Planning Poker
A consensus-based estimation technique where team members simultaneously reveal numbered cards representing their estimate for an item.
What it means
Planning Poker is not part of official Scrum. It is a facilitation technique meant to avoid anchoring, where the first person to speak biases everyone else's estimate.
Each participant privately selects a card (often Fibonacci-like values) representing their estimate, then all reveal simultaneously. Large discrepancies trigger a short discussion before re-voting, converging on a shared understanding of the work.
Common mistakes
The technique surfaces hidden assumptions and knowledge gaps as much as it produces a number; the conversation is often more valuable than the resulting estimate.
Example
Two Developers reveal wildly different cards for the same item; the discussion reveals one assumed a database migration was already done.