In the once-traditional world of software development, the rise of Agile methodologies has changed how teams approach project management and delivery in countless ways. One of the core elements of that added agility and efficiency has been how teams estimate workloads, resources, and timelines. Agile estimation techniques like Planning Poker and T-Shirt sizing are now an integral part of a team’s overall toolkit, enhancing collaboration, realistic planning, and ultimate project outcomes. This blog post will offer a deep dive on the wide world of Agile estimation techniques, why they matter, and how they work — all designed to help Agile teams set better expectations, manage resources more efficiently and employee under the often complex world of project development with more precision.
Agile estimation techniques are used by Agile teams to size and gauge the effort required for tasks and projects. Unlike traditional estimation methods, which tend to require a more detailed spec and can be more time consuming, Agile techniques focus more on relative estimation and collaboration. This not only fosters team engagement, but also allows for changes to be retried and trialed in a way that reflects the often dynamic nature of an Agile project. Key techniques include Planning Poker, T-Shirt sizing, and the others we will provide an overview of. Each of these will have a unique set of rules and procedures, but each of these share the same goal — to make the estimation process a more interactive, democratic, and more accurate process. By using these techniques, teams can arrive at a more reliable forecast in less time, build a shared understanding of the challenges associated with a project and needs of the effort, with the ultimate goal of more successful project outcomes.
Planning Poker
Here’s how Planning Poker is used in typical Scrum agile project-management organization. The tainted consensus brake in Planning Poker is simple and effective:
- Task Introduction: The team gets together to estimate a task after a brief discussion in which there’s ample opportunity to make sure the whole team knows what we’re talking about.
- Estimation: A deck of Planning Poker cards is distributed to each team member. A Planning Poker card has a sequence of card face that represent the numbers in the Fibonacci series (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40).
- Reveal and Discuss: Each team member reveals their card and therefore their estimate. If the estimates diverge significantly, a discussion follows as to the reasons for these different perspectives.
- Repeat Estimation: A new estimate is reached by repeating steps 2 and 3.
Because Planning Poker is an image of an egalitarian, consensus-driven, and wisdom-of-the-crowds approach, estimates tend to be more accurate than those derived by a sequence of political maneuverings. It’s effective, I find, as a mechanism to expose misunderstandings and to create self-awareness of the basis for each estimate.
T-Shirt Sizing
T-Shirt Sizing is another Agile estimation technique that uses relative sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL) to reflect the complexity or effort required for tasks. This method is particularly useful in early project stages when more detailed information is not yet available. In T-Shirt Sizing for Agile, team members do the following:
- Categorize: Tasks are quickly discussed and team members assign a T-shirt size based on their initial assessment of complexity or effort.
- Discuss and Re-assess: If there’s a wide variance in sizes, the team discusses their reasoning and aims to reach a consensus (or adjust estimates accordingly).
- Finalize: Once consensus is reached, tasks are bucketed according to their T-shirt size, providing a visual and intuitive way to understand the scope and effort required for a project (epic or theme).
While T-Shirt Sizing is not as granular as Planning Poker, it still offers a quick and more approachable way for teams to estimate large batches of work, making it a good fit for high-level planning.
Benefits of Agile Estimation Techniques
There are several reasons for incorporating Agile estimation techniques to build better estimations:
- Improved Accuracy: Collaborative estimating techniques acknowledge and incorporate diverse perspectives and range of expertise, providing a more realistic and accurate assessment.
- Enhanced Collaboration: These estimating activities foster team participation and dialogue, so that everyone involved gains a deeper understanding of the scope and implications of work. This shared understanding supports team members’ shared commitments to project goals and other team specifications, supporting self-organization and a pathway to the collective intelligence that our brains can summon when working as a team, not to mention the increased motivation arising from tightly-knit teams working closely together.
- Flexibility and Adaptability: Agile estimation isn’t simply a tool for producing estimates: it’s a tool for managing the evolving understanding about what’s needed in complex, real-world situations. These estimating techniques still allow for rapid, streamlined, decentralized adjustments as we learn more. Agile estimation allows teams to re-estimate at any time, and the process is easier, faster, and usually less contentious than those seen on classic projects when requirements or schedules change. Agile embraces change, so estimates need to be just as flexible.
- Efficiency: Techniques like T-Shirt sizing, when done correctly, allow for very rapid estimation. We save time in the estimation activity itself, while still gaining real value in understanding the scope and pacing of work ahead.
Implementing Agile Estimation in Your Team
In order to introduce and optimize Agile estimation techniques within your team, you need to shift from the traditional, top-down estimation methods to these collaborative and flexible ones:
- Training and Education: Make sure all team members understand the techniques and buy into their benefits. This could come from formal training sessions or simply be casual conversations in your next few retrospectives.
- Practice and Patience: At first, teams may find these Agile estimation techniques awkward or laborious. It will take continued practice to grow comfortable and efficient.
- Customization: Agile estimation techniques are malleable enough to work within your unique team dynamics and project needs. It may mean combining Planning Poker with T-Shirt sizing for the early, high-level estimates and time-based estimates once you become further clarified requirements.
- Continuous Improvement: As with all things Agile – review and refine the process on a regular basis. Ask your team what’s working and what needs improved – and do something about it.
Conclusion
Agile estimation techniques such as Planning Poker and T-Shirt sizing are excellent tools that enable your team to determine how much work they can accomplish and how long it will take them to do it. Through leveraging these techniques team’s can greatly improve the accuracy and efficiency of their estimations. The techniques promote increased estimation accuracy as well as flexibility in managing project changes, and collaboration amongst team members. It’s not so much about the specific needs of an individual or team, as much as it is about the project and the general needs of any software development team. Change is never easy, and the skills and techniques required of a project cannot be expected to change without a significant shift in executions, as well as attitude. However, the pays in terms of efficiency in project planning as well as project execution cannot be ignored and it will becoming increasingly easier and much more common. What will change as Agile mature’s will be the methodologies and tools for estimation that will help teams and project as we attempt to estimate in a world where the only constant, is change.