In planning poker, members of the group make estimates by playing numbered cards face-down to the table, instead of speaking them aloud.
By hiding the figures in this way, the group can avoid the cognitive bias of anchoring, where the first number spoken aloud sets a precedent for subsequent estimates.
[1] The method was first defined and named by James Grenning in 2002[2] and later popularized by Mike Cohn in the book Agile Estimating and Planning,[3] whose company trade marked the term[4] and a digital online tool.
Planning poker is based on a list of features to be delivered, several copies of a deck of cards, and optionally, an egg timer that can be used to limit time spent in discussion of each item.
When teams are not in the same geographical locations, collaborative software over the internet can be used as replacement for physical cards.
The meeting proceeds as follows: The cards are numbered as they are to account for the fact that the longer an estimate is, the more uncertainty it contains.