Run an estimation round

In a Poker session everyone votes on the same issue at the same time. Moderators run each round: they pick the issue, open the vote, reveal it, and save the agreed estimate with Save & Next.

Moderators, participants and observers

A moderator can Promote to Moderator anyone in the session who isn’t a guest, from the people panel. Between rounds you can switch yourself with Change my role to Observer or Change my role to Participant.

A round, step by step

1. Pick the issueA moderator selects the issue to estimate in Session Issues.
2. Press Start EstimationWith Auto-start Estimation on, voting opens as soon as the issue is selected.
3. Everyone votesPick a card from your hand. Until the reveal, everyone else sees only that you voted, never your card. Pick another card to change your vote, or press your card again to take it back. The ? card means you’re not sure: it counts as a vote, but never toward the average.
4. Reveal the votesA moderator presses Finish voting; SprintPoker asks first if someone hasn’t voted. When everyone has voted, moderators also see Everyone has voted with Reveal Now, and with Auto reveal votes when all players voted on, the cards turn over by themselves.
5. Agree on the final estimateThe results show the Average (rounded down), Mode, Sum, Median, Range, Highest, Lowest, Voters and the Vote Distribution. The Final estimate box starts at the average; a moderator can choose a lane value or type another number.
6. Press Save & NextThe estimate is saved (see below), and the room moves on to the next issue.

Not happy with the result? Re-estimate clears the votes and the final estimate and starts a new round on the same issue. Earlier rounds are kept, and the session’s summary shows each one.

Where Save & Next saves the estimate

A save is made as the person who presses Save & Next, with their own Atlassian account for Jira. Just before writing, SprintPoker reads the issue again: if its estimate changed since the vote, you choose which value to keep.

When the person saving has no Jira access of their own that works, and they are a member of the workspace whose Jira connection reaches the session’s Jira site (the session’s own workspace, or for a session created in SprintPoker for Jira, the workspace that site is connected to), the save goes through that workspace’s Jira connection instead, as edits on its connected boards do. It needs their permission to edit issues in that workspace, and it reaches only the Jira projects that workspace mirrors. Nobody else’s own account is ever used.

When a save can’t finish

For a Laya card the same messages name Laya.net instead of Jira. When Jira is busy or can’t be reached, Laya.net retries the save by itself a few times over the next half hour.

When the save that waits is someone else’s, it names them and says what they need: … needs to link an Atlassian account to save, or … needs to connect their Jira access to save when their account is already linked. Meanwhile a moderator can use Ask a Jira moderator to save (when one is in the session) or Keep in session.

A result kept in the session can be saved later. On the session’s summary, its row offers the host and moderators Save to Jira or Save to the board. It is saved as the person who presses it, with the same checks as Save & Next, and the summary says why when it can’t be saved. A typed-in item, or an issue with nowhere to save an estimate, keeps its result in the session.

A result whose save waited for the saver’s own Jira access (Needs Jira access to save) gets the same Save to Jira on its row, also after the session has ended: a moderator whose own Jira access works can save it from there.

Help during the round

• Reference Issues are up to four issues the team estimates against, shared by every session on the board. Moderators add them from the room’s suggestions with Use.
• Matching Issues shows completed issues on the board that were estimated with the value you point at.
• Show Hint gives an AI view of the current issue: its complexity, the key considerations and, after the reveal, a recommended estimate. Only moderators can ask for one. AI hints can be turned off for one session (Enable AI Features) or for the whole workspace in SprintPoker settings. A session available in both apps has no AI hints yet: see AI hints in shared sessions.
• Set Timer starts a countdown. In Session Settings, a moderator chooses what happens When the timer ends: Nothing happens, Reveal the votes or Lock voting.
• A moderator can add a Break card and an Abstain card to the hand in Session Settings. Both are off by default; they count as responses but stay out of the numbers.

Finish the session and read the summary

After the last issue, All Issues Estimated offers Add More Issues and Finish Session. For the moderator who saved the last estimate, it also checks the session’s board and Jira issues against your Definition of Ready and says how they stand, such as “All 6 issues meet your Definition of Ready” or “2 of 6 issues are missing a required field”; Review lists what each issue is missing (“Missing Description”). The check uses no AI. A moderator can also finish at any time with Mark as Finished in the session’s ⋮ menu. Finishing cancels a round that is still being voted, and Open Session opens the session again.

The summary lists every issue with its final estimate, its rounds (the votes of a round appear only if it was revealed) and where each estimate was saved. Moderators can Save all unsaved and Retry failed saves from there, Update saved estimate on a saved row, and Save to Jira or Save to the board on a row whose result was kept in the session (or whose save waited for the saver’s own Jira access). Workspace members can Copy results or Download CSV.

Keyboard

The keyboard button in the session bar lists every shortcut. With Single-key shortcuts turned off, typing a value votes only while your hand has the focus.