Becoming an Agile Enterprise

Exercise: Using planning poker to estimate size and value

This exercise is a simulation of P
class will be broken into teams a la n n ing Po ker. The
Slack channels. Youll be given a n d p u t in separate
Your job is to use Planning Poker s e t o f u ser stories.
consensus on the size and value o t o c o m e t o a
f one of those stories.

2017 Stellman and Greene Consulting LLC https://www.stellman-greene.com

 Becoming an Agile Enterprise

In this exercise, youll be put in a Slack

channel with several other people attending
this course. Youll be given user stories. Your
goal is to play a round of planning poker.

Imagine that youre on a team thats building software for an ATM (cash
machine). Your job is to use planning poker to estimate size and value for
one of these user stories. Youre probably not on a team that builds software
for an ATM. So how do you know the details of size and value? The same
way you always estimate: use common sense and take an educated guess.

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 Becoming an Agile Enterprise
Practice focus: Planning poker

This is the slide

from the live
presentation that
Planning poker is a simple
has the rules of collaborative estimating technique
planning poker.
Setup: Find an example story that represents 1 point. Choose a moderator (can be anyone on the team). If
playing in person, give everyone cards with possible estimate values (like 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100, and ).

Start: Moderator reads the story. The team

discusses the story (but not the estimate). Step 1: Each person decides on an estimate.
in person: place the card face-down
via IM: send the estimate to the moderator
Step 3: If everyone agrees, were done!
Otherwise, the people with the highest
and lowest values explain their thinking.
Then the team returns to Step 1.
Step 2: The moderator tells everyone to flip
their cards (or if via IM, sends all estimates).

It usually only takes two or three rounds before the

converges on an estimate. Then they move on to the ne te am
3
xt story.
2017 Stellman and Greene Consulting LLC
 Becoming an Agile Enterprise

Youll need slightly different rules to play

planning poker in Slack with a bunch of
strangers. Instead of flipping cards over,
youll post messages in the slack channel.

We have a very short timebox: 4 minutes to estimate

size, and 4 minutes to estimate value. How close
can you come to converging on an estimate?

a d e ve lo pe r , y o u h a v e im p o r t a n t
Even if your e n o t o d u c t
s iz e. A n d e ve n if y o u r e n o t a p r
input ab o u t t va lu e . J u st
o u h a ve im p o r t a n t in p u t a b o u
expert, y r e a s o n a b le.
be consistent, realistic , a n d
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 Becoming an Agile Enterprise
Practice focus: Planning poker over Slack

How to play Planning Poker with a

team of strangers in Slack
Setup: You have been added to a Slack channel. Click the channel name in the upper right-hand side of the screen. If youre
at an office that blocks Slack, you can use your mobile phone. Your instructor will be the moderator. This goes really fast!
Start: The moderator gives you a baseline 1-point story,
assigns a story to your slack channel, and indicates
whether youre estimating size or value. You will play Step 1: The moderator will give you one minute to
up to two rounds of planning poker for each estimate. read the story and have a very quick discussion by
posting short messages in your Slack channel.

Step 3: If everyone agrees, then youre done! If at least two

people disagreed, then youll return to Step 1 and play
another round. Only the people with the highest and lowest
estimates will participate in the discussion this time.
Step 2: The moderator will give you 10 seconds to choose a number
from this list for your estimate: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. You dont have to be
perfect! When time is up, post your estimate in the Slack channel.
In many cases, teams converge after 2 or 3 rounds, but
youve got
a very tight time limit. How close can you and your te 5
am come?
2017 Stellman and Greene Consulting LLC
 Becoming an Agile Enterprise

The rest of these slides contain user stories.

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 Becoming an Agile Enterprise

Front of card Cancel the session immediately Use a web browser from the ATM

Front of card
As a bank customer, As a bank customer,
I want to press a button and cancel my I want to browse certain websites
session before I enter my PIN so that I can open up a web browser
so that I can quickly end the session if I and view certain pages on the banks
put the wrong card in the machine website

Cancel the session immediately Use a web browser from the ATM
Back of card

Back of card
* The user can cancel the session
before entering the PIN
Use this user stor y as the reference
for 1 point of size because its small
and should be easy to implement.
2017 Stellman and Greene Consulting LLC
* After entering the PIN, the user can
open a browser from the main menu
* The user can choose from a set of
web pages to view
* The web page is rendered correctly,
but only approved links can be
navigated
This user story doesnt seem
ver y valuable. Use it as your
reference for 1 point of value.
7

Front of card View and pay credit card bill
Front of card
As a bank customer,
I want to view or print my credit card
statement and pay it from my account
so that I can manage my credit card in
one convenient place
View and pay credit card bill
Back of card
Back of card
* The user can view the card balance
* The user can view recent statements,
and print if the ATM has a printer
* The user can pay some or all of the
balance and print a confirmation
* The user can report a lost card
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Becoming an Agile Enterprise
Live video customer service
As a bank customer,
I want to talk to a customer service
representative via live video chat
so that I can get help if something goes
wrong with my transaction
Live video customer service
* The user can start a live video chat
with customer service from the main
menu or a special button if available
* The customer service representative
can make the ATM dispense cash from
the users account
8

Front of card Use audio cues for all features
Front of card
As a vision impaired bank customer,
I want to use the most common features
of the ATM with audio cues
so that withdraw cash and do other
activities without relying on eyesight
Use audio cues for all features
Back of card
Back of card
* The user can easily put the ATM
into visually impaired mode
* The user can withdraw cash in
visually impaired mode
* The user can check the account
balance in visual impaired mode
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Becoming an Agile Enterprise
Fast cash withdrawal
As a bank customer,
I want to withdraw cash with one
button press
so that I can quickly conclude my session
without going through a lot of menu
options
Fast cash withdrawal
* The user can withdraw a pre-set
amount of cash immediately after
entering the PIN
* The user can set the fast cash
withdrawal amount from the main
menu or the personal banking website
9
 Becoming an Agile Enterprise

Front of card Remotely check cash levels Put the ATM in maintenance mode

Front of card
As a bank branch manager,
I want to check the amount of cash in
the ATMs safe remotely
so that I can monitor all of the ATMs
in my branch without leaving my desk
As a bank branch manager,
I want to put the ATM in maintenance
mode
so that it displays an in service
message while were adding cash, changing
the receipt paper roll, or doing repairs

Remotely check cash levels Put the ATM in maintenance mode

Back of card

Back of card
* Each cash machine updates a server
with its current cash levels
* The bank manager can check cash
levels via a web page
* Cash machines that have different
denominations update their levels
correctly
* The bank branch manager can put the
ATM in maintenance mode via a web
page or from the machine itself
* Maintenance mode can be optionally
set to turn itself off after a delay
* The ATM displays an in service
message in maintenance mode

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 Becoming an Agile Enterprise

Front of card Dispense stamps ATM soft ware upgrade

Front of card
As a bank customer, As a system administrator,
I want to buy postage stamps using my I want to initiate a software upgrade
checking or savings account remotely
so that I dont have to go to the post so that I can deploy an updated version
office of the ATM software

Dispense stamps ATM soft ware upgrade

Back of card

Back of card
* The user can choose to buy a book of
20 stamps from the main menu
* Buying stamps is treated like a
withdrawal for the cost of the stamps
* The ATM can detect whether or not
it is capable of dispensing stamps or if
its out of stamps
* A system administrator (SA) can
remotely deploy a new version of the
ATM software
* The SAs identity and the software
must be confirmed via crypto key
* The SA can roll the software back to
the previous version

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