Bucket Sizing session

Introduction

Bucket Sizing session type by Agile Poker for Jira Cloud is a widely used feature. It is based on the Swimlane Sizing card game and similar to the Relative session, but with a fixed number of buckets and their values. 

Bucket Sizing is recommended for seasoned teams with proven estimation patterns and it is the fastest session type in Agile Poker. Here is the general gist of the session: 

1. A moderator starts the Bucket Sizing session and selects issues to be estimated.

2. The moderator defines buckets and their values before the session start. 

3. The moderator invites participants to the session via a sharable link. Alternatively, the moderator shares the screen with participants and interacts on behalf of them. 

4. Participants drag and drop the user story cards on the labeled buckets based on their relative size. 
5. If required, the team can use the Voting option where participants can vote for a place for a specific user story.

6. The last step is to assign estimation values corresponding to each column (usually with the Fibonacci sequence).

7. The moderator saves the assigned values for the issues.

Check the detailed explanation below or see how it works for the similar Relative session here:

Session Configuration

Initial configuration

Onсe launched from the Classic or Next-Gen project menu, the Bucket Sizing session is configured in 3 quick steps:

1. Create session:
   
   • Choose the name for your session or go with a pre-set one;
   • Switch the Private mode on if you wish to limit participants' access and ability to configure the session. Check Public vs. Private sessions for more details;
   • Select one of pre-set buckets from a drop-down list or customize it by editing buckets values;
     • Please note that values or values+labels can be used. To add labels simply use "LABEL=VALUE" format, for example, "Large=5".
       
       
2. Manage participants:
   • Add your team members to the participant list;
   • Select a dedicated moderator to facilitate the session or keep the Moderator field empty to give everyone a full session control.
     
3. Select issues:
   • Use JQL to narrow the search;
   • Select issues you would like to estimate one-by-one or in bulk (for sprints or backlog)
     

Once ready, click Start session button to proceed.

Session scope can be also re-configured from the main Bucket Sizing session window using add, create and remove from the session (appears during card dragging process) options: 

Inviting participants

Once the session starts, you can share the session link with your team by copying it from the address bar, the bread crumbs section, or from participants management screen; click Participants button in the top right corner to open it:

The participant management menu can also be used for removing inactive team members from the session. Inactive participants have a grey indicator next to their avatars while active have a green one:

Moderator role

In the Manage participants screen, the moderator role can be assigned. It gives the moderator several privileges comparing to a regular participant: 

• Start and manage the voting process;
• Submit the final votes;
• Save estimates;
• The moderator has a crown next to his pointer and avatar.

If there is no moderator assigned (default state), all participants have equal access to all the features. Please note that the moderator's role in a public session doesn't have an exclusive power to manage participants; every participant has full access to participants and moderator management settings. While for private sessions participants are managed by moderators only.  

Estimation session

Issue placement phase

While in the session page, drag the issues from the deck (left side of the screen) to one of the buckets on the virtual board (right side of the screen): 

Continue dragging cards from the deck to the board till no more user stories left. 

Voting option

The moderator can activate the voting option and ask participants to vote for a "column" for a specific user story. 

Click on the person raising a hand icon from the top of the "To be estimated" part to enable voting:

Drag and drop a user story to the voting area:

Then vote for a column for this user story by clicking on a special character in a bucket:

The winning bucket for the discussed user story will be highlighted in green: 

Voting status is displayed both in buckets and on Participants' avatars:

If needed, voting progress can be reset and repeated if the team wants to come to a consensus:

To finish voting simply drag the voted story to the winning bucket.

Depending on a team and a flow, different session scenarios are possible, like voting for an issue or for the whole session scope. 

Saving estimates

• When happy with what you see, you can click 'Save estimates' button (bottom right) to conclude the session and update the issues' respective estimation field. 

  NOTE: all the estimations are saved to an estimation field specified in Board Settings.

• Then click on 'Save' to confirm the action:

• That’s it! Now you can go to the board, or get back to the estimation session:

In case of using the 'Finish session' button, the session will be discharged for all the participants without saving the progress. 

Limitations and caveats