Run a session: the board, roles and voting

The session board

• The toolbar (moderators): Start Estimation opens voting on the chosen work item, Finish voting reveals the votes, Save & Next saves the estimate and moves to the next work item, and Restimate opens the vote again. Moderators also set a timer with Set Timer, and everyone sees Show Hint when the session has AI features on.
• The cards: pick your estimate. The values are the ones set for the work item’s type.
• Reference Issues: work items a moderator chose as benchmarks. They are kept for the project, so new sessions start with them.
• Matching Issues: when you point at a card, completed work items estimated at that value.
• Session Issues: every work item in the session. The moderator picks the next one.
• The work item’s details: its Azure DevOps fields on the right, which you can change there, as in Create a session.
• The people panel: who is in the session, their role, and who has voted.
• The session menu: Copy Session Link to share the session. Moderators also have Session Settings, Re-select Issues and Mark as Finished.

Voting and the results

1. Start the voteThe moderator picks a work item and chooses Start Estimation.
2. Everyone picks a cardVotes stay hidden. The people panel shows who has voted.
3. RevealThe moderator chooses Finish voting. With Auto reveal votes when all players voted on, the votes show once every participant has voted.
4. Agree and saveThe results show the average, the mode, the sum, the median, the range, the highest and lowest votes, the number of voters and a chart of how the votes spread. The moderator picks the agreed value and chooses Save & Next to save it to Azure DevOps, or Restimate to vote again.

Roles

• A moderator runs the flow, saves estimates to Azure DevOps, adds people with Add Participants, changes their roles and can remove them from the session.
• A session can have more than one moderator. A moderator chooses Act as Participant to vote, or Act as Observer to run the session without voting.
• Make only the people who estimate participants: with Auto reveal votes when all players voted on, the votes show once every participant has voted.