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📖 Planning Poker User Guide

📑 Table of Contents

1. Overview 2. Getting Started 3. Roles & Permissions 4. Sessions 5. Voting Process 6. Voting Scales 7. Results & Consensus 8. Profile & Themes 9. Admin Panel 10. Exporting Data 11. Tips & Shortcuts

1. Overview

Planning Poker is a real-time estimation tool for Scrum teams. During Sprint Refinement or Planning ceremonies, team members independently vote on work item sizes using predefined scales. This eliminates anchoring bias and encourages discussion when estimates diverge.

💡 Tip: The app uses polling (every 2 seconds) to keep all participants in sync — no page refresh needed.

2. Getting Started

Logging In

Open the app and enter your username and password. The default admin credentials are:

Username: admin
Password: admin

⚠️ Important: Change the default admin password immediately after your first login via Profile Settings.

Navigation

Once logged in, you'll see the main header with:

3. Roles & Permissions

RoleIconPermissions
Admin 👑 Full access: manage users, create/close sessions, start voting, vote, export data
Session Manager 📋 Create/close sessions, add items, start/reveal voting, revote, vote
Voter 🗳️ Join sessions and cast votes

4. Sessions

Creating a Session

Admins and Session Managers can create new sessions:

  1. Click + New Session on the Sessions dashboard
  2. Enter a session name (e.g., "Sprint 14 Refinement")
  3. Optionally add a description
  4. Choose a voting scale
  5. Click 🚀 Create Session

Joining a Session

Click any session card on the dashboard to join it. You'll automatically appear in the participants list.

Session Tabs

Closing & Reopening

Managers can 🔒 Close a session to prevent further voting, or 🔓 Reopen it later. Closing a session preserves all voting history.

5. Voting Process

Step-by-Step

1 Add Items — The session manager types item titles and clicks ➕ Add to List

2 Start Voting — Click ▶️ Start Voting on a pending item

3 Cast Votes — All participants select a card from the scale

4 Reveal — The manager clicks 👁️ Reveal Votes to show results

5 Discuss — Review the statistics and individual votes

6 Continue — Either 🔄 Revote or 📥 Move to History

Changing Your Vote

While voting is still in progress (⏳ Voting in progress...), you can click a different card to change your vote at any time.

Revoting

After results are revealed, the manager can initiate a 🔄 Revote. The previous round's votes are archived, and a new round begins. The round counter increments (Round 2, Round 3, etc.).

6. Voting Scales

ScaleValuesBest For
🔢 Fibonacci 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 Story points (most common)
📊 Modified Fibonacci 0, ½, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100 More granular estimates
👕 T-Shirt Size XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL High-level relative sizing
⚡ Powers of 2 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 Technical complexity
🍽️ Effort Menu 🍰🧁🍕🍔🥩🦃🐄🐘🏔️🌋 Fun & intuitive sizing

All scales include special cards: ❓ Not Sure and ☕ Break.

7. Results & Consensus

When votes are revealed, the following statistics are displayed:

🎉 Consensus! When all participants cast the same vote, a confetti celebration is triggered and the result is highlighted with a special "Consensus" badge.

Individual votes are shown as cards with each voter's avatar, name, and chosen value. Non-numeric votes (❓, ☕) are excluded from statistical calculations.

8. Profile & Themes

Click your name in the header to open Profile Settings where you can:

9. Admin Panel

Only users with the Admin role can access the 👥 Admin panel.

Managing Users

⚠️ Note: The built-in admin user cannot be deleted or deactivated.

10. Exporting Data

Click the 📥 button on any session card to download a JSON file containing:

11. Tips & Shortcuts

⌨️ Keyboard

💡 Best Practices

Planning Poker 🃏 — Built for Scrum teams