Interactive Session – facilitates real-time collaboration among team members during estimation. The moderator takes a story or task from the backlog, discusses the details, and then each team member shares his or her estimate. It’s best suited for teams that work in the same time zone.
Asynchronous Session – is beneficial for teams with varying schedules since it lets members estimate at their convenience. Some teams use a hybrid approach, casting initial estimations using Asynchronous and then meeting in real time for an Interactive session.
CLOUD ONLY Relative Session – focuses on estimating each task relative to one another. Easily adopted by teams without a huge estimation background, it’s useful for both quick rough estimations of a large batch of issues (50+) and a small number of issues with detailed discussion.
CLOUD ONLY Bucket Sizing Session – offers a high-level estimation approach where items are categorized into predefined buckets. It’s useful for quick and approximate estimation. It works well for teams with seasoned estimation patterns.
For beginners, we recommend starting with the Relative session. If you’re looking for Interactive or Asynchronous session, please follow this link.
Before you begin, we recommend reviewing this document, which provides an overview of estimation values, session types, users roles, and more.
Relative Session
The Relative estimation session is fast, easy, and intuitive. It’s based on the Magic Estimation Game method and uses a Trello-like interface for a smooth issue drag-and-drop user experience. Check out the video below to see how it works:
Step 1: Start a Relative Session (Moderator)
To create a Relative session, you need to follow a simple 3-step wizard. For detailed instructions on how to create a Relative session, refer to the article below:
Step 2: Perform Relative Estimation
During this session, the moderator chooses one task to serve as a point of reference. Then, you estimate every other story as taking less effort or more effort than that one. Rather than individually estimating each task or story, you group them based on their similar difficulty or effort levels. To learn more about how the session unfolds, check out the article below:
Congratulations! You have successfully completed a Relative session using Agile Poker for Jira. As you gain more experience and establish consistent estimation patterns, you can explore other estimation sessions, such as Bucket Sizing.
Bucket Sizing Session
Bucket Sizing is an estimation technique where your team categorizes issues into predefined columns, known as "buckets," based on their estimation values. It shares similarities with Relative estimation but offers a more focused approach as the estimation values are already established.
It’s particularly useful when you have a large team or a significant number of items to estimate. It also works well when collaborating with stakeholders to estimate effort or when involving teams in estimating value.
Step 1: Start a Bucket Sizing Session (Moderator)
To create a Bucket Sizing session, you need to follow a simple 3-step wizard. For detailed instructions, refer to the article below:
Step 2: Perform Bucket Sizing Estimation
During this session, you and your team will drag and drop the issues into the labeled buckets based on their relative size by moving the cards around the collaborative board. Additionally, the position of every user story might be voted on by the team if consensus is required. To learn more, check out the article below: