What are the most effective Scrum tools and techniques for estimation and planning?

The answer is easy; before the any tools, focus on transparency within a team to see the history, collaboration with team members to understand all perspectives , long lived team to use the experience. Communication is the best tool to do that

One effective tool I have found useful is, writing a simple, INVEST, vertically sliced user story from end user's perspective that is aligned to the Product Goal and with scenario based acceptance criteria in Gherkin format. The estimations can differ from individuals or team perspectives and are not comparable. The team anyways needs to spend reuired time, efforts to complete the user story despite of their own earlier estimate as they learn empirically. The value perceived by the end user should be the focus for the delivery and not the estimates by the team. Hence, relative sizing (E.g. Fruits, T-shirt sizing) is better option than using numbers like story points from Fibonacci.

1) Product Backlog: A prioritized list of work items. 2) User Stories: Simple descriptions of features or requirements. 3) Story Points: Relative estimation of user story complexity. 4) Planning Poker: Consensus-based estimation technique. 5) Velocity: Measure of team productivity for sprint planning. 6) Sprint Planning Meetings: For selecting and committing to work in a sprint. 7) Burn-down Charts: Visualize sprint progress and remaining work. 8) Release Planning: High-level timeline estimation for features. 9) Refinement Meetings: Regular backlog review and grooming. 10) Retrospectives: Continuous improvement through team reflection.

Planning poker is NOT a Scrum technique and there is NO reference to it in the Scrum guide, so it is NOT part of Scrum. So you are welcome to use ANY technique to raise conversations about work item complexity, e.g. T-Shirt sizing, or go for #NoEstimates, as more and more teams see estimates as a wasteful activity.

1) Product Backlog: A prioritized list of work items. 2) User Stories: Simple descriptions of features or requirements. 3) Story Points: Relative estimation of user story complexity. 4) Planning Poker: Consensus-based estimation technique. 5) Velocity: Measure of team productivity for sprint planning. 6) Sprint Planning Meetings: For selecting and committing to work in a sprint. 7) Burn-down Charts: Visualize sprint progress and remaining work. 8) Release Planning: High-level timeline estimation for features. 9) Refinement Meetings: Regular backlog review and grooming. 10) Retrospectives: Continuous improvement through team reflection.

Although not part of Scrum, I still find planning poker a very userful technique, but for what? I have an interesting theory about it based on my experience. It is not an estimation technique, but an opportunity for the team to move through forming, storming and norming phases to get ready for the performing phase. Instead of forcing a group to agree on something, give them an opportunity to voice out what they think about a job using a technique like planning poker. The differences as well as similarities in their opinion will trigger discusisons and brainstorming. With few more rounds and more clarity with each round, outliers will arrive in or around the broader consensus. Once they agree on something, see the magic!

Sprint backlog is a plan for the developers for a sprint. Developers don’t commit to sprint backlog but to the sprint goal. Sprint backlog that get created during sprint planning consists of 3 things: - 1st - sprint goal that helps scrum team to communicate why this sprint exists. 2nd - selected product backlog items which developers decide based on past performance, current team capacity, looking at definition of done and current state of increment. 3rd - actionable plan where developers discuss and decide how to implement selected product backlog items. It may include splitting backlog items into a multiple smaller sub tasks, estimating sub tasks and discussing who will do it. Note - plan exists to meet a sprint goal.

My Tips for managing the Sprint Backlog: 1)Break down PBIs into smaller tasks. 2)Prioritize the tasks. 3)Estimate the effort required for each task. 4)Review the Sprint Backlog daily. 5)Be flexible and adaptable.

I think burndown chart can also be a powerful tool for fostering team motivation and self-organization. For instance, in a recent sprint, our team started using the burndown chart as a visual indicator of our collective progress. We celebrated small victories when the actual line consistently stayed ahead of the ideal line, and we collectively brainstormed solutions when we noticed deviations. This approach encouraged a sense of ownership and accountability among team members, as we were all actively engaged in monitoring and improving our performance.

The burndown chart, while useful sometimes might tend to be a tricky solution if not used properly. We have to see the burndown chart just from the completion of work perspective and not from a value delivery standpoint. Using hours might get you into a situation where 10% of work is always pending. Avoid these traps and you are good to go!!

The Daily Scrum is not a general reporting session of the “team members.“ It is an event for and by the Developers, serving a single purpose: Inspecting progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapting the plan to get there if necessary. Moreover, how the Developers do that is up to them. By all means, it is not about answering these three questions,

The daily scrum is a team meeting where team members meet to discuss their work progress..any impediment or blocker being stated helps to bring in focus to that issue by team members who can help. Typically, it is better to sort out blockers towards end of daily scrum itself once everyone's updates have been done as it is single forum where all members on team attend daily..

In a recent project, we introduced the concept of a blocker resolution challenge during our daily scrums. The idea was simple: if any team member raised an impediment or challenge during the meeting, the team collectively committed to resolving it by the end of the day. This approach not only encouraged team members to actively participate in finding solutions but also demonstrated the team's commitment to removing obstacles promptly. It turned our daily scrum into a proactive problem-solving session not just a status update meeting. By utilizing the daily scrum as a platform for collaborative problem-solving, we not only improved our sprint outcomes but also fostered a sense of shared responsibility for the project's success.

The sprint review is oft neglected and poorly understood. It is more than a 'demo' - it is the time for us to not only look at the work we have done, but also to discuss whether the work meets the expectations of quality, usability, performance and to discuss gaps in value or opportunities to improve customer engagement and feedback.

The sprint review is the most underserved and misunderstood event in scrum. Just think of how many sprint retrospective formats are out there vs how many sprint review formats are out there. The sprint review itself should be the most forward looking event in scrum. It’s literally in the scrum guide. It’s when “During the event, the Scrum Team and stakeholders review what was accomplished in the Sprint and what has changed in their environment. Based on this information, attendees collaborate on what to do next. “ ie. Adapting the product backlog. Most teams just look backwards and discuss what has been done. This is also the event where we forecast upcoming releases using for example Monte Carlo Simulations based on throughput of value.

In my opinion (most of you will forget I used those 3 words first), nothing beats allowing teams to self-organize. Allowing teams they autonomy they need to understand what they can improve upon, and helping them understand some possible ways of improving. This is usually done via the Sprint Retrospective, but most Scrum Masters today manipulate the Retro through their own interpretation of what the Retro should be about. Forcing people to focus on the improving the things that only the Scrum Master wants to change will never result in true self-organization.

Have a “reference story”. Usually a 3 point story. Something that’s typical, well understood, and involves most of the skills on the team. Post it up every estimating session. When debating the size of a story or when estimates seem to be drifting (biasing up or down) ask “let’s go back to our reference story, is this story we’re debating really more than twice (or whatever) as large?”