type:

    • Spectators are marked with an eye icon;

    • Estimators are not marked with the eye icon.

  • Become spectator / Become estimator:

    • the switcher to change the type of participant.

  • Voted marker:

    • estimators with provided votes are marked with the green check.

  • Timer:

    • game admins can select timer duration and start the timer for better estimation time management;

    • non-admins can observe the timer once it’s activated.

The estimation area differs for different estimation phases.

  1. Personal estimation phase:

    1. Estimation cards based on game settings;

    2. Reveal cards (moderator only).
      Note Cards are revealed automatically when all the estimators provide estimates.

  2. Final estimation phase:

    1. Personal estimating results in a chart-like view. The winner card is marked with a green marker. Clicking on a card will populate the card’s value to the final estimation input.

    2. Final estimate input

    3. Save&next, Save buttons for saving estimates.

    4. Reset for restarting estimation round from scratch

Game backlog

In the game backlog, participants can observe the scope of the game selected by the game admin. The item under estimation is highlighted in blue. Game admins can start estimating another item by simply clicking on it.

Already estimated items have estimation values next to them. Every participant can check the item details of any item in the backlog.

Note The default monday.com filter doesn’t work inside the game, all the items from the game scope are shown.

Async Poker session

Async Poker game has almost the same UI as the Interactive Poker game.

The main difference is in its personal estimation phase, which is made with asynchronous estimation in mind: estimators provide estimates at their own pace. Usually, game moderator gives 1-5 days for participants to provide the estimates.

When everybody is done or when the time comes, the personal estimation phase is finished and the team can review the results. If needed, estimation rounds without consensus can be replayed interactively.

Peculiarities of Async game

  1. Personal estimation progress tracking. Every participant can observe the personal progress of other estimators and the overall game progress.

  2. Personal estimates in the backlog. Estimators can see all of their personal estimates in the backlog during the personal estimation phase.

  3. Finish personal voting control. Game admin’s control to finish the personal estimation phase and start finalizing estimates. warning This process is irreversible.
    When finishing the personal estimation phase, the game admin can select whether to:

    1. automatically reveal all estimates;

    2. keep estimates unrevealed; this approach will allow participants to add their estimates interactively before the estimates are revealed.

See also