Fundamentals of a Session

Video Overview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_ArOPzj3bE

What is a Session in Agility Poker Planning?

In Agility Poker Planning for Jira Cloud, a "session" is a dedicated time where team members engage in estimating the scope and complexity of tasks or backlog items in an Agile framework. This practice is integral to methodologies like Scrum.

Sessions in Agility Poker Planning involve team members assigning estimates to tasks using predefined scales (like Fibonacci numbers or Time Estimates). These sessions are crucial for gauging task difficulty, aiding in effective prioritization and planning.

Creating a session involves just three simple steps. For instance, the process for setting up an Interactive session is outlined below:

Step 1: Configure

Step 2: Add participants

Step 3: Select issues

Estimation Values in Agility Poker Planning

In Agility Poker Planning, estimation values play a crucial role, helping teams quantify the effort for tasks or stories within Agile projects. Generally, story points are used, reflecting the task's relative complexity or effort. These points are assigned using a sequence similar to Fibonacci (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21), promoting a more unified approach to estimating tasks.

Agility Poker Planning offers various options for estimation:

Standard Fibonacci: Traditional sequence for story point estimation.
Time Estimates: Allows estimation in time units (hours, days), offering a tangible measure of effort.
Custom: Teams have the ability to modify the default Fibonacci sequence or time estimate values to better fit their specific needs. By selecting and adding new values to these defaults, teams can create a tailored set of estimation scales, ensuring a more personalized and effective estimation process.

Session Types in Agility Poker Planning

Agility Poker Planning offers two main types of estimation sessions: Public and Private.

Public Sessions: Accessible to anyone with board and project access, these sessions allow broad participation. All Jira Software users can join and participate or observe. However, visibility of specific project, board, or issue data is still governed by Jira's access controls.
Private Sessions: Access to these sessions is limited to invited users only, including roles like moderator, participant or observer. Each role has specific access privileges.

After a session concludes and the "Finish session" action is executed, joining or modifying the session is no longer possible.

User Roles in Agility Poker Planning

Agility Poker Planning incorporates the roles of moderator, participant, and observer. Each session can only have one designated moderator. Participants have the flexibility to switch roles between observer and participant at any time. Here's a breakdown:

Moderator: Manages the session, selects Jira issues, controls voting, and can end the session. Moderators have comprehensive session access, including updating participant lists and configurations.
Participants (Participant/Observer): Participants partake in voting under moderator guidance, while observers watch the process without contributing estimates.
Jira Administrator: Can remove any session, but can't join a private session unless listed as a participant.

Let’s build on this by exploring the key responsibilities of each user role:

Moderator

As a Moderator in Agility Poker Planning, you play a pivotal role in steering the estimation process. Your main duties include:

Setting Up the Session: Prepare and customize the session for participants.
Launching Estimations: Kick off the estimation process, monitor participant engagement, and ensure timely submission of estimates.
Facilitating the Process: Oversee the voting, record final votes, and store estimates. In private sessions, you're in charge of managing participants and session settings.
Reaching Consensus: Lead the discussion to reach a group consensus and finalize the estimation.
Wrapping Up: End the session once all issues are estimated.

Participant

Your role as a Participant is key to ensuring precise estimations. Here's what you'll do:

Engage in the Session: Be present and actively participate in the estimation activities.
Submit Estimates: Provide your estimation values for the issues under discussion.
Contribute to Discussions: Offer your perspective and rationale during the group discussions.
Re-evaluate Your Estimates: Reflect on the group dialogue and adjust your estimates as needed.
Follow Moderator's Lead: Pay attention to the moderator's instructions to maintain a smooth session flow.

Observer

Observers in Interactive sessions play a supportive role without directly estimating:

Active Observation: Closely monitor team discussions, estimations, and decisions. This is particularly beneficial for those new to the team or estimation process, offering a valuable learning experience.
Documentation: Consider taking notes to record crucial discussion points, insightful observations, or significant aspects of the estimation process for future reference.

Accessing a Session in Agility Poker Planning

In Agility Poker Planning for Jira Cloud, every session is connected to a specific project board. This setup allows for the simultaneous running of multiple sessions of each type on a board. To access a session, you can use the 'See all sessions' button on the main screen of Agility Poker Planning, or select 'See all active sessions' for a specific session type. This action directs you to the comprehensive 'All sessions' page.

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Using the filter feature, you can easily find the sessions by:

Status (Active, Finished)
Access (Public, Private)

Filtering Issues in Agility Poker Planning

Once you've chosen your session and configured its settings in Agility Poker Planning, the next step is to filter and choose the relevant issues. In the "Select issues" phase, you have the option to handpick specific issues for your estimation session. Alternatively, you can opt to select 'All from backlog', which automatically includes all issues from the board's backlog, ensuring a comprehensive set of items for estimation.

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Choosing the Estimation Field and Issues in Agility Poker Planning

Estimation Field: In the 'Estimation Field' section, pick a Jira field where the estimates from the session will be recorded. This default field varies based on your board's setup. For company-managed projects, it's often 'Story points', whereas in team-managed projects, it might be 'Story point estimate'.

Important: Selecting the appropriate estimation field for your session type is crucial. For sessions focused on time estimation, ensure the chosen field is 'Original Estimate' or another that accepts numerical values. This is necessary for the accurate saving of estimations.

Issue Selection: You have the flexibility to include all issues from the backlog or to select specific issues. This can be done either by searching with the issue name/ID or by manually picking them.